Recently, one of my online groups made the decision to branch out into a social networking site called Facebook.

Putting aside my reservations about joining yet another online site, I decided to give it a go out of respect for my friends and a desire to keep in touch.

In order to open your account with Facebook, you are required to provide your date of birth and name. Given the rash of problems associated with online social networking, this is not unexpected. After all, they want to at least ATTEMPT to verify that those who apply are of legal age. Apparently, the fact that someone might lie about their age in order to meet the requirements is a foreign concept to those in charge of the site.

Because I’ve seen the news and am aware of the implications of offering private information online, I opened an account with my real name, changed it to a nickname that my friends would recognize and hid my date of birth. Should be okay, right?

No deal.

Apparently, the people at Facebook missed the class about maintaining a sense of anonymity online and have decided that they MUST have personal information. They assure applicants that they can hide their date of birth from other members (and they can) but INSIST that the REAL NAME of the applicant be DISPLAYED for all to see. Should you choose, you may substitute an acceptable nickname (ie ‘Bob’ for Robert), but you must use your full last name.

Perhaps it is just my opinion, but it seems to me that my name is mine to share or hide at MY discretion…not that of strangers. Furthermore, most of the members of my group wouldn’t recognize one another given a christian name. We are used to our nicknames. They have become as much a part of our persona as our actual names….they define us to those who know and love us.

Going one step further with this, it would seem that anyone with a modicum of intelligence would realize that the exchange of personal information online is a very sensitive subject. Perhaps the people at Facebook don’t have time to keep up with the news and have missed the stories regarding identity theft and internet predators. Personally, I’d hate to think that somone from online could actually use my name and location to ’surprise’ me by showing up on my doorstep someday.

At any rate, my brief liasion with Facebook has ended.

It is their site, so they have the right to require what they will… no matter how stupid it might seem to anyone with an ounce of common sense.

As for me, I’m exercising my right to refrain from using their service. Furthermore, I’m making sure that all of my friends and family know about this experience with Facebook so that they can pass on the information in an attempt to raise awareness about the dangers of sharing personal information online. To those intent on disrupting the lives of anyone that they might meet online, a name and location are more than adequate to help them attain that goal.

While I sincerely doubt that my little ‘crusade’ will impact online social networking or shut down any sites, I do hope that it will encourage others to exercise a little more caution when sharing personal information online. If I’m very lucky, I will have alerted those of my friends who are parents (like me) so that they can monitor the online activities of their teens a little more closely.

arkmomy