Stop Watching Me!

google_earth_car_crashRemember that song, “I always feel like, somebody’s watching me, and I get no privacy…?” Well, stop inviting people to watch you, and maybe they will. George Orwell’s 1984 has gotten a little too close for comfort these days, except that big brother is not the government or the media, it’s “We, the People.”

Think before you write, do, or say anything in the public eye(s)…and that includes on your computer. You can be social, just not too sociable: What you say can and will be used against you in the courtroom of life.
In the latest incident of it’s not reality, its Virtual Reality (VR) a Swiss woman, complaining of a migraine, left work “sick” and was sacked when she showed up on Facebook later that day.

She said the company had created a fictitious Facebook persona which become “friends” with her, allowing the company to monitor her online activity. Her suspicions were raised when the “friend” suddenly disappeared after she was fired, the woman told 20 Minuten daily. But the company says it followed a simple logic: that those who are well enough to use Facebook with a migraine are well enough to work with a migraine.

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If you think about it logically, it’s better to assume that you are being monitored… Every credit transaction, every search result, every phone call…it’s all tracked somewhere. The Man always triangulates off cell signals and pulls data off the hard drive.

This latest incident has generated online warnings from social bloggers regarding the protection of your account. The trick is to separate your real friends (the ones that would help you move a body) from your friends (those that might show up to help you move) from your acquaintances (those that wouldn’t move out of your way on the train). If you want to protect yourself from unwanted scrutiny, read Facebook Fail on Mashable.

Jeff Louis is a Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you: linkedin.com/in/jefflouis or twitter.com/jlo0312.