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The pursuit of love via Facebook

Posted in General, Digital, Mel Varley, Latest reporters' blogs November 1st, 2007 by Melinda Varley

For ages I’ve said that Facebook is a great way to find out all about our potential dates by looking at their photos, their friends and now their very controversial Fun Wall, where most people seem to be receiving ‘dirty videos’.

But now it seems that doing this can get you into more trouble – it can get you fired, or so one Tesco employee has found out.

A Tesco employee was suspended this week after using a customer’s personal details to track her down on the Facebook website and send her a photo of himself wrapped in nothing but a towel.

The technician on the Tesco internet support line, sent the revealing picture to a lady customer via the social networking site moments after dealing with her query.

He left a message on her Facebook profile saying: “I have no idea who you are lol x. But I am sure I spoke to you on the phone when you rang the Tesco internet support line. I may be wrong? Jamie x.”

The 24-year-old mother of two told The Sun newspaper: “I’m terrified of this nutcase coming round to my house.

“He knows what I look like because my photos are all over my Facebook page and he now knows who all my friends are too. He’s got all my personal details at his fingertips.”

The woman said she felt ‘violated’, however, if he had only her name and email address what’s the problem?

Facebook requires us to tell it our full name and email address when we sign up. It then says it will share our information, such as political views, our age, our religion and all the information we submit while doing any sort of ‘quiz’ or ‘game’ application.

If you sign up to Facebook you are making yourself available to the entire web, as long as someone knows your name they can see your life – unless of course you increase your security settings which this woman obviously hasn’t done.

Is this pursuit of love the act of a stalker, or a desperate man taking advantage of Facebook?

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Tags Facebook, Social Networking, Internet, Online, Digital

Comments (3)

namrita’s comment is....

lol! this made me laugh….the tesco worker obviously wasn’t too smart, he really should have left off the fact that he ‘met’ her when she rung Tesco on his Facebook message. I would also be a bit worried if some guy approached me this way BUT, you’re right, she should sort her privavcy settings out! This is 21st century love….

Posted November 1st, 2007 at 1:57 pm

stellaf’s comment is....

How funny, but what a shame he got sacked. I guess people are always a little scared and wary of new technology. The one thing I really do like about Facebook is it’s customised privacy settings. For instance, all my friends on Facebook can see my personal details, but no one else can. I’ve set it up that way so I really can feel secure about social networking with my friends that I already know. Perhaps Facebook should explain it’s privacy settings better to new users as i think it’s one of their strongest assets.

Posted November 7th, 2007 at 1:57 pm

Melinda Varley’s comment is....

The problem with Facebook is that because so many people join and are pushed to join via recommendations from their friends, they don’t read the privacy section as they figure - “If my friends are doing it then it’s fine.”
When ever you put any amount of information on the internet you should always be wary of who else may see that information. That’s just common sense.

Posted November 8th, 2007 at 11:12 am

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