Personal InjuryFacebook and other Sites Now Decide Lawsuits, Employment, College Admissions, and Insurance Claims.
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There are over 600 million members on Facebook that share intimate details about their personal lives, but most do not realize how easy it is for their private photos, opinions, relationships, and activities to be observed by outside parties. The CIA, attorneys, schools, insurance agents and employers have all been known to use Facebook as a tool to judge your character and activity among other things. Many have been fired (sometimes illegally) or even expelled from school due to content on their Facebook page. Here is how your information can be used against you, and the steps you can take to prevent this.
How lawyers, Insurance Agents, Employers, and School Officials Lookup your Private Information on Facebook
Law firms, from personal injury attorneys investigating a car accident to divorce and trial lawyers have admitted to using facebook to collect such information as religious beliefs, drug and alcohol use, and conversations with friends. Lawyers investigating potential jurors on Facebook is now common, the Wall Street Journal reports. One attorney openly admitted this while defending a priest on sexual abuse charges. He researched jury candidates' pages to get a feel of how devout they were and explains, "It's a waterfall of information, compared to the pinhole view you used to get."
If you were injured in a car accident, an attorney or insurance agent might research if you have a history of drinking, if you were already complaining of injuries or back pain, if you are a smoker, and your overall level of maturity. Based on this information, lawyers could make an attempt in court to show the accident was due to your wild and irresponsible demeanor, that your medical bills are partly your fault because you are a smoker and are not making an effort to heal, or he could even prove that you were using your cell phone to post on Facebook while driving.
HOW SCHOOL ADMINISTATORS, PROFESSORS, AND EMPLOYERS JUDGE YOU ONLINE:
More than 53% of employers research potential job candidates on social networks such as Facebook, says CareerBuilder.co.uk. A study by Dr. Larry Chiagouris at Pace University found 76% of college students may be using facebook in a manner that will tarnish their opportunities for a job after graduation. The study examined photos, status updates, organizations and events they were part of and invite others to attend. Even once you have the job or are in the school of your dreams, employees and students alike have gotten fired for "inappropriate" photos and posts on their Facebook pages.
It is imperative to secure your social media profiles, if not permanently, at least when applying for a job or university, after a car accident, or before a lawsuit. To ensure your privacy and safety on Facebook, make the following choices below:
DISAPPEAR FROM SEARCHES:
To disappear from Search Results - most users do not know that they can do this, and it will make you much harder to find to those not in your network of friends or school. Go to Privacy Settings - > Search Visibility - > and select Only Friends. One the same page, be sure to also uncheck the box: "Create a public search listing for me and submit it for search engine indexing" for those searching for you on Google.
FRIENDS AND PHOTOS:
In your Profile Privacy Page - > Photos Tagged of You - > select Customize - > select Only Me and None of My Networks. You can add a certain group of friends under the box Some Friends. Also, go to the Photos Privacy Page to manually change privacy of each of your photo albums.
Delete all friends that you do not personally know. Be sure to never accept friend requests from people you've never met. Even if they are friends on Facebook with someone you know, this may be a tactic insurance agents, lawyers, and recruiters use to trick you into thinking you might know them too, so check with your friend first.
Choose your friends wisely. If privacy concerns center around a heated divorce case, immediately delete or block your spouse and all mutual friends who may give your spouse or the lawyers access to your profile.
WALL POSTS, INTERESTS, ETC:
In your Profile Privacy Settings page you can also disable friends from writing on your wall with the section called Wall Posts, to ensure inappropriate content isn't made public without your approval. Be sure to also make your contact info private, except for close friends. To make your friendships private, so strangers can't see who your friends are and possibly contact them or friend them in order to see your information, navigate to the Friends setting and privatize that as well.
You may also want to delete inappropriate applications such as quizzes and any groups, interests, or events you are associated with that will not reflect highly of you. As long as all your privacy settings are maximized, and you do not accept any friend requests from strangers, you should be able to keep your profile without deleting any content, save your profile picture, which should always be appropriate and PG.
Last but not least, sign up for Google alerts for your name, so whenever someone posts material about you, you can ask for it to be removed or edited.
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