Facebook, the , guards your privacy. Not "friends" with someone? They can't see your profile. Don't want a picture coming up with your name on it? Untag it. The , Facebook lets you guard yourself from all sorts of people finding out information that you don't want them to see.
But why should the popular social networking site go to all of this trouble if its users don't mind giving out their personal information? While browsing the site today, I was looking at groups, and stumbled upon the phenomenon of groups for people who lose their phones. The idea is that when someone gets drunk and throws their cell phone at a mischievous sewer grate loses their cell phone, they invite all of their friends to join a group. Then all of their friends post their (usually) cell phone numbers to the group's wall, for EVERYONE to see.
Delving further into what I thought might be just foolishness on the part of some of my more open friends, I did a group search for "lost cell phone" and got 500+ groups returned. Within the first ten, only 2 were "private" meaning you had to be invited into the group in order to see its wall. The rest though, I could click on and determine the names, universities/regions and cell phone numbers of countless individuals.
Do you post your phone number on Facebook groups? Respond in the comments with how you think this hurts your privacy, or does it?
