Thursday, July 5, 2012

Facebook: Major Privacy Violation

I am discontinuing my Facebook profile, because when I was helping my aunt set up Facebook, she imported her address book, which contained ONLY my legal-name email address, and Galiana Chance was one of her suggested friends!

Let me be clear what happened: Facebook somehow connected my personal, non-Galiana email address, which my aunt had, to a Facebook account which never contained that email address. I triple-checked the csv file we used to import her contacts into Facebook, and NOTHING galiana was in it. Nothing.

I have no clue whatsoever how Facebook knew that the two of us are connected, but it freaked me the fuck out.

So Galiana's FB profile has been discontinued. Permanently. I was only using it to announce blog posts to about 30 people anyway, so I wrote to all of them encouraging them to subscribe (see that box on the left side of the blog to enter your email address? or the orange RSS button to add me to your RSS reader? Use those!)

Thankfully, my aunt knows what I do for a living. I'll tell you a secret: she's considering joining me as a GILF! But still, NOT THE FUCKING POINT. One of my sister's friends who happens to have my email address from a wedding shower I helped with 5 years ago... everybody has better things to do than to deal with that hassle.

If you want to test this: have a friend search for all your email addresses and see what comes up. Or, go a public library, create a temporary yahoo mail address, create a Facebook account off your new yahoo mail, then enter in all your emails and see who comes up.

HOLY CRAP. I was sooooo mad.

However, in happy news, I had a lovely vacation in Hot Springs with my aunt and sister and younger niece. We wandered around the hot springs, then ate at a Mexican cafe practically carved out of the side of the mountain (Rolando's - it was amazing). We swam in a creek full of perch and minnows and skipping rocks and happy family memories.

I should be back at home tonight, although weather may turn that into tomorrow... but either way, I look forward to being my normal, not-completely-horrified-at-Facebook self again soon.

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