Hi5 left a bitter taste in my mouth but Facebook miraculously outdid it in less than five days. The simple truth is, I just do not trust “social networking” sites. Don’t get me wrong; I am all for cyber friendships, just not this type. Read on to learn why.

A few years back, I had a cyber stalker who played cheap mind games that were not frightening per se. Yet this person obtained access to some of my private documents (things nobody will buy, don’t reach out for your wallets) and this disturbed me profoundly. I even lost some sleep over it.

Ever since then, I became somewhat big time paranoid when it came to my online privacy and security, and I never again used p2p programs to get songs and the like. I also developed an obsessive compulsive disorder that had me “clean my traces” — or whatever I could clean — after every session online. On top of all that, I never saved anything of value on my laptop or any computer I used. Up to this day, I live those habits and many more — me officially paranoid.

When the Facebook buzz hit town, almost everyone I know urged me to join. I did not comply, up until five days ago. My thoughts were along the lines of “what could possibly happen?,” and I discovered exactly what. Two of my friends, one in Canada and the other in Egypt, complained to me about a Jordanian person who has tagged them both and asked to add them to his network. These two friends do not know each other, and they both asked me if I know this stranger since I am Jordanian.

When I realized that this person has tagged both my friends, and that I was the person they had in common, I flipped out. What are the odds of having a total stranger tag both your friends who have nothing in common but you? Seriously? Add to that, he previously harassed them both on Hi5! I don’t know about you but to me the whole affair sounds fishy and it smells too much like fear.

This already weighing heavily on my mind, I came across a presentation that basically strips Facebook of its alleged “security supreme.” Here is a link to the presentation called “Does what happen in the Facebook stay in the Facebook?” Now the content of the presentation may sound a little outlandish, especially towards the end, but to my ears it was a warning I could not shrug away.

I deactivated my Facebook tonight, and now I feel slightly better. I can never feel “at ease” with Facebook until they completely wipe out all the information I foolishly gave them about myself. The site now says that I can “reactivate” my account simply by entering my registered email address and password — and that is very alarming to me. I want my account to be entirely deleted.

Ironically, when I consulted Facebook’s help issues to know how to deactivate my account, the site said something like: “Oh, you really want to deactivate your Facebook account? Well, what are you going to do with your time?” To that I mentally said: “I would live normally in my secure-illusion-paranoia-paradise, thank you.”

The effect of this information on me is probably very different from its effect on you. The difference between me and you, in this case, is that I know what happens when you get stalked (and it is not pretty). So my advice to you is to check if “social networking” is worth the potential risk, and do not imagine it only happens to other people. You are always better safe than sorry.

I may be paranoid, but only the paranoid survive.

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 30th, 2007 at 11:02 pm and is filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.