Why you should be changing your privacy settings on facebook

I bet this American wished he had… he has just spent a stint in jail for bigamy after being outed as bigamist by facebook….

I am sure he didn’t mean to broadcast it to the wrong audience… he just proudly updated his status and posted the wedding pictures of his second wedding pictures on his facebook page and indavertently alerted his previous family and friends to his new one.

He just pretended wife number 1 did not exist after he unfriended her on facebook… sadly he did not manage his facebook account very well and failed to change his privacy settings and everyone could see them.

His ex-wife called the police and the 34 year old father of 1 was arrested and charged with bigamy.

Had Richard Barton jnr from Michigan known he could change his privacy settings it may have saved him from being locked up… or just delayed it a little… in any case there was less chance his ex would have found out he had remarried without actually divorcing her first.

Facebook has also been used for quite a few divorce cases to provide incriminating evidence so it may be that you start thinking before you post… or get your privacy settings and lists in order…as we chatted about here .

I guess if we can accept marriage proposals on twitter as it appeared happened when Max Kiesler proposed to Emily Chang over Twitter (and she said yes) then the usage of on-line for more private matters should come as no surprise.

The idea of not airing dirty linen in public does rather seem to have been brushed under the carpet and more and more people are turning to it first… so it is important that you protect yourself and think before you print!

It is very easy to protect yourself… go to Account (top right), privacy settings and then customise…

Manage your own social media… Your facebook privacy settings are simple to customise… Decide who can see, pictures, video, posts, tags and everything else on facebook….

So no excuses… I don’t want any of you making the headlines…