Article
• January 17, 2011
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A Reminder About Your Privacy On The Internet
In the strange and awkward early days of the Internet, most people were too paranoid to even use their real names on the web. Today, some people update their Facebook status before they even leave the house in the morning. The change in people’s openness with personal information is revolutionary, and more than a little surprising.
Openbook presents an interesting way to remind you that your online information is more public than you think by exposing you where it hurts most: your Facebook account.
Openbook allows you to search through the status updates of unwitting Facebook users to prove that your information is more easily available to anyone on the web than you ever thought it was. The site is built on the Facebook API, so any information Openbook can find is available to anyone on the Internet.
Once you’ve been sufficiently freaked by your searches the site offers tips on how to make sure the information you think is private actually stays that way.
We’re not against using Facebook for its intended purposes, but it helps to remember that Time’s “Person of the Year” isn’t the only awkward nerd viewing your information.
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