Monday, March 15, 2010

Ghastly Facebook Memes mark 2

This Facebook status update sets my alarm bells ringing: Todays game - PLACE OF BIRTH! Everyone please play! You will find it interesting to know where your FB friends birth places are. Copy & paste this on your profile, then put your place of birth at the end of this sentence.

That's one of the conventional security questions for on-line & telephone banking. And combined with your birthdate, someone could apply to the registry office concerned and get a copy of your birth certificate. Maybe I'm paranoid, but it looks like fishing for details rather than actually being an interesting talking point.

I also don't like being told I will be interested to know my friends' birthplaces. Actually, I won't.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's only interesting if you discover that a kid you thought was English was actually born in Florida. Or Germany. But even then it's actually still boring. So I agree with your harrumph.

Mephitis said...

I just don't like being told I _will_ find it interesting :D. Gets my contrary juices flowing.

ellie said...

You are right to be suspicious, a relative works for DWP, and identity theft is very much something they encounter everyday. Social networking sites are a big source apparently.

Mephitis said...

Yes, some people seem to put so much out there, and a lot of them have hundreds of 'friends' and very little security on their personal information. Maybe I'm misanthropic but I don't believe that anyone has several hundred friends (plus their friends of friends) who they absolutely know can be trusted with sensitive info.