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Comment by darksaga | Hacker News Reader

Oh Julian, how arrogant you are. Every time I read this guy spouting off, he just continues to lose credibility and respect. If you don't want employers or any other companies looking you up on social media, then don't use it - or just use an alias or a fake name.

Nobody HAS to have a Facebook page or partake in social media. If you don't want people tracking you, then don't use it. DUH

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Even if you do not actively register at Facebook yourself, your friends might give them your identity and social group by allowing Facebook to harvest their e-mail accounts.

Don't make friends who will do this. Don't give your real name to friends. Don't get out of your house. etc.

I'm taking this to the extreme simply to illustrate that anything you do publicly has a privacy trade off. Why single out Facebook?

You don't have to go these lengths. I use quite a bit of social media and none of the sites I use, has my correct personal information. All my ID's are all made-up personas and connected to junk email accounts. It would take a lot to get to my real identity. It's not hard to do, and it keeps me plenty safe.

For the record, I wouldn't recommend what I wrote to any sane person. I was just pushing the privacy rhetoric to the extreme to illustrate that there will always be a trade off between privacy and social life. People seem to forget this fundamental principle too often when they talk about the evil social networks.

Edit: To the people who down voted to disagree, I'd like to ask: Do you think the world would be a better place without Facebook?

To answer your question: It may be too early to tell.

And I think we all agree that there has to be a trade off between privacy and social life (or convenience). We make it every day. However, at some point trade off has to stop becoming worth it, right? Determining that exact point is a VERY difficult thing to do -- one that most people never even come close to fully comprehending.

None of us have seen first-hand what repercussions the trade off can cause when taken too far.

Many people don't know/understand what they share about themselves when they sign up for Facebook. What's wrong with someone who is known for speaking up to warn people about the 'risks' of social media?

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