(Source) What happens when your social network begins to gain on MySpace? Attorneys start to gain on you. New Jersey’s State Attorney General Anne Milgram has subpoenaed Facebook in order to find any sex offenders from the state that may have profiles on the social network. The subpoena was sent to Facebook along with letters to 11 other social networking sites requesting for cooperation.
This may sound alarming, but Facebook shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Its built in privacy features are good protection against these kinds of people. Of course, there is no perfect way to protect from the ne’er-do-wells. Still, it is difficult on Facebook to do a random search and find someone to stalk.
Don’t believe me? Try it. I just tried looking for a friend of mine that I know uses Facebook, and she tried looking for me. We know each other’s profile names and e-mail addresses and neither one of us found the other. One reason is because you can only search for friends on Facebook through certain avenues and if your friends don’t exist in those circles you won’t find them. Even if it’s your mother!
Here are the ways Facebook currently lets you look for friends:
- Through your existing networks
- By e-mail address
- AIM profile
- Former high school classmates
- College buddies
- Coworkers
In order to find a friend on Facebook, you must first have known this person someone else. You have to either have their e-mail address in your address book at one of the web-based e-mail clients, or you can upload your address book from Outlook, Apple Mail, or another proprietary e-mail solution, or they have to be an AIM buddy of yours, or they had to have included information in their profile that coincides with yours regarding where they went to high school or college or where they worked. You can’t just go up and look for names and find your friends.
That’s frustrating if you are really trying to add a friend to your friends list, but it’s comforting when you think that someone might be out to get you or a loved one. Facebook also goes through the trouble of protecting the identity of minors. If you are over 18 then you can protect yourself on Facebook by not giving out your personal information to anyone until you get to know them better. It’s a good tool for business networking, but just like in real life, you have to be careful.
