Leave Facebook? Never....

  Over the weekend someone asked me if I was considering closing my Facebook account over the recent privacy issues. My answer is without a doubt...NO. And I have made this decision with my eyes wide open. Truth be known I made this decision when I joined over ten years ago.

  If you shop on line, book vacations or check for flights information is being accumulated on you. Sign up for Air Miles, PC points or any store loyalty card...your preferences are stored and used to guide you towards your ideal purchases or promotions. It is to make your experience easier and faster. Geared towards your habits and spending trends.

  You may say you give out no information. But you do. Have you ever checked out IKEA? Looked for a sofa? We all have. Watch the next time you go to a news site. Watch how the ads on the side will show sales at that store or others who sell sofas. Big brother is watching you. All the time. Every tiny morsel gives them one more clue to who you are.

  This is part and parcel of modern technology. There are some things you can do to keep your footprint small but it's there. And it's large enough to know a lot about you. A person with even minor computer skills can find enough info on you to scare the pants off of you.

  When I first joined Facebook over ten years ago, I gave quite a bit of personal information to them. This was meant to make it easier for my friends to find me. But their friends could see my info too. And if they commented on my post their friends could see it too. The chain gets very long very fast. Which is one of the best, and worst, parts of social media. Being social has consequences.

  I was not surprised to hear an outside company was using personal information from people's home pages. In fact I expected it. I'm not sure how you couldn't. That doesn't make it okay though. Just not unexpected.

  Life is full of risk. Some folks are just realizing their information is at risk. Personally I've known it forever. You can find, and follow, my Facebook page...The Kernick Life and my Twitter account @thekernicklife1 . I'll give you all the info you will ever need.

  Ang