Nik lives in Essex, UK and works in London as the editor of MacUser magazine. The posts and comments on this site do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions of values of his employers.
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I don’t know how this happened, especially as my privacy settings were such that only my friends and students in my networks could view my photos… It’s quite unbelievable and I am very pissed off…
What I find quite unbelievable is the naivety of the person who made this comment, as quoted in The Guardian. Not only is she showing a lamentable lack of understanding of the net as a public medium, but she’s also a student at Oxford University, and so at the pinnacle of British academic achievement.
The story is this: proctors at Oxford have been logging on to Facebook, trawling the photos for any that might suggest misdemeanour on the part of graduating students and then hauling them up for their behaviour, either fining them £100 (a surprisingly hefty blow, I’d imagine, when you already have a considerable student debt racked up), or delaying their graduation until they’ve stood before a disciplinary board.
The quoted student, Alex Hill, seems to think that restricting your photos to just your friends and other members of the networks of which you’re a member will keep you safe, but with Facebook networks being so easy to join that’s like leaving your front door key under your front door mat. With the corner of the mat turned up. And a large pointy sign saying ‘key here’. Illuminated.
The Students’ Union made a middle of the road comment about privacy, clearly minded not to inflame the proctors any further:
While the Student Union does not condone unruly, violent or disorderly behaviour, we believe that the privacy of our members should be protected and that disciplinary procedures at all levels within the University should be fair and transparent.
They are sentiments with which few could disagree, but at the same time it’s hard to feel that these student’ privacy has been compromised when they, themselves, were foolish enough to post images to what is, at best, a semi-private, semi-public forum.
Passwords and privacy are not the same thing. One day, perhaps, our educated elite might realise that.
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