Stemato.com - Stephen Tompkins’ Blog

Raise your hand if you have been hugged or kissed on Facebook against your will by some intruding application that seeks to mine and destroy all your personal information. Ok, you can all put your hands down or if you did not put it up then you should pay very close attention to what I am about to write. Those virtual hugs, kisses and fairy dust that are hurled around Facebook are not as innocent and cute as they seem. That is right. They are pirates looking to steal you and your friends’ information for free. So stop buying into it!

First, I should admit that I have fallen prey to a few of these dumb applications over the years. But as of Monday, I will not ever fall for them again. In fact, if I see you doing one in my newsfeed I will block it and you from being in my feed. I know it sounds like harsh treatment but it’s time to use Social Media sites for what they were intended to be used for. Not throwing fairy dust or finding out that because I answered 5 questions I exhibit traits of Chester Arthur. I mean seriously, the insanity has to stop!

Why am I taking such drastic methods?

Because what most people don’t realize is when you load those quizzes and such you are giving the creator of these applications the ability to access your personal data to use for their own purposes. This is sometimes done legally (to post in your newsfeed) and other times illegally (to steal the password for your AIM account). And, the simple fact is that Facebook does not have enough of security monitoring to know what these applications are doing with your info. Nor do they probably care because you authorized it (Read the fine print next time you decide to see what 80’s movie character you are.).

So, the next time you decide to kiss or hug me via Facebook give me a call and we can set it up in person because I am sick of the illegal notifications, and I am sure you do not want your data stolen!