Saturday, February 20, 2010

Facebook posts are free speech and they're considered private?

First the Canadian privacy commission suggested that companies cannot use what they see on a person's Facebook page to discriminate against them for employment. I don't know how you prove that one way or another by the way. Now a US magistrate rules that a high school student suspended for creating a Facebook page dissing her teacher should receive constitutional protection under the First Amendment.

See, here's the thing. The internet community needs to understand a basic truth. Being online is like having a billboard that the whole world can see if they care to look. So all of the consumer rights and protection in the world isn't going to stop soemone from seeing something about you online that might colour their opinion of you. The worst part - you won't even know it happened.

This is the new reality.

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