Dial P for Paranoia
Q. Recently, my phone was stolen. I know that it was stolen (and not just lost) because whoever has it is using it heavily — using my email address to send YouTube videos, changing my Pandora stations on an almost hourly basis, etc. Of course I’ve changed my passwords to everything, and discontinued phone service, but the dude keeps using it. In case you’re curious, my phone, in the hand of its new owner, is particularly interested in Rick Ross and Haile Selassie.
So here’s the issue: Obviously I kept all of my contacts (read: YOU) in the address book, and everyone’s Facebook picture is automatically added to the address book. That, on top of all of the photos I have in my photo album, means that Phone Thief has hundreds of pictures of my friends and family. Which sucks.
Besides the vigilante justice I am planning, do I have an obligation to everyone whose name, face, and number I’ve unintentionally surrendered to a petty criminal? Do I need to tell everyone? Bake them cookies?
A. Silly goose, of course you should bake me cookies (specifically these), but that should be out of appreciation for my sharp wit and even sharper cheekbones.
As for an ethical obligation to notify your inner circle that some of their personal information has been shared with a third party, I have to reluctantly inform you that yes, you probably should fulfill that duty (in as calm and non-panic inducing a manner as possible). But don’t sweat it. Facebook has already started giving that data to dozens of other strangers, so what’s one more?
Why should I, or any of your other friends, get in a tizzy over some delinquent being able to link names with faces and phone numbers when the semi-strangers I’ve Facebook befriended will soon be aware of the multitude of Yahoo! articles and videos I’ve viewed? (Well not really. This isn’t 2002, I don’t use Yahoo! anymore.) Third-party websites and advertisers can be of far greater nuisance with the stats we voluntarily share than any nefarious plot your Phone Thief can muster with what little scraps of info he or she has stolen.
Big Brother is already watching and his name is Mark Zuckerberg.
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