WTF of the day: yet another personal privacy violation

lindabeth — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:51:25 -0500

A woman claims her life has been ruined by someone who set up a Facebook website page in her name describing her as a vice girl.

Kerry Harvey, 23, says she received obscene pictures on her mobile phone and unsolicited calls from would-be ‘punters’.

The forged profile featured her photograph, correct date of birth,
middle name and mobile number, listing her job as ‘prostitute’.

The Facebook page is down now, but this is especially disheartening:

She also reported the abuse to police but was told it would cost too much to track the culprit.

Not to mention this classic blame-the-victim:

‘Generally, people can try and avoid false profile pages
by posting as little personal information as possible - not just on
social networking sites but anywhere on the net.’

This is nearly impossible. A Google search of your name gets you
your address very easily. And if you’ve ever done anything interesting
enough to be reported in a newspaper, then be damned! We must not live
too publicly, we must pretty much live in a hole and not interact
outside of face-to-face contact. Not that that would be a bad thing,
especially in today’s society. But I’m really sick of this attitude
that it’s our responsibility to have our lives completely offline to
avoid this kind of thing…all too much like the “her clothing meant she
was asking for it” rape apology. Theft is still theft even if your
house is unlocked.

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WTF of the day: yet another personal privacy violation