Window Cleaners On FaceBook

Another year passes, well for me at least. Thanks to all those that posted on my facebook account to wish me the best - those that didn't - apparently birthdays are in the top left corner under events! Never have window cleaners had a greater chance to spread the word of their services & get the word out to their customers than now. I'm still wondering if those in my local circle really should know every day or week whether they should be bombarded with the fact that I am a window cleaner everyday, like some other services. I've never been one to sound my own trumpet, yet I get bombarded on a daily basis by 'facebook friends' telling me what they offer via private messages. Sooner or later the delete key becomes 'hide this service' & without even knowing it they've done more harm than good.

With the news today of facebook setting up a new application called 'places,' everyone could know where you are at any time. Is that a good thing? Big brother has really arrived, now more than ever, where every detail of your working life could be detailed & tracked by clients, colleagues, competitors & also unscrupulous systems & all this information is given freely. Google streetview are currently under study in Spain, for perhaps picking up more information of their surroundings than they should have. We are becoming a generation where soon accounting for your actions or where you've been will soon be a documented event. Even so, I'll leave it up to you to decide if this is a good thing or not. Personally I like to err on the side of caution & perhaps kill my authenticity. Privacy has become a debate in itself.

On the other hand, facebook has become a great interactive way of keeping in touch with not only friends but personal interests. I've never had so many window cleaning colleagues in my life & it's great to text-chat online. At any one time I can know if my friends are rained off or are sweltering in the heat or some even resort to snapping a photo of the most exotic insects in their work day. Some even post problem photos of the most awkward windows to clean & get answers on the go. Now that's technology!

If you wish to get updates from this blog in your own facebook account - you can follow it here. Or if you wish to interact on a personal level click my picture below. I'll leave you with this guide so that just once, you may have a look at your own facebook account & not suffer identity theft. It's entitled "7 things to stop doing now on Facebook."



Using a weak password:
Avoid simple names or words you can find in a dictionary, even with numbers tacked on the end. Instead, mix upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. A password should have at least eight characters. One good technique is to insert numbers or symbols in the middle of a word, such as this variant on the word "houses": hO27usEs!

Leaving your full birth date in your profile:
It's an ideal target for identity thieves, who could use it to obtain more information about you and potentially gain access to your bank or credit card account. If you've already entered a birth date, go to your profile page and click on the Info tab, then on Edit Information. Under the Basic Information section, choose to show only the month and day or no birthday at all.

Overlooking useful privacy controls:
For almost everything in your Facebook profile, you can limit access to only your friends, friends of friends, or yourself. Restrict access to photos, birth date, religious views, and family information, among other things. You can give only certain people or groups access to items such as photos, or block particular people from seeing them. Consider leaving out contact info, such as phone number and address, since you probably don't want anyone to have access to that information anyway.

Posting your child's name in a caption:
Don't use a child's name in photo tags or captions. If someone else does, delete it by clicking on Remove Tag. If your child isn't on Facebook and someone includes his or her name in a caption, ask that person to remove the name.

Mentioning that you'll be away from home:
That's like putting a "no one's home" sign on your door. Wait until you get home to tell everyone how awesome your vacation was and be vague about the date of any trip.

Letting search engines find you:
To help prevent strangers from accessing your page, go to the Search section of Facebook's privacy controls and select Only Friends for Facebook search results. Be sure the box for public search results isn't checked.

Permitting youngsters to use Facebook unsupervised:
Facebook limits its members to ages 13 and over, but children younger than that do use it. If you have a young child or teenager on Facebook, the best way to provide oversight is to become one of their online friends. Use your e-mail address as the contact for their account so that you receive their notifications and monitor their activities. "What they think is nothing can actually be pretty serious," says Charles Pavelites, a supervisory special agent at the Internet Crime Complaint Center. For example, a child who posts the comment "Mom will be home soon, I need to do the dishes" every day at the same time is revealing too much about the parents' regular comings and goings.