<p>Unfortunately, it’s really not that simple. Even if you set your profile and groups to private, there are still things over which you have no control such as who the members of your groups really are or how the info they are able to access is used or distributed. </p>
<p>Furthermore, while most high schoolers and college students consider themselves technologically savvy, in reality, most are just “user comfortable” and are babes in the woods compared to those who really have a sophisticated level of expertise. How many typical college freshmen and high school seniors understand the risks of wireless networks and know how to set up a wireless network with appropriate firewall protection, high level security coding of the network access, turning off broadcasting of the network SSID and setting up encryption of data transmission? I can’t tell you the number of times I am out and about with my lap top and stumble upon wireless networks without sufficient protections to thwart mining of personal info or the interception of data transmissions which for a real technically savvy evil doer would present a gold mine of opportunity for ID theft, theft of credit card numbers etc. The potential risks go so far beyond the consequences of some dopey ill advised postings of questionable content.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that even after you set your privacy settings on Facebook or MySpace, even after you set up your firewall, security code your wireless network, turn off SSID broadcasting and encrypt your data transmissions, the only thing over which you have absolute control is the content of what you post. Any one who posts information that is identifiable to them on line creates a degree of risk. The more info, the greater the risk obviously.</p>
<p>Ok, I’m done with my paranoid ranting 
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