Last week, I reported that Xenia Menzies had decided not to run in the upcoming SFSS elections. That post was based on information posted by Xenia herself in a Facebook group open to anyone on the Simon Fraser network, including students, staff, faculty, and alumni. I used that information because I considered it public information. Furthermore, I felt that the intent of Xenia's post was that of a public announcement.
A quick Google search reveals a number of articles, including one from UBC, on privacy issues surrounding journalists using Facebook for information. Where is the line drawn between public and private information on Facebook? There's no simple answer, we're all making up the rules as we go along.
A few minutes ago, I was going to write another post based on other information I recently obtained through Facebook. However, this time the information was published as someone's status. Public? Private? To maintain the person's privacy, I've decided against publishing the information here. It would have been a great blog entry though.
Patrick
P.S. please vote for us in the VFM contest.
Photos:
"Construction Sign" by BitBoy
used under Creative Commons Attribution license.
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