You bet it can. Case in point: an article on MSNBC detailing a recent post on Twitter, a social networking site that allows you to let “followers” know what you are doing, in 140 characters or less. One hundred and forty characters was all it took for one follower, known as “theconnor” to engage in a “social networking comedy of errors” by boasting about, and then being way too honest about, a job offer s/he had just received:

“Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”

Not long after the post went up, a representative from the company had responded, “the connor’s” true identity was revealed on the Internet, and a video mocking “theconnor” started circulating on YouTube.

What’s even worse? After seeing the reaction, “theconnor” changed the privacy settings on the Twitter account, making them private, and deleted the content of the home page. But, “it was already too late… thanks to Google Cache, the deleted content of “theconnor’s homepage resurfaced on CiscoFatty.com, a Web site erected to commemorate this cautionary tale”.

The article details other social networking faux pas that resulted in the creation of the term “Facebook fired”.

It just goes to show that nothing on the Internet is private, nothing on the Internet can ever really be deleted – and if you’re not careful about what you post, the Internet can get you fired.

Tags: Add new tag, Internet, twitter, youth privacy

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 12:02 pm by Kristen Yates and is filed under privacy online, your voice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.