The Perils of Facebook! I advise my near & dear ones to stay away from it...

(Ann C is the information and privacy commissioner of Ontario)

This past summer, I did a strange thing. I caved in to peer-pressure and created a Facebook profile, at the prodding of some of my colleagues.

I am proud to say that I stayed true to form, as a privacy professional and provided as little information about myself as possible. My profile contained the bare minimum of details necessary -- I used a pseudonym, my picture was that of a plant, and my privacy settings were set to the most restrictive levels possible.

Essentially, my profile was visible only to a handful of trusted people. To the remainder of the Facebook universe, I was incognito.

While it may seem that I am not a fan of Facebook, my attitude really has more to do with the fact that, unlike 99 per cent of the subscribers on Facebook, I was born before 1985 and prefer to keep the minutiae of my life private. I also like to keep in touch with my family and friends the old fashioned way, by telephone or E-mail. Nonetheless, I actually have a long-standing and in-depth relationship with the website.

Two years ago, I was approached by senior executives from Facebook seeking my input on their website's privacy policy.

In an attempt to better understand how to help Facebook communicate its privacy options to subscribers, I decided to go straight to the source. I held a focus group with students from various universities to discuss their views about online social networking.

All of the students, with the exception of one, were active users of Facebook and strong proponents of the website. One of the students in particular was truly articulate in his praise: "Facebook is the most comprehensive online networking tool available for students. It acts as a dynamic expression of an individual's natural social activities and allows for enough personal expression to attract continued use."

How could I argue with that kind of eloquence? I couldn't. The social networking phenomenon is here to stay, and may be one of the more positive developments from the age of the Internet.

But, from my interaction with these students, I made the shocking (for me) discovery that none of them had set their privacy filters and most were completely unaware of the privacy options available to them.

I was really troubled by this, and I felt it was critical to get the message out that while social networking websites can be addictive, they can also be dangerous. I wanted these students and others to understand that when they choose to connect with their friends through a social networking website, they must remember that it is they who are ultimately responsible for determining what information they share with others.

Information posted on a website with weak privacy controls may become accessible to anyone online -- not just by the bad guys, but anyone from teachers to parents to scholarship boards, not to mention potential employers. In 2006, ExecuNet, a recruiting company, conducted a survey and found that 77 per cent of employers search online for information on job candidates and a third of those reported rejecting candidates based on what they found online.

There are now plenty of stories on the Internet about job seekers and students who believe they have lost lucrative opportunities because of something they posted about themselves online. One student at Ohio State University lost his dorm room and his job as a resident adviser after pictures of him were posted on Facebook at a party with other underage students, drinking beer.

Media reports regarding the dangers of social networking reveal an almost endless array of threats such as stalkers, predators, identity thieves, and so on. Privacy is all about freedom of choice -- your choice to either protect your privacy or forego the effort.

In the talks I have given to student bodies regarding social networks, I always tell them to keep the "5 Ps" in mind: predators, parents, professors, prospective employers and the police. I tell them to take note of the simple fact that nothing they post online is truly private, and anything they do post may remain there forever. Most importantly, I tell them to remember one thing, always think before you click.