Allhands: Could Mesa mayor have avoided this catfishing scheme?
Joanna Allhands: It's simple. If you don't want a photo copied and shared, don't upload it on social media.
Joanna Allhands
Consider this a teaching moment.
Photos from Mesa Mayor John Giles' Facebook page were used in an apparent catfishing scheme on match.com.
A woman who had been chatting with a "man" from Vancouver, British Columbia, became suspicious about his identity and asked for additional photos. He sent her a picture of Giles with U.S. Sen. John McCain, which set off even more red flags.
She did a quick Internet search, realized the photos were actually of Giles and emailed his mayoral office. The Republic's Jessica Boehm learned of the scheme during a routine public-records search.
How the thief found the photos
It's easy to see how all of this happened. Giles' Facebook page contains tons of photos that are shared publicly. Most are official-looking, mayoral-duty kinds of pics: Giles delivering his annual State of the City speech, speaking with the governor, breaking ground on a new car dealership.
But there are more personal photos in there, including one at a family dinner and another of the grandkids posing with Santa. None of them are inappropriate. In fact, they're probably just like the photos you upload to Facebook.
I'm not faulting Giles for posting them and allowing the public to view them. They give constituents a valuable view into an elected official's life and public work.
The lesson: Anything can be saved
But they also offer an important social-media lesson. Anything you share -- and yes, we mean anything -- can potentially be found, saved and used by people with less than honorable intentions.
Marking photos public makes it easier for would-be thieves to find them. But even those you share only with friends can be saved by those friends and potentially redistributed.
In other words, use caution before you put a photo out there. Know your privacy settings and how to change them. As Facebook's official FAQ notes: "Remember, when you post to another person's Timeline, that person controls what audience can view the post. Additionally, anyone who gets tagged in a post may see it, along with their friends."
In other words, you have some control over who sees your stuff. But not ultimate control. So post with that in mind.
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