Blog Folly

In my Management Information Systems class yesterday we were talking about ethics and privacy, and how anything written is liable to be used against you. The only thing companies can't use is the spoken word (conversations over the phone or in person).

And then, this girl in my class, Emily, said that her brother is in the Middle East going to grad school (I believe), and he has a blog over there where he writes about stuff at the school. Evidently, an Arabic newspaper found it, and published his blog word for word including pictures as if they had discovered this stuff about the school. The school contacted him and now he's more weary about what he posts! So...word of caution. Do not post anything anywhere that you don't want other people to find.

I can attest to this. My sophomore year a group of us were talking about this girl who nearly died and if we had heard anything about it. Turns out a guy in the discussion was a columnist for the Batt, (the on-campus newspaper at A&M) and he quoted some hearsay I had heard (albiet it was true) and wrote it in the Batt the next day, quoting me!!! Then people and the press started calling me as if I knew what I was talking about. Yeah...so you are warned. Even the spoken word is not safe.

So, guard your words and don't write anything of interest. If you do, you are liable to be pulled into some mess like this.

Also, if you read the Batt (which I rarely do.). Most of the stuff is false or found out like this past story....so be careful about taking that stuff as fact.