Protecting Your Privacy on (and off) Facebook
 

Minimum Qualifications: Facebook Password
 

In the past couple of weeks, media caught wind of a hiring practice large numbers of employers have put into place. They are requesting Facebook passwords from their applicants to consider them for open positions, and asking current employees to hand over their passwords (even with their own "do not share passwords" policies in place). 
 

There are at least six good reasons employers should NOT do this. I recently wrote about it here on The Privacy Professor Blog.
 

Whatcha Doing Outside of Facebook?
 

Thanks to the clever programmers at Facebook, the social media giant - now public and more responsible than ever for reporting accurate user numbers - knows exactly when you open one of their emails. This is particularly interesting because, as PandoDaily points out, it indicates a desire to track its users' behavior even when they are not logged into Facebook.
 

As they point out, you can exterminate Facebook's email bugs by reading your email outside of Internet Explorer and Outlook.
 

Don't Judge a 'Friend' by His Photo
 

Bogus Facebook accounts are a growing problem impacting a wide range of people, from high schoolers battling "mean girls" to NATO officials in charge of national security. There are, fortunately, several ways to spot a fake, and here's an excellent article outlining exactly how.
 

Starting from Scratch
 

Often you'll hear identity and privacy experts advise that you close down your Facebook account if it becomes hacked. But what if your account is years old, housing countless contacts, memories, photos and videos? Fortunately, there is a way to back up all of that information, so it will be at the ready should you ever need to rebuild your Facebook account or if you simply want to keep all those past posts. 

It can be relaxing to visit a place where no one knows you - to unplug completely and enjoy the anonymity of the moment. But a new iPhone app may put a quick end to that. Called Highlight, the app alerts users when they are physically near people with whom they share even the slightest of connections, such as the same hometown. Many "free" apps are actually hoping to cash in on all the personal information they collect for such apps. Think twice about the privacy implications of such cool new apps before you start using them. 
 

Backing Up iPhone Data
 

120,000 cell phones are lost annually in Chicago taxi cabs. That's just one of many cities in our increasingly mobile world. If you anticipate being among the unfortunate souls to lose (or have stolen) your cell phone (and it can happen to any of us), take a few minutes to learn how to back up your iPhone and IPad data.
 

Speaking of lost phones, what would you do if you found a smartphone? My friend, Scott Wright, is doing some very interesting research to find out. His new analysis report, "Smartphone Honey Stick Project," reveals 96 percent of people finding lost smartphones in his experiment looked through the data. And 89% tried using the apps! Here's a really cool infographic that summarizes the stats in the report.