You Are Being Served

Social media is taking new forms daily.  When people create an account they forget that they can be seen by everyone that is a member of that site.  In the past people have put photos of themselves doing something stupid and ended up getting fired, divorced or sued. It’s called social media for a reason. You can display yourself and people see what your doing.

The latest use is serving court papers.  A company in Australia couldn’t reach a couple by phone, email or at their house to serve them court papers, so taking advantage of social media, they contacted the two people via their Facebook profile.  Lawyer Mark McCormack found the couple on Facebook after they had defaulted on a six-figure loan.  It’s surprising a court would allow this but since they duo had their names, dates of birth and listed each other as friends, the courts allowed it. Since it was all public information, there was no reason not to.

This is another case of social media reaching out in a new way and it reminds you that just because you can, maybe you shouldn’t. I love social media and have accounts on so many sites I can’t remember them half the time.  But I have a rule, don’t put too much of yourself out there.  When creating an account on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., remember a few guidelines.

1.    Don’t put your full name.
2.    Don’t display your birthday, if you do, just put month and day.
3.    Don’t list your full address.

These three things aren’t just to keep the courts from serving you summons but it’s also to keep people from stealing your identity.  If these two individuals hadn’t provided so much personal information, the courts wouldn’t have agreed to the serving of the papers. 

This also marks what could become a larger trend. As more and more people are creating their second lives online, companies, governments and social groups are starting to wise up and track people down.  Companies do online background checks to see what potential hires are blogging about, sharing on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flikr, Picasa, Linkedin and more. 

Never mind the Big Brother/Orwellian overtones to the whole affair, this event shows how mainstream social media is becoming and how important it is for companies and individuals to take it serious.  Social media isn’t going anywhere.  In fact, it’s just getting started. With global economy in a slump, people are looking for new, cheaper ways to communicate and get information. 

Could we see divorce papers served on Second Life? Will you receive
jury duty via twitter? Maybe track down deadbeat dads on Facebook.

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency.  He loves to talk about social media and won't shut up about Twitter.  Don't get him started.