A startling reminder about Facebook privacy Monday, October 31, 2011 By HE'S COMING FOR YOU: The website integrates your personal information into a custom horror video. - Screenshot Advertising If a stranger on the Internet asked you for your name, birthday, hometown, relationship status, relationship history, personal photos, and friends' locations, would you give it to him? Probably not. But chances are, if you have a Facebook account, you've already done that. Not just once, but dozens of times. A new interactive website, called Take This Lollipop, offers an unsettling reminder of exactly what you agree to when you hit the "Allow" button on Facebook's "Request for Permissions" window. The website mines your account and seamlessly integrates your information into a short horror video. A sweaty, twitchy man, sitting in a dark room, his fingers caked with grime, goes on Facebook. Then he pulls up...your profile. The stalker accesses your photos, your status updates, your list of friends. Then he finds your geographic data, pulls up Google Maps, and gets directions to your home. He hops into a car, your profile picture taped to his dashboard. The video ends as he gets out of his car, presumably to track down his target: you. It's a stunning display of technology. But it's also a startling reminder of just how much information we share on Facebook these days. When you see your personal information displayed in such an unfamiliar environment, you can't help but feel violated—even though you know that the stalker isn't real. That's a good thing. It's all too easy to get complacent about securing your privacy online. Take This Lollipop serves as a very effective public service announcement about privacy. Go to www.takethislollipop.com to check it out. And think twice the next time you grant a website access to your profile information.

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