Facebook Privacy

An interesting thing just happened. Today I 'added as friend' someone whom I worked with back at IBM/Lotus. In the message I asked if he still worked with PeopleSoft. Just a handfull of hours later I get an email from a recruiter stating:

Dear Applicant,

My name is Charles and I'm a recruiter at COMPANY NAME REMOVED. Our records show that you are an experienced professional with experience in Peoplesoft. This experience is relevant to one of my current openings.

For the record I've never worked with PeopleSoft and it doesn't show up on my linkedin profile, old resumes, nothing public. So, am I just paranoid or is it that I neglected to read the Facebook Privacy Agreement?

Why Facebook is moving past Linkedin as my favorite Social Website.

For the last couple years Linkedin has been a great way to link up with people I’ve worked or work with. The treasure I find is both the syncing and the permanence of the sync. I’ll have their contact info no matter which country, job or cell phone number they move to down the road, of course with-in reason, they could remove their account.

The limitation or magic of Linkedin is in the lens I view it. I view it from the perspective of those who I’ve worked with or those I want to be professionally associated with. In steps Facebook.

I really only do one thing with Facebook, confirm friendships. I have written on a wall or two and sent a message here and there to ‘check it out’ but I’m not really into learning more of the features; not just yet. The draw for me is the random connections the behemoth site funnels, not the bells and whistles.

The confirming of friends over the past half year I’ve been a member has been not only fun but the most talked about subject with my best friend. We go back to 7th grade so every time an invite is received we’re talking about it. The complete diversity of invites boggles my mind; the classic George Costanza worlds colliding! Invites from HS (my favorite), college, family, fraternity, career, sports, activities, you name it.

My favorite came this morning on the way in to work. Who the heck is Tim so and so. Instantly all the conversations about the random people that you never spoke to in school coming out of the woodwork came to mind; and then I read the note.

"Tell Ethan that Charlie says "hi" ".

It was Charlie’s Dad, Tim. Charlie, a year ago, was 1 of 3 boys (including my son Ethan) on 6 North at Children’s Hospital with AML (The lesser occurring version of Leukemia). They were the family I looked for strength. When we meet Charlie’s family they were half way into the same 6 month stay that we had ahead of us in the early parts of May 2007. I don’t know what it’s like to fight alongside someone in the fox holes of a war but I do understand the bond that forms when you share a traumatic period of your life with a previous total stranger.

I will cherish the confirmation of this invite like few others.

My email address has been out on the web, easily searchable for the past 10 years but never have the random contacts been so frequent. Facebook has tapped into some illusive force of nature that nurtures connections to casual friendships of the past. For this I am hooked.

From here on out. Linked for professional networking, Facebook for anyone i've ever crossed paths with. That about sums it up.