Nice to meet you, Ashley

I’ve always been interested in social networking – I work in online advertising after all. But the recent events around Governor Spitzer’s resignation have got me thinking even more about social networking, privacy, and how it has the power to change the face of journalism. Ashley Alexandra Dupre, aka Kristen, has made a single statement to the press and yet we know so much about her. How? From her Myspace page. With a simple search that takes all of 15 seconds, we can find a full bio on one of the most famous women in America right now (or at least the NY Metro area). There are pictures, her song “What We Want” and a blog. Ashley loves her music, grew up on the Jersey Shore, has used drugs and believes in surrounding herself with people that make her feel good.

In any case, I won’t repeat information you have probably all heard. The point I am trying to get at is that this brief synopsis of this girl's life was found with little to no effort. Without having to hunt down friends, family members or even Ashley herself, America was able to form their own ideas based on information she published for the world to find. And find they did; it’s a transformation of the world of journalism if you ask me. I wonder if she would have written something different if she knew the whole world was going to read it!

This brings me to the issue of social networking and privacy. How private is your social network/profile? The answer – it’s not. The amazing thing that I see is that few people, specifically those in the late Gen Y & Gen Z demographics, view social profiles as public information. I imagine almost no one writes a social profile or posts pictures thinking they will be published in a major newspaper (or papers!), but the fact is, they could be. All the information and pictures from Ashley’s profile were acquired legally and there is nothing she could have done to stop it.

Many of you have probably heard that colleges and employers are becoming increasingly more likely to search for a social profile of applicants and possibly factor the information they find into their decisions. In fact, in a recent survey 1 in 10 employers said they planned to review sites, and a whopping 60% said the information they found would most likely influence the decisions they would make (EducationPortal.com, 8/8/2007). So the moral of the story is this, if you have any information you don’t want the public to see, make sure you update your privacy settings, or better yet, remove any information you wouldn’t want to see end up in the NYTimes.