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MENLO PARK, Calif.On a recent afternoon, police officer Mary Ferguson visited the home of a teenager in this Silicon Valley suburb who had been missing school and was on probation.
Officer Ferguson approached the boy's father as part of her rounds and asked if he checks the teen's Facebook page to make sure he's "on the up and up." When the man said he didn't, the officer assured him she didthanks to a Facebook account she uses as part of her job that doesn't reveal her true identity. "I'll keep my eye on him," she said.
Officer Ferguson, 34 years old, is sometimes called "The Facebook Cop," but it isn't for her savvy use of social media. It is because her salary and benefits are paid entirely by Facebook Inc., which is based in this well-off city of 32,000.
In an unusual deal, the social-networking giant has agreed to fund a $194,000-a-year police position, including salary and benefits. The position is controlled by Menlo Park and the primary duties of the job are to keep children in school, work with juvenile offenders, and help large local businesses such as Facebook plan for emergencies like fires, earthquakes or violent intruders.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/facebook-friends-city-pays-officer-022300658.html
leftstreet
(36,210 posts)And how does this modern day Pinkerton lady get access to a kid's private Facebook ramblings without said kids 'friending' her?
Sounds odd
pipi_k
(21,020 posts)Assuming, of course, that the kid has his page settings on private (so only people he's "friended" can see what's there) AND he doesn't "friend" people he doesn't know.
People really need to be smarter about that sort of thing.
Make your page private...don't "friend" people you don't personally know. In fact, if someone you don't know tries to get access to your page with a friend request, you can block him or her. Full blocking means that as far as that person is concerned, you don't even exist on Facebook.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)This is the kind of corporate dystopia overreach that underpins the series Continuum on Syfy.
Decent series, but not great, if you were looking for something to watch.
Laffy Kat
(16,497 posts)This opens a whole new can of worms and it's going to kick us in the ass. Unfortunately, I'm unsure what one could do to stop it????