If you’re looking for LIKEs and comments from your brainwashed JerseyShore Facebook friends then maybe give these a try:

 “If she’s got a basket on her bicycle, she’s too young for you man.”

 “If she still has the parental controls on her TV in her bedroom, she’s too young for you bro.”

We decided it would be fun if we came up with some of Jersey Shore Status Updates of our own…

• If she sings Disney sing alongs she’s too young for you bro!
• If her idol is Miley Cyrus she’s too young for you bro!
• If the waiter gives her a coloring book and crayons at the restaurant !
• If she won’t make you a sandwich she’s too young for you bro!
• If she still writes notes she’s too young for you bro!
• If she thinks unicorns are real she’s too young for bro!
• If she still has her mom buying her clothes she’s too young for you bro!
• If she orders a Shirley temple at the bar she’s too young for you bro!
• If the waiter gives her a coloring book and crayons at the restaurant she’s too young for you bro!
• If she invites you to her birthday party, and there’s a bouncy house she’s too young for you bro!

Right Click and select Save-As then upload to Facebook and make one of these your profile picture.

Official Support Status:

REPOST PLEASE! The world is with you Japan. In memory of the victims of this recent tragedy please consider changing your Facebook Profile Picture to the Japanese Flag to pledge your support.  Show Japan that the world loves them!

Facebook Search : Japan Earthquake

However, it did start in a eerily similar fashion.  Here’s the story on how Facebook started the Egyptian protests…

On July 9th, 2010 a Facebook group that was started called “We are all Khaled Said” .  The group was started to honor a young Egyptian named, Khaled Said whom died in a controversial death.

According to Wikipedia: Khaled Said is, a young businessman from Alexandria, was reportedly beaten to death by local police this summer – well before rumblings of the country’s current unrest. But a Facebook page that bears his name has been one of the driving forces behind the upheaval that has been shocking Egypt….

This Facebook page still exists although many of the original members cannot access it (due to a countrywide internet blockade) to see what is going on.  We encourage you to join the page so you can get a different opinion on what is going on in that country. It is really quite remarkable to go back to January 25th, 2011 and see the Egyptian National and International Protests being organized.  Then read how much has happened since then, it is absolutely remarkable what that country has gone through and what it is going through now.

The page is run by an anonymous self-proclaimed Egyptian known as El Saheed which translates to Martyr.

Now here is where things get interesting…

“The power of Facebook is that our updates reach to everyone’s wall,” El Shaheed said. “Some of the videos we publish get shared on people’s walls more than 30,000 times. That’s how powerful a virus can be…Once it’s out, it goes everywhere. It’s unstoppable.”

Here is the original post that started the call for January 25th, 2011 to be a day of PEACEFUL national protest in Egypt….

Dated January 15 at 6:06am

The rest, as they say is history.  On January 25th, 2011 a Facebook group of approximately 25,000 (at the time) Egyptians started a revolution.

[ Disclaimer: We aren't journalists.  We just find it very interesting how Facebook sparked a national revolution.  Read more from real journalists at  Newsweek. ]

Background:

You can’t go a few days without seeing a viral Facebook status about the website Spokeo.com and how they are exploiting your “private” information for their financial gain.

There is no doubt that you’ve seen a status update similar to this come across your feed:

Essentially the “Goal” of the status update is to inform you of the website Spokeo and the supposed “evils” it is doing by listing your private information and how you can go about removing it.  There is something very suspicious about the whole operation.

First of all, who started the “Warning” Status Update?

Like most “viral” statuses it is nearly impossible to tell who started it.  However, this is a huge point of concern…. If Spokeo themselves started it – which cannot be proven… It would indicate they are attempting to get people to come to their website to learn of their capabilities through an initial scare tactic.  Once on their website there is a variety of ways for which Spokeo could gain.

For example, the general public’s reaction when they see this “WARNING” is to remove their private information and then search for their friends & family.  What Spokeo could potentially gain is the chance that you might want to search for more information on a person and sign-up for one of their paid plans.  Or perhaps purchase one of the “Reputation Defender / Privacy” services that they advertise on their website.

Even more scary is that some people and news agencies, are speculating Spokeo allows requests to remove information as an email collecting ploy. Consider this, you are willfully giving them a correct, possibly private, email address in an attempt to remove often erroneous information that is public anyway.  This may result in your personal e-mail being sold along with the public information you requested to be removed from their website.

Where did they get your information from?

Well, that is an interesting story. The sad truth is they really could have got it from anywhere.  Wikipedia gives this broad definition, Spokeo utilizes deep web crawlers to aggregate data.  Perhaps they downloaded the torrent file with over 100 million public Facebook profile pages.  There is no telling exactly where they got your information, the fact is they’ve got it and they have no problem sharing it with the world.

What should I do?

1. Safely Opt-Out of their Website.  Simply follow the steps on this video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

2. Sign-up for a Reputation Defending website to help you monitor your personal information.  Even Spokeo recommends you do this.

3. Keep a close eye on your credit report. Recommendation: FICO Credit Reports and Monitoring Choices

4. Most importantly, modify the privacy settings on your social networks to reflect the highest level of privacy.

So, is Spokeo a Scam?

We leave that decision to you.

Definition of Scam: A confidence game or other fraudulent scheme, esp. for making a quick profit; swindle. (source: dictionary.com)

Post what you think of Spokeo in the comments below.

Resources & Further Reading:

Spokeo Wikipedia | Spokeo Facebook Fan Page | Spokeo.com | Spokeo Blog on themselves being purported as a scam

Who’s behind Spokeo?  Check TechCrunch.  Their latest article proclaims: ” There’s Absolutely Nothing You Can Do About Spokeo, So Stop Whining ”

Company Contact Info:
556 S. Fair Oaks Ave.
Suite # 101-179
Pasadena, CA 91105
Phone: 626-921-6632

This is accomplished using a third-party Facebook app, it’s really simple and the end result is something like this:

There’s a quick’n'easy (and safe) Facebook app that does it for you (as evidenced seen above.)

Takes all of 5 minutes using that app.  But, hurry folks this probably won’t last long!  Let us know how it works out for you and what your friends think and comment!

PS) Don’t like the results?  It’s super easy to change everything back.  Just change your profile pic & delete that post it makes.  Feel uneasy about the app?  Remove the permissions in the security section.

[ProfileMaker via Gizmodo via AllFacebook via BGR]