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Internet Privacy

LEAD-IN
Do you think the Internet is a safe place? Do you use social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn? Are you afraid that private information about you may be found out by strangers?

VOCABULARY
Please fill in the gaps with the words and phrases below. vulnerable cyberspace objectionable far fetched profanity frown upon litigation

1. This idea is extremely ______________. I wonder where you came up with this idea? 2. Jane is very ______________ after her break up with her fiancee. 3. US censorship is much stricter with ______________ and sex then violence. 4. Most parents ______________ smoking by their underage children. 5. Currently there are over 1000 class-action lawsuits in ______________. 6. I don't know about you, but I found John's comments about Sarah ______________. 7. Many children waste countless hours in ______________.

READING
Now read the article marking all new vocabulary and useful expressions.

Facebook and Privacy: Fired for Beer Photos?

February 8, 2011 by Liz Dwyer Your Facebook profile is probably full of things that can get you fired. Just ask 24-year-old Ashley Payne, a former English teacher at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. Back in 2009, Payne's principal asked her to resign over a photo taken during a summer European vacation and posted on Facebook. Her story was featured on the most recent episode of the CBS news show 48 hours, "Did the Internet Kill Privacy?" and it spotlights how vulnerable we are teachers and everyone elseto our online "private" behavior being made public. In the objectionable photo, Payne has a glass of wine in one hand, and a glass of beer in the other. Her principal, David McGee, claimed that a concerned parent complained about the photo. According to the district, Payne violated warnings about "unacceptable online activities" because the photo "promoted alcohol use," and her page also "contained profanity." Payne's lawyer Richard Storrs says the school district's interpretation is ridiculous. "It would be like I went to a restaurant and I saw my daughter's teacher sitting there with her husband having The Language Studio Bartomiej Kwieciszewski 2011

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Internet Privacy

a glass of some kind of liquid. You know, is that frowned upon by the school board? Is that illegal? Is that improper? Of course not. It's the same situation in this case," he says. Payne's case isn't the first time someone's been fired over their use of social media. Plenty of litigation is pending over employees being fired for things they've posted online. But what makes Payne's story especially concerning is that she did what many of us do to protect ourselves in cyberspaceshe put her Facebook privacy on the highest level. That means what's on her page should have only been visible to her friends, which did not include students or their parents. Payne either has a frenemy or Facebook's privacy settings failed her. Given the amount of data that Facebook has on each of its 500 million users, either scenario is a little scaryand the way human resources departments react to people like Payne innocently living their personal lives is even scarier. Payne later found out that the complaint didn't come from a parent. It came from an anonymous email, meaning anybody could potentially send something about you to your boss that could get you fired. Just think, in a tough economy, an unemployed Facebook "friend" who's in the same field as you could anonymously email a photo from your trip to California wine country to your boss in the hopes that you'll be firedthus creating a job vacancy. Ex-boyfriends that you haven't yet defriended could exact their revenge by taking screen shots of every time you've typed "I don't feel like going to work" as your Facebook status. Those may sound like far fetched scenarios, but ask Payne about privacy onlineshe's spent the past two years in a legal battle to get her job back and clear her name. Reprinted from GOOD http://www.good.is for educational purposes in accordance with DMCA policy.

QUESTIONS
True or False 1. (T/F) Ashley Payne was featured on TV. 2. (T/F) Ashley Payne got fired for drinking alcohol. 3. (T/F) She's fighting the school in court to get reinstated. 4. (T/F) She was careful about privacy settings on Facebook. 5. (T/F) It is likely that she was reported to her boss by one of her Facebook friends. 6. (T/F) She found out who reported her. 7. (T/F) The author says that your competitors can use Facebook to get you fired. 8. (T/F) She has won the lawsuit.

The Language Studio Bartomiej Kwieciszewski 2011

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Internet Privacy

CASE STUDY
Read the short excerpt from a wall post on Facebook and discuss this situation with your fellow students.

ADDITIONAL
For more stupid ways to get fired by posting on Facebook check out the link below. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/26/fired-over-facebook-posts_n_659170.html

The Language Studio Bartomiej Kwieciszewski 2011