The recent Business week column, O.K. (Sigh), I'll Join Facebook, hit the nail right on the head for me: having overcome many of my privacy concerns (I guess some would call these hangups) about being on Facebook (with picture and all), I was still a bit uneasy. Why? The column's tag line - "But its mashup of friends and business is a bit unnerving" - is the real issue: unlike Linkedin, which is clear about a professional bent (you'd be very aware of what you put there if you're looking for a job, which I assume many are), Facebook blurs people from different parts of your life. Is this just another hangup I need to get over?

But I have another concern as well. My Facebook profile is tied to my UCLA email account. California Public Records Act requests, subpoenas, litigation and therefore e-discovery are all significantly on the rise. Do I really want to be increasingly mix my personal content with work content in this environment, in spite of the strong incidental personal use provisions embedded in the UC Electronic Communications Policy? I could use a different email account, but then I couldn't be part of the UCLA network on Facebook. [Update: Actually, that’s not true. You only have to use an email account once to prove your membership in a group, and then you can change to another one.]

Tags: Facebook