Freddi Staur?

In a story that's getting a lot of coverage today, Sophos released the results of a study that purports to show how Facebook users carelessly expose themselves to identity theft by being too eager to share personal information with total strangers.  While I am saddened that so many people (41% of 87 responses) have so few friends that they will accept a friend request from a frog named Freddi Staur (sort of an anagram for Fraudster), the "personal information" they were sharing turns out to be things like addresses and phone numbers.  Last time I looked, I could get this information more quickly by looking in that thick, white book that my local phone company leaves on my doorstep every spring.  If we want to deal with identity theft, the place to start is with institutions such as banks and phone companies that accept as proof of identity information that is widely disseminated.  Even the favorite Social Security Number is not so good - it's not a secret if every company you do business with has a copy.  (Look at your Social Security Card.  If you got one before 1972 it says right on the front "Not to be used for identification.")

Sophos does have some good tips on how to configure Facebook's privacy settings.