No, fortunately, I didn’t lose my phone. Or drop it in a puddle of beer, or worse, in the urinal while trying to send a text message. Or drunkle it away (Brian’s invention, my definition). No, it’s in fine standing on the kitchen table.
But I did get a Facebook invite today for a phone dropped in the toilet. And a friend lost her phone to the otherwise exhilarating David Guetta concert earlier this week. And one of Zach’s friends destroyed his phone’s screen in a bout of debauchery last night.
The whole Facebook event thing worries me. Not that Facebook doesn’t already have access to an obscene amount of personal and private information, but that folks regularly create events asking their friends for their phone numbers. I’ve never fully understood the true harm in letting a stranger know my phone number, but I inherently feel like it’s not necessarily something I’d like to give away for free – or at least, allowing access to people who aren’t looking for me specifically.
Case in point: I just typed “phone” into the Facebook search, and filtered to Events. To no surprise there’s over 500 pages of “I lost my phone and need your number” or whatever cutesy spin on that that folks like to use. And just like that, I’ve got ten to a hundred phone numbers per page, with a first and last name attached, a decent guess on location based on area code, a decent guess on demographics based on profile picture, and best of all, a few of their friends’ names and corresponding information. Cakewalk for telemarketers: “Hi Chris, your friend Robert Johnson recommended I give you a call and that you’d be interested in….”
And I can only imagine how much of a huge, huge underestimate 500 pages is.
My phone number is available on my Facebook profile page, which is public. And on the Press Releases and Media Kits that Eleven Magazine distributes widely. I hope that if someone is looking to speak to me personally, they’ll be able to do so. But I’m quite skeptical about leaving my number out for vague general consumption in the cloud, like so many other users are doing.
Obvious solution for you: If you’re invited by a friend to one of these “events,” just take out your phone and call them! That’s the point anyway, isn’t it?