Although having a Facebook account makes it easier to find and make friends, unbeknownst to many, the social networking website is also being used as a crime watch tool to target people of interest. 

Amid the various clutter of tagged photos, shared links and random status updates, an increasing number of photos of missing pets, people and items photos are appearing on Facebook walls. Recently, Music Go Round in San Jose has been circulating a picture of a man who allegedly stole a guitar from the store, requesting anyone who recognizes the guy to come forward with his information. 

Similarly, many Facebook users and groups have taken advantage of Facebook’s popularity to post have-you-seen-me photos. Five years ago, police in Hamilton, Ontario used Facebook to successfully track down a burglar in a failed robbery after he took off his mask and looked into a security camera.

Since then, many other law enforcement agencies and missing persons groups, such as the Black and Missing Foundation Inc., have begun to use Facebook and Twitter to spread photos of suspects and missing people with some success. 

Unfortunately, a darker side also exists to Facebook. The Bahraini government used Facebook to target opposition protesters during the uprising that begun in February 2011 through photos and tags of protesters who did not bother to change their privacy settings.

To make matters more complicated, if a friend posts an incriminating picture of you and allows anyone to see it, even if you have your privacy settings turned on, that photo can still be seen by people who could use that against you. Because many groups are catching on to Facebook’s potential to find information about people, Facebook users should be more careful about what they post and consider who may see it. 

In fact, many Facebook users have never looked at their Facebook settings and have the minimal security default. While this makes it easier for friends and family to find you, it also makes it easier for people you might not like to find your personal information or see your photos. 

In case you have never read Facebook’s user agreement, the policy states: “You grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook. This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.” 

Facebook is basically saying that it is not responsible for the information others find and see on your account and cannot be held liable in any way. Everything that users post ceases to belong to them as soon as it uploads.

That being said, it is up to users to control who can access their personal information and what information they post online.