GreenBkk.com Tech | Want to keep it private? Don't tweet it

Want to keep it private? Don't tweet it

By Sarah Evans, Special to CNN

June 7, 2011 5:01 p.m. EDT

Editor's note: Sarah Evans is the owner of Sevans Strategy, a public relations and new media consultancy. She runs her own blog at PRsarahevans.com and shares a daily resource for PR professionals called Commentz. She is also the founder of the first live Twitter industry chat, #journchat.

(CNN) -- Since I eat, breathe and sleep social media, when I hear someone's online account has been hacked, tampered with or altered in any way I can't help but feel bad. When Rep. Anthony Weiner announced last week not only that his Twitter account was hacked, but also that someone had apparently gained access to his personal photos along with access to a Twitter photo application, it made me sick to my stomach.

Then, the wheels in my head started to turn. Was this a prank? Was a competitor or political foe waging war? Was Weiner the victim of a new hack or virus I'd yet to learn about? I went into action mode. I connected with peers and clients to educate them on social network protection tactics, including password best practices.

I began to update client crisis communication plans to include a section on "online hacks resulting in sensitive information being shared." This seemed like a learning opportunity. And if Rep. Weiner, for his part, handled it correctly, he could emerge unharmed.

Perhaps it was naive, but I didn't consider the alternatives: that he had used and taken advantage of a real-life issue that many, from media outlets to, yes, other politicians, deal with on a daily basis -- the dreaded hack; that he would risk his career and credibility by sharing private information on a public platform. That he lied.

Millions of us use social networks to communicate with friends, share news, build business, etc. We rely on free, third-party networks to help us reach a community or an audience. There's a give and take. We don't pay for the access to these sites, and in return we give up or accommodate certain things, like allowing a third party access to personal information. That's why the hack didn't seem like such a farfetched story.

And then, the big reveal: He did, in fact, lie. Apparently the only thing he was a victim of was good old-fashioned human error. Or, as a previous IT team member liked to call these incidents, 1D10T errors (for those less tech savvy, it spells out idiot). He accidentally posted a very private photo, meant for a direct message, to his public Twitter feed.

He acknowledges that he then deleted the tweet. He didn't tweet about the mistake, just deleted the tweet and, I presume, hoped no one would notice. Only it doesn't matter. The mistake had been made in a social network where, at the time, 47,000+ people followed his account.

This is where I insert my social network public service announcement:

Credit: CNN (www.cnn.com)