A fool and their phone are soon parted...

When I first joined Facebook I'd sometimes see people join groups with strange names such as: "I lost my digits!" or "Michael's phone got stolen... I need your numbers" or "Digits for Helen please" or "Like a drunken fool, I lost my phone."

I clicked on a few of these groups to see what they were about and invariably they would be about how someone had just been parted with their mobile/cell phone and needed to input everyone's numbers again. The groups would almost always be open and public.

On the surface you'd expect this to be a brilliant way to recruit your friends' numbers. But... all these groups can be seen by anyone! I have no idea who Rell is, but I know his friends and their numbers. Do a search for "lost phone" on Facebook and you'll see groups like: "Hey there I lost all yal numbers" - am loving the reply that says, "u never had mine but its 972-xxx-xxxx."

In the last year or so, I haven't see these groups pop up any more. I figured people had got the message. But today another friend joined a "lost phone" group.

Check it out for yourself. A few enterprising application developers have also conjured up third-party apps to make it "easy" for people to recruit numbers from friends, but I have two quick, ingenious and private ways for you to get those numbers back!

1. Back them up NOW... write them in a book, back up your sim... whatever.
2. If you and your phone get separated, maybe email your friends and get them to email your numbers to you.

Relax! :) Sounds obvious doesn't it. Not for the countless people who've joined someone's "lost phone" group and broadcast their number for you, me, and anyone else who cares to look.

Christmas party season means photo albums galore!

Well, the Christmas party season has begun, and the images have started to pour into the Facebook photo album coffers. People, check them out! Not only for the brilliant gossip material, but for evidence of you looking a little worse for wear. No, that's not a Rorschach Blot - it is probably your bum from the office photocopier.

Had coffee today with a former work colleague. "Went to the office Christmas party," she told me. "You've probably seen the pictures that so-and-so put up?" Apparently, there were a few messy ones.

"No, she's not my Facebook friend."

Well, I didn't have to wait long to see her photos, as she'd tagged a mutual friend and her album was accessible by Friends of Friends!