Top 10 Reasons To Value Your Privacy

“Kristen,” the high-priced prostitute involved in Eliot Spitzer’s resignation, is the latest civilian to remind us what those “private” settings on Internet profile sites are for. Once her real name got out, Ashley Alexandra Dupre (OK, it’s a stage name) became a lot more popular, as proven by a spike in MySpace page views. Luckily for Dupre, she has a music career to develop, but others weren’t so fortunate. Check out this list of people who should’ve kept the personal info to themselves.

10. A substitute teacher in New Jersey was fired for accepting friend requests from students on the MySpace page for his band, Ian of Fire. Fortunately, he had an internship at a record label to fall back on.

9. A California middle school student faced expulsion after posting graphic, anti-Semitic threats against a classmate. Meanwhile, 20 of his classmates were suspended for … looking at the page.

8. This sheriff’s deputy was let go after the department’s Youth Internet Crimes Unit found his MySpace page, which listed his favorite things as “female breasts, swimming naked and drinking heavily and often.”

7. Maybe this Texas art teacher shouldn’t have posted topless photos of herself on Flickr. Still, if I were a parent I’d be more concerned about her colleague, who told students about the site in order to get her in trouble.

6. A 27-year-old woman was denied her education degree and teaching certificate because of a Halloween photo on her MySpace page that allegedly promoted “underage drinking.” Because nothing says, “Hey kids, drinking is cool,” like a pirate drinking out of a plastic Mr. Goodbar cup.

5. The Miss Universe Organization stripped Miss Nevada USA Katie Rees of her crown after semi-nude photos taken at a nightclub were posted on a friend’s MySpace page. A year later she was arrested for assaulting a police officer. Good call, Miss Universe Organization.

4. A Wal-Mart cashier was fired for joking on his page that the country’s average IQ would increase if a bomb were dropped on the company’s stores. “I told them that this was crazy,” argued the employee. “It’s not like I have a fighter jet in my backyard to drop a bomb with.”

3. It wasn’t the heroin addiction that lost this meteorologist his job, it was a naked photo on MySpace. As the station’s general manager so astutely put it, “You don’t want to see Jamey Singleton getting out of the shower, you want to see him doing the weather.”

2. Carmen Kontur-Gronquist, former mayor of Arlington, Oregon, lost her job after posting a picture of herself in her underwear. Her defense: “That’s my space, that’s why they call it MySpace.” On the bright side, she’s now selling 500 autographed copies on eBay.

1. Bank intern misses work for a “family emergency.” Photo of bank intern dressed as Tinkerbell (taken at the Halloween party he skipped work to attend) shows up on Facebook. Bank intern’s boss sends photo to entire office.

Got your own favorite story of Internet-exposure woe? Tell us about it in the comments.

Filed Under: Lists

You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.
17 Comments to “Top 10 Reasons To Value Your Privacy”
  1. Do ya think, maybe, Americans have a bit of a hangup with everybody else's sex life? And it's always the ones yelling loudest about everyone else who turn out to be doing the weirdest stuff. Grow up and enjoy life, y'all.
  2. Is it really that Americans don't know to use privacy settings, or just that mySpace users are generally idiots? Every example you mentioned except for one used MySpace.

    I recently deleted my extremely popular mySpace account (half a million views, thousands of friends). Why? It brought fans and traffic, but with shockingly low levels of intelligence and class.

    Of course there are some very cool MySpace users, but as a whole it attracts internet newbies, and apparently people with little or no foresight.

    I don't really feel bad for any of the people in the list except the art teacher. For God sake's she had some artistic, natural toplessness on her site. In art classes I had, nudity was always considered free game for our artwork.

    America has a serious mental problem with nudity anyway, but don't get me started on THAT issue.

    *izabael
  3. It is a shame when America runs the one and only life I will ever have... /sigh
  4. What about the Oregon mayor who was impeached after she was found to have posed in a bathing suit?
  5. "Do ya think, maybe, Americans have a bit of a hangup with everybody else's sex life?"

    Riiiight, because the British tabloids totally don't cover sex scandals. Or the French with their prime minister. Or the Asian press over the Malaysian health minister's little sex video. Point being, there's nothing "American" about this.
  6. How's this: forget social networking sites. Net-"wanking" is more like it, as it's just another sign of people doing anything to scrabble for their little bit of fame.

    Take down your MySpace/Facebook/whatever site. Keep a scrapbook. You can look at that at least when the power goes off.

    Get out a meet real people. Open up. It's not a really scary place out there, the world.

    I'm of the 30-35 age group, still kind of hip and with-it. But seriously, sometimes I think that we've gone the wrong route in using this technology. Maybe I'm a curmudgeon and a bit old-fashioned, but seriously. Grow up people.
  7. This country is getting worse, and I do feel sorry for some of these people because their victims of something that's only going to grow worse as time goes on. Eventually, censorship will be the norm and most of us will be brain washed into believing that our expression is curbed for our own safety- don't want us getting too corrupt or anything.

    F--- puritanism. F--- censorship. Like I always said: Don't like it? Turn it off, look away.
  8. Ok If Ashley Alexandra Dupre is getting all this publicity and love from Hustler Magazine and even properly a music record deal. How about the other Girls that work with Ashley Alexandra Dupre, her cowokers they might have better talent than her they need love too..like I said her coworker needs love too
  9. Those last three comments were the most compelling.
  10. These are probably the most rediculous cases I've ever heard of. How can you suspend someone for looking at another person's page or accepting friends request. Sheer ignorance.
    hairsmystory.com
  11. I also cannot believe that someone turned the interns photos over to the boss. That is catty in my opinion. If you're a good employee, you won't have to stoop to such trickery and games just to get noticed. What a loser-freak.
    http://www.hairsmystory.com
  12. rocket french...

    haha nice one mate i like this post!...
  13. Everyone just needs to get over all the myspace/facebook bull.I had one when I was still in high school, but you know, you just grow up! It has changed a lot from when it first started, now you just have a bunch of posers on there.
  14. tera patrick...

    rosa parks

    rotary jokes

    roth ira

    ...
  15. chevron nigeria jobs...

    plump rumps

    plumprumps

    pmates

    ...
  16. sovereign bank...

    letter retirement sample

    lezbejke

    libraryofthumbs

    ...
  17. bighomemovies...

    infrared heat lamp

    infrared lamp

    inground swimmin pool

    ...

Leave a Comment

Search This blog
Close
E-mail It