Warning! You are under threat! Safeguard your privacy!

This is a warning to ALL web-users:-

Certain websites may have contacted you recently and asked you for highly confidential information. They may have asked for your date of birth, place of birth, pictures of yourself, the school and university you attended, your address details, telephone and / or cell no, place of work, your mother's maiden name, information about friends, places you hang out, when and where you're holidaying this summer, your favorite pastimes, your uncle's middle name, the name of the hamster you loved (when you were fifteen), your dating habits, smoking and drinking habits, sexual preferences, sartorial preferences, favorite books, films and television programmes, who you voted for, when you stopped beating your wife and why you stopped beating her, your religious affiliations, spiritual affiliations, whether you are or have ever been a member of the communist party or any other subversive organisation, what you think about freedom of information and who should "own" it, whether you think the Internet is a force for good, or just real bad. And finally... who the fuck do you think you are, you utter nobody?

These sites are called social networking sites and their sole purpose is to extract information from ordinary people through a process known as "Connecting". This kind of  superficial jargon enables social networking sites to fool you into thinking you can renew old friendships - or even generate new ones. The reality is, the data you're providing is a goldmine for these sites. Once in possession of your data, they'll distribute it to marketing companies and through social profiling those companies will use it to flog you their cruddy products.

You must NOT, we repeat, NOT, under any circumstances provide private data to such organisations. Respectable people will not ask you via email or any other means for this kind of information. Please treat any requests like these with extreme caution. It is worth noting: People wanting to know really personal information are called "friends". These "friends" should never (we trust) distribute that data to others (especially not marketing companies). Any individual, individuals or corporations seeking to profit from this kind of information through its re-distribution to others are NOT your friends. They are called "users". If you are contacted by such people, please contact our security department giving details of the following: your full name, your date of birth, place of birth, your school and the university you attended, your home address, your telephone and / or cell no, your place of work, your mother's maiden name...