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Can Your Tweets Be Used Against You? Google Indexing of the "Random Stream of Babbel"

Apple It made headlines on national news and was the focus of considerable debate on "Hot Topics" for the View television program today. The story of former school teacher Nicole Howell's acquittal after being falsely accused of having sexual relationships with a sixteen year old student. Although, this was not the first time that the nation's attention has been riveted by a story like this, what was unique about this situation was the role of electronic media.

Apparently, the young man had been sending sexually explicit messages to his teacher and there had been an exchange of hundreds of text messages between them according to news reports. The student said that he had been seduced and given vodka. The text messages were deleted by the phone company and never seen, BUT...a teacher lost her job & reputation in large part due to her lack of discretion about the use of electronic media. Instructive...and extraordinary.

Many of us today fail to truly comprehend the extent to which electronic media and social media is set to change our lives. Recently, Google announced that it had reached an agreement with Twitter and would be indexing Twitter comments in Google Search results. Did you know this?

Twitter postings aka 'tweets' are now a part of permanent public record. They can be used as evidence and once something is online, the shelf life for practical purposes can be assumed to be...forever. This has implications for real estate agents and the brokers who manage them. It could be argued that what Ms. Howell did was likely mostly conducted outside of normal working hours. But, that didn't matter.

Today, many real estate professionals have accounts on various social media portals where they mix personal and professional postings together. As the topic was discussed on the View, one of the co-hosts noted that there should have been a public forum in which conversations between students and teachers could take place and be MONITORED. I can see the benefit in this for protecting students AND teachers.

I wonder if there would have been such a rush to pre-judge if Ms. Howell was not a professional? Is there a higher standard expected when there is a perception of expertise? In the future, is there a possibility that our comment stream, blogs and postings may be viewed in an entirely different light? What do you think?

Image courtesy of Sister72 on Flickr by Creative Commons license

Lola Audu, CRS, GRI e-Pro ~ Audu Real Estate

Lola Audu, is the Designated Broker & Owner of Audu Real Estate. Our company specializes in helping people buy and sell homes in the greater Grand Rapids, West Michigan area. We've had the privilege of helping hundreds of clients succeed in their goals of purchasing and selling property including demonstrated success in the negotiation of Short Sale Transactions. You can contact us via e-mail @ info@auduhomes.com or by phone at 616-791-0511.

Posted by Lola Audu~Real Estate Broker/Owner Grand Rapids, Michigan Real Estate on 10/22/2009 06:03 PM

Comments (53)

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53 Comments on Can Your Tweets Be Used Against You? Google Indexing of the "Random Stream of Babbel"

OCT

Lola:

This is not the first time someone has gotten in big troulbe, so to speak, from their on-line activities. And even if Tweets were not indexed you do not know who is reading them second hand, e.g., and employee of a company that is following you, a friend, etc.

This continues to be an important message for people to realize about their on-line activity. And it your Facebook comments are posted on Twitter, guess what? Is Facebook next?

Jeff

Hi Jeff, Great points. The significance of the indexing is that now Tweets will be Searchable and it will be much easier to piece together a comprehensive profile of every little thing anyone has said online. And you're spot on to bring attention to the issue of syndication which magnifies the effect.

Lola, Didn't the Fed Government just buy all rights to Twitter? Big Brother is watching!

Lola

Very frightening; Indexing by Google is going to make it that more important to not publish anything we would not publish in a local newspaper.

Lola,

I guess if you don't do anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. For those who do, discretion now extends to anything you type on a computer or phone.

Rich

Lola - Great points here. Interestingly, Bing stole the lead on the Twitter search thing, although Google will be close behind: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9651717e-bea2-11de-b4ab-00144feab49a.html

I forgot to mention that I sometimes get Google alerts from tweets I've written, so I know they are being indexed!

Lola- I am wondering after you delete a post or a website and when you go there you get the, this page can not be displayed, error or the 404 error or whatever, is there some way that the page can still be found?

Twitter and Google coming together for searches will further open the proper and positive uses of Twitter, and those on the up and up as Rich suggests won't have to worry; However, Google is building an information infrastructure that will keep us all under "Big Brother".

I talked about this, Lola at the MAR conference a few weeks ago. If you haven't done so, get the recordings from the MAR of the workshops. A few of them were quite good!

Hi Linda, LOL...I'm not aware of the federal government buying the rights to Twitter, but now that we the people own large segments of Wall Street and the car companies, I guess anything is possible. :)

I'm glad big brother is watching internet activity. Look at all pedophiles that are online preying on kids and kiddie porn. Children have to be protected and it's also a great way to catch murderers and the like. Us good people do not have to worry. The criminals do.

Ok, now, I want that candy apple Lola! :)

Tom, what is more disconcerting may be how far back this goes...most people thought they were joining private databases when they joined sites like Twitter and Facebook only to have them become public forums later on.

Rich...Yes! Prudence has always been advisable when it comes to online activity, we're just becoming more aware of how public the online world really is.

Jason...very interesting! I've not gotten an alert yet on Twitter but I have found Tweets that were indexed although it appeared to be random.

Katerina...good question. I'm not sure.

William, Sorry I missed your presentation! MAR had an incredible line up of speakers this year.

Jackie...we do need over-sight particularly in the area of minors, but this situation does bring to attention the law of 'unintended consequences.'

Lola good to see you. i might be boring on social media networks but this is because I keep in mind that what every thinh you say and do will be retained forever. As professionals we will be expected to maintain a higher standard.

This is a message that we should pass on the the teenagers because potential employers will also be watching.

Tom Braatz - Isn't that the whole point? You shouldn't print anything that you don't want to read about in the newspapers. Personally, I have never "tweeted." But, I have a Twitter account and have all my ActiveRain blog posts automatically posted there.

I do it for no other reason than to increase exposure - I have a small "Tweeter" following. These "Tweeters" probably wouldn't find me otherwise, but they like what they see from me on Twitter, and follow me. And all I did was click a little box back in my ActiveRain account that authorizes my blog posts to be posted on Twitter.

I look at this "marriage" between Google and Twitter as a positive. Basically, all my blog posts have a link on each "Tweeter" account that follows my tweets. When they click on the link to my blog post on their account, and it brings them back to my blog post on ActiveRain. Google sees that there are x number of different sites linking my blog posts. Google gives my blog posts even more juice over and above the Google juice ActiveRain gives us. Google thinks my blog posts are that much more important because of all the links, and ranks my blog posts higher in the Google index.

We can't emphasize enough the need to edit ourselves online. Everything we post is subject to being reviewed and used either for or against us. Managing brokers really need to emphasize discretion online to their agents. It's only a matter of time before E&O insurers start charging a premium for those agents that have blogs.

Lola, I am slightly conflicted. Up to this moment and into the immediate future I could care less about being watched on the Internet or even my phone conversations monitored. Nothing I say or do is subversive or weird. Will maybe a little weird but not perverted.

But what happens if, in future, our government takes an appaling turn?

Jennifer, the issue of the standards for professionals is an interesting one. I do think that professionals are held to a higher standard and our opinions about our areas of expertise do carry more weight. Good to see you too. :)

Lewis, there are a lot of NET positives. However, not everyone joined Twitter with the idea that they were going to be in communication with the rest of the world. Some folks just wanted to communicate with their 'friends.' The game rules seem to have changed mid-stream.

Millie...YOU GOT THAT RIGHT! Thanks for making the point about E&O...Brokers cannot really afford to be illiterate about what their agents are doing online.

Bill...certainly gives one food for thought doesn't it...

Hi Lola. This reminds me of how something can be too much of a good thing. Sometimes I'm glad that I practice self-censorship. ~ Lana

Lana, I think that technology itself is a neutral, but the use of it can be good or bad. There are many different issues which are emerging because of technology and unfortunately, our laws and systems are playing catch up.

Great posts on tweets. Funny, I was just thinking about the legality of me tweeting interest rates today...it's kind of grey...

Anyway, great post from one of my favorite (and Karen's) ActiveRainers! Not to mention fellow Michigander...

great post aloha

I have always taken the approach to social media and the Internet as never post anything you would be embarrassed for your mother or grandmother to read. Some folks think that they can say anything and have no consequences for their words.

That being said, I have a problem with the government monitoring of everyones' speech. It wouldn't take much these days to get "crime speech" and "crime thought" into law. Anyone remember reading 1984?

Never surprising to read something like this. Everyone is under a microscope. So if you don't want your dirty laundry aired then keep it off the Internet right? Blessings for a great weekend. Great post info!

I think posting on any internet forum is like living in a glass house and being completely nude! Be careful out there... you are on candid camera!

The only difference is that now the microscope focuses a little better. A stupid comment to a friend or co-worker has always had the ability to come back up at the wrong time... I guess it is a little easier now...

I agree with Richard. If you not doing anything wrong no worries. More important to pass this on to the young ones who don't quite get it!

As soon as I heard this, I started making sure my tweets had many of my keywords in them for higher ranking. I'm not tweeting "stupid" stuff, so it can only help.

I teach blogging classes in my market center and stress that online ramblings should be written as if your spouse, your broker and your attorney were present.

I noticed this in my Google alerts - my alert for my name popped up with a random Tweet form yesterday, altough I don't get an alert everytime I tweet thank goodness!

Regarding Katerina's comment. I've seen something called the wayback machine that takes a look at how websites used to be so something must store them somewhere. I'm thinking this may be true of posts that are deleted.

In today's world anything you type into an electronic device may come back to visit so have some discretion.

OCT

I LOVE IT! The transparency that the internet gives us. Its like shining a giant 100 watt lightbulb in the dark corner and the cockroaches come scurrying out.

can things be taken out of context? sure. but the fact that liars can be caught in the middle of the lie is cool to me.

YOu know what I think about? I do alot of coaching and training video's. I know my nieces will probably watch them now. I know my kids will probably watch them. Probably their kids and their kids and their kids.

As Gary Vaynerchuk says, "Our legacy is greater than currency".

We have officially entered the era of "irrelevant invormation overload".

If you say something a hyper sensitive person does not like at a party, even if it was taken out of context they carry it with them for the rest of their life. In a country that is divided 50/50 socially, politically and morally, anything you say can be used against you. When more and more buyers are internet savy, you have to assume they look you up.

Golden rule on the internet; "Don't say to others want you would not want said to you"

Google catches things so quickly, by the time a Tweeter thinks about what they just tweeted it would be too late to de-tweet.

Same as with AR, outside blogs, Facebook...

I'm still in awe sometimes of how quickly information is "out there". And out there for a long long LONG time.

The internet should always be where we put our best face forward.

Katerina, Sometimes when I get that error message, I click on the linked to the cached copy and get the page that way...

Great article.

Lola, well everyone sure is talking about this...at least the big blogging groups. I think the most important thing to remember is use wisdom. It is a big world out there. At first I thought like Donna, gotta make sure I tweet with key words....now I think I'll just go back to using wisdom.

I think Vickie's point #30 is key here. Everyone needs to be keenly aware of what they type into the Internet. Words are powerful and they are going to stay there for a long while and potentially be seen by many people.

Thank You for really making me think. Everything I do or say online can have an impact on my future.

Lola - Ironically, I got a Google Alert for my name from this post. And how. Very interesting.

reminds me of a joke I heard.

Someone told me that myspace, facebook, and twitter are in the works to all merge together into one huge social network. They are going to call it MY-twitt-face.

Hi Michael, thanks for stopping by to connect w/ a comment. That's an interesting thought from a lending perspective...There's a lot to consider particularly when you think about everything that needs to be contained in an advertised rate quote.

Jeffery...Thank you.

Roger, 1984 might be pertinent, however I read a book entitled "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman which was even more relevant. Todd Waller on Active Rain recommended it...the more I understand about how media impacts our lives, I tend to agree with Postman.

Lisa...Yep!

Joan...LOL, that's quite a picture you paint with your words. :)

Lane...yes, and all that stuff you've forgotten about now is potentially on record for a long time.

Monique...unfortunately, it's not just the young ones who don't get it...a lot of older folks don't too.

Vickie...great counsel "I teach blogging classes in my market center and stress that online ramblings should be written as if your spouse, your broker and your attorney were present."

Courtney, that's interesting. It will be interesting to see how this eventually pans out. It could really change the nature of certain types of searches.

Terry...very true. We all need to keep that truth front and center.

Darrin...very interesting perspective. Thank you for adding your voice to this discussion. It puts the idea of legacy in a whole new light. Very good!

Lenn...aka random babbling now preserved ad naseum forever. :)

Dan, that's true. And your point about how divided we are is a good point. Many professionals tend to post their personal preferences about controversial issues. The shelf life on these comments is very long.

Barb, that is a good rule.

Kris, it is amazing. There have been times I've made a mistake and tried to undo a tweet and been surprised by how quickly it's indexed. If you syndicate, that material has gone to all sorts of different outlets with just one click!

Judi...thanks for helping out w/ Katerina's question.

Missy, this is a significant shift & as anything along these lines has pros and cons as well as perhaps unintended consequences. The rush to move forward so quickly tends to produce that.

Claudette, we've always known that words are powerful, but now we know that they may NEVER go away.

Thanks for the comment Frank

Very interesting Jason...wonder if my comments are being indexed to. They have been on other blogs

Brian...LOL, that's quite funny. :)

Lola - The privacy issues are scary, but then again, one is posting in public. It is not like a private email (and I question how private those emails are when hosted by sites internally like Facebook and Activerain)....

Hi Lola ....Powerful Post and worth being cautious when Blogging, my AR Posts go to Twitter which in turn goes to Facebook, then linked in and who knowswhere else..I try and Keep things light and about me, real estate, and my area..but who knows.

It's a Changing World..Lola You enjoy this Post I did with the Video on stats on Social Media

OCT

Eventually Lola, even the hidden THOUGHTS will be revealed... eventually.... nothing will stay sacred, so whoever and whatever we are will speak... tweet or no tweet. Our BEST defense is to be true, real to ourselves and others.

OCT

Hi Lola,

Thanks for the tip. I use twitter/social media as well, and always keep in mind that my information is out there for all to see.

NOV

Lola - I hadn't considered the flip side of Google indexing twitter, that your streams will be visible for ever. Great post!

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