Happy Matthew Day!

I'm sure everyone is aware of the security issues with Facebook.  Posting so much of your personal info on a mildly secure site should make everyone a bit nervous.  If not, think of it as leaving your bank card in your backyard all night, sure there's a gate to jump, and they'll need you PIN #, but there is valuable info there for the taking.

Same thing with Facebook, or really, any site that asks for more than your email address.  Don't get me started on how badly companies and advertisers want your contact info.  They pay money for it, that's the reasoning behind all these "sign up to win" promotions.  They want your # and they want it bad.

So in an effort to protect myself, I altered my birthdate on my facebook profile.  No, you wouldn't be able to walk into a bank and say "My name is Matt Pavone, my birthday is Aug 10, gimme my money please".  But financial institutions sometimes use your date of birth as a way of checking that they are dealing with the actual client.  So if someone was trying to steal my identity (and who wouldn't want it? I have my own blog!), knowing my date of birth puts them one step closer.

So to those of you who wished me a happy birthday this week, thank you, my birthday is only a couple days away, so I appreciate the early wishes.  I admit when I altered the date, I failed to realize I would get a slew of messages on my false birthday (or as my sister called it "Matthew Day").  Good thing I at least went with something close to the actual date, and not sometime in March.

On a side note, I have an identical twin brother, and after sharing 30ish birthdays with someone, it was kinda nice to have one to myself.

Happy Matthew Day!