Not so Happy Holidays

Not to harsh your mellow for the holidays, but if you have missed Facebookgate while wrapping presents or getting ready for time off, the must-read quick synopsis of the event comes from The Chronicle.

The highlights: A company called College Prowler created dozens of Class of 2013 groups on official Facebook sites associated with universities. Potential members of the incoming freshman class joined up. That's where things get dark.

Did College Prowler create the fake groups, based on fake college students at the school for access, just to promote their new "free" service?

Unlikely. Remember, anything that is free on-line eventually has a cost. Like, oh let's say, your personal data?

That's one of the reasons now surfacing for the scam. College Prowler now has all sorts of great data.

The other is that College Prowler may have been a Trojan horse to get data and help launch a new Facebook competitor.

Either way, it serves as a reminder for our student-athletes -- give up your personal data to ANY website at your own risk.