I’ve just escaped from INSEAD with an MBA — more about that here.

Early on, my classmates latched onto Facebook as a convenient way of sharing personal info and photos, and generally keeping in touch — especially given the lack of coherent web-based collaboration infrastructure.

So someone created a “closed” Facebook account, and everyone promptly began sending invitations for inane FB applications all over the place.  Nonetheless, if you ignore the garbage, it’s not a completely terrible platform for maintaining contact and coordinating events.

A number of us began receiving “friend” requests from obviously fake users.  I called one of them on it:

No, I don't, and you misspelled your own name.

My girlfriend confirmed that this particular “person” does not work for BCG (others claimed to be at McKinsey — given the large number of people from our class, it’s a good way to remove peoples’ suspicions.)  Others weren’t so cautious about letting people into what is supposed to be a “private” group:

I honestly don’t care so much about my embarrassing photos on that page (the worst involves a toga, a cigarette, and substantial quantity of booze), given that I probably wouldn’t want to work for a company that spies on applicants, but others might.

The weakest link, indeed.