In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about automatic geo-tagging of photos, how would-be yogurt thieves outed themselves on Facebook, and whether there should be a law protecting children from being tracked online.

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Avoiding False Friend Request Scams

A leading security researcher is warning Facebook users to not do something that should be rather obvious: accept a friend request from someone you don’t know. Scammers and spammers are using fake Facebook profiles to become friends with real Facebook users. Once the fake profile has been accepted, the phony Facebook member scrapes the real contact info and personal data from the unsuspecting user and uses it for spam or marketing purposes.

Yogurt Store Thieves Out Themselves on Facebook

This interesting local story details how a yogurt store owner was able to catch one of his former employees and several other individuals breaking into his store because of a Facebook update. After discovering Facebook messages talking about “yogurt heists” and finding his store in disarray, owner Konrad Thiel decided to stake out his store one night. Sure enough, he saw several individuals break in, at which point he called the police. The multiple 20-something yogurt thieves were booked on felony burglary charges.

British Teacher Investigated Over “Semi-Naked” Photos

Kirsty Cook-Bell, a 33-year-old teacher working for the Christian-sponsored Grace Academy, has been put on leave since school administrators began an investigation into revealing photos of her on Facebook. The images, which showed the teacher wearing a bikini on vacation, were accompanied by messages about how she disliked her job and liked to go out partying. Cases like this are becoming a dime a dozen, particularly for teachers and other school officials.

GPS Tagging in Photos Raises Questions About Privacy

Many modern cameras and smart phones have GPS functionality that “tags” a picture with the precise global location of where it was taken. Some privacy advocates are wondering whether users fully understand the scope of this technology and how to prevent an Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF) from showing up in an image. Several popular photo-sharing websites keep EXIF information in images, and even those that don’t still allow access if someone runs the photo through basic photo editing technology.

Common Sense Media CEO Jim Steyer: Do Not Track Kids Online

In a column for the Huffington Post, Common Sense Media CEO Jim Steyer argues that, in addition to receiving education about safe Internet use from their school and their parents, kids should be protected from online tracking by government regulations. Steyer’s argument is solid; we haven’t had major Internet regulation related to kids since 1998. “The last time we enacted online protections for children was in 1998 when Congress passed the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. That literally feels like centuries ago. There was no YouTube. No Facebook or MySpace or Twitter. No geolocation applications that let kids announce to their friends (and marketers) where they are.” As the technology has evolved, so has the threat to children’s privacy, safety, and reputations online.