If you've defaulted on your home loans and you don't want to be served with a legal summons to own up to the situation, the internet is making it harder to lay low. A lawyer in Australia was unable to find a couple who were doing just that, and he came up with a novel way to address the problem: he served them the legal documents in a private message on social networking website Facebook. Facebook is used by 140 million people worldwide, each of whom has a profile with personal information like his or her name and a list of associations. After failing to reach the couple at home, at work, or via e-mail, the lawyer found their Facebook profiles and convinced the court that the site would be a legally admissable way to issue a summons.

Hopefully you're not missing your loan payments, but if you have a Facebook profile and you're concerned about privacy, you can change Facebook's settings for who can see your information or send you messages. Just look in the top-right corner of the website and you'll see the word "Settings" between your name and the search bar. If you move your mouse over that and select the "Privacy Settings" option that drops down (as pictured to the right), you'll find all the tools you need to protect your privacy, or just generally make yourself a digital hermit!

This story around the web: