Tonight ` How are you? the sting. This crazy story about how she's working late, on a reality show about a mind reader. The targets. We've got one. We've got one. Yes! The mind reader? Welcome to Mindful. I'm Aaron Beard. The big reveal,... STATIC CRACKLES ...and the lessons learnt. I knew I was getting Punk'd! Copyright Able 2015 Welcome to Fair Go, and welcome to the world of oversharing ` that's oversharing our lives on social media. We share so much online these days, but do we care enough about what we share? So something very different tonight ` we've devoted the entire show to a social media experiment with some troubling results. Using publicly available information, we went inside the lives of three perfect strangers. You can be your own worst enemy when it comes to protecting your personal information. Here's Garth. Half the country has some sort of presence on social media. That's a lot of friends of friends to be sharing your private life with. We wanted to see how hard it would be to go inside the private lives of perfect strangers. And if we could, what could we discover? So here's what we did. We set up hidden cameras in a pub across the road from TVNZ. Then we asked three people who are in on the experiment to invite a friend for a quiet drink after work. Their friend has no idea they're about to participate in our social experiment. CLINK! First, we needed to secretly put a microphone on our insider, so we could hear them talking. Oh, you mean on the actual shirt? Oh, you mean on the actual shirt? It might be easier just to do it like that. Beautiful. Good luck. It could all go horribly wrong. Seriously, there's nothing like` Seriously, there's nothing like` Petty little stuff, eh? How's the rose? How's the rose? Really yum. So right now, a Fair Go producer is about to approach them with this crazy story about how she's working late on a reality show about a mind reader. How are you? Nice to see you. All the guests she's lined up have failed to show. That's her story. She's on the lookout for talent. None of my people have shown up. I've got the director screaming at me. Her real job, though, is to get them into our studio. Yeah, I'll do it. Yeah, I'll do it. I'll do it. Yeah, I'll do it. I'll do it. Really? I'll do it. I'll do it. Would you? Honestly? Bingo. What have you got? We've got one. We've got one. Yes! His name is Sam. 'For privacy reasons, we'll keep things on a first-name basis.' Yeah, I think I got him. We've got another one. We've got another one. (LAUGHS) Kelly. Kelly. Kelly` How do you spell her last name? H-A-Y... I think I've got her. OK, I've got some photos. Perfect! I'll be over in 10. Sweet. I'm getting quite excited now. Now I'm no computer expert, but with just a name to go on, I wanted to see how much information I could find out about these complete strangers from their publicly available social profiles. Right beside me in Studio Three, our actor, Aaron Beard, is getting ready to pretend he's a mind reader on our fake reality show called Mindful. All right, clear your mind. Think of your partner. Think of your significant other. Welcome to Mindful. I'm Aaron Beard. As our targets make their way to TVNZ, we fit him out with an earpiece, and I'm going to feed him the information I've found on all three of our strangers live during the experiment. It's all a bit nerve-wracking, really. Remember, these guys have no idea what we're up to. OK, so everything's in place. Here we go. Series, take one. (CLACKS) First up, Kelly. Kelly. Kelly. Yes. Welcome to Mindful. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Aaron Beard I'll be your reader. What I'm gonna need you to do is to relax, just close your eyes. I want you to bring all of your life's memories` bring them all to the front of your mind. OK, thank you, Kelly. You can open your eyes. Remember, I'm outside feeding information to our actor straight from Kelly's social media profiles. You're middle name's simple. Think of your middle name. Think of it very hard. Kelly, Lee. Lee. Lee? Yes! Oh, that was tricky. No kids, I reckon, but you're good with them. Kids? You have kids` around kids? Lots of kids. Uh-huh. You like kids. You like kids. Uh-huh. You like kids. Uh-huh. Would you like to have many kids? Yes. But you're around lots of kids. But you're around lots of kids. Uh-huh. But you're around lots of kids. Uh-huh. Which would make you a... Early childhood or` no, you're a teacher. Early childhood, very young kids. Early childhood, very young kids. Uh-huh. Primary... So you're a primary school teacher. Yep. This is a big year... This is a big year for you. So, you've just become a primary school teacher. Yup. But you've been on TV before, haven't you? Been on TV before? A few times? A few times? A few times, so you've been in front of the camera? From your childhood? Uh, yeah. Uh, yeah. From childhood? Uh, yeah. From childhood? Yeah. I had to google myself to find that out. (LAUGHS) She hasn't twigged that's all we did as well. She even put some medical information on her blog, which makes our mind reader all the more convincing. Breathing something. You haven't had a lung operation or anything? Yes! Not a lung operation, but I was in hospital. Pneumonia? Lungs? Pneumonia? Lungs? Yep. It's in your voice. It's in your voice. Yep. In a short time, we've managed to find out which school she works at, her medical history, her full name, information about her childhood, all from looking at her open social media accounts. No fancy TV tricks here; this is stuff anyone could find with very little computer experience. So, we've convinced Kelly our actor, Aaron Beard, is a mind reader. Can he make it three out of three with Nitika and Sam? Oh! That was really weird. Yes. That is a little bit scary, isn't it? That is a little bit scary, isn't it? Yeah, and there's two more to come. What sort of information will Sam and Nitika give up? What sort of information will Sam and Nitika give up? Because that's what this is about. How much of our lives have they exposed online to perfect strangers like us? See what happens when they find out. Should they care, and should you? Hello, Nitika. I want you to close your eyes. Relax and trust the process. Taurus? Aries? Aries? And later ` our big reveal. I'm not freaked out at all. There's, like, a thousand people in the room. Welcome back. How much of your life can be seen online? What valuable and very personal information are you giving away for nothing? Here's what happened next in our social media experiment. We've set up hidden cameras, and we're on the lookout for three unsuspecting people to take part in a social experiment. Kelly, Sam and Nitika, all strangers, agreed to help us. They think they're going to be part of a new TV series about a mind reader. Kelly's already fallen for his charms; will Nitika and Sam? OK, Sam, my name is Aaron Beard and I'm going to read you. What I need you to do is close your eyes and relax. Trust the process. Remember, I'm outside on my laptop feeding information to our actor from Sam's social media profile. But is there enough information to convince Sam that Aaron is a mind reader? Seven years on the 17th of February... You're in a relationship. It's been a long relationship. I want to say seven years. About seven years? Yep, you got it right. You can remember, that's good. Now I want you to think about your partners name. Don't mouth it. Think of your partners name. For privacy reasons we've chosen not to name them, but Aaron did. Oh, that was really weird. Yes! You've grown up in Auckland? You've grown up in Auckland? Yes. Out east somewhere. I'm gonna say... east Auckland? I'm gonna say... east Auckland? (LAUGHS) Yes! Howick. Sam's really impressed at this point. He's actually challenging our actor, Aaron, to guess where he was born. Where was I born? Middle Eastern. Dubai. Abu Dhabi, maybe. I don't know. Dubai? It's Dubai? It's Dubai? Yep. It's Dubai? Yep. Lucky. Lucky, right? We had some online help. Rana is his sister. You have a sister named Rana. Uh-oh. That was a bit forward. This could be our undoing. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Why did you think of your sister just then? She's always on my mind. Nice comeback, Aaron. OK, Sam, you have travelled recently. I want you to think about that. Travelled...? Fiji. Not so far, to the islands. Fiji would be most likely, coming from Howick. Yep. Yep. He went a bit further, though. Maybe the States? Best place you've travelled ` think of it right now. Best place you've travelled ` think of it right now. Yep. Big, somewhere big. America. Uh-hm. It's quite front of your mind. It's almost all over your face, to be honest. More like all over Facebook. Now we know where Sam's from, where he was born, his travels, his family and more. I think we've been pretty successful in convincing Sam that our actor, Aaron, can actually read his mind. But before we reveal the harsh truth to him, we have one more to go. Nitika. Hello, Nitika. Welcome to Mindful. Hello, Nitika. Welcome to Mindful. Thank you. Nitika is definitely an open book when it comes to online sharing. you live quite a lot of life. You're quite an open book. Let's start with the basics ` Taurus, Aries... Aries? I did pick up Maori. Grew up in Tuhoe. Tuhoe? Tuhoe. Tuhoe? Tuhoe. Yep. How was school? What was your education like? Tough school. Tough school. Tough school. It made you strong. Very strong person, a very outgoing person now. You're an animal person. You like animals. Cats or cat? Cat. Just one. So you have a cat. So you have a cat. And a turtle? What does a turtle mean? I just like turtles. I got one tattooed on my ankle. Bingo! Bingo! There you go. Bingo! There you go. So, you like turtles. Yeah. Yeah. You like turtles. Nitika posted a letter with the address visible. A simple Google Map street search showed us where she lives. Picture where you live. Think about where you live, how you get home. You're on a busy road. Very busy road. I'm seeing letterboxes in a row, but not uniform. There's more than one letterbox... six. Very uneven sort of letterboxes. They're all different. OK, read these numbers. 6-3-1-4-1. 6-3- 1- 1- 1- 1- 1- 4- 4- 4- 1- Another 1. Thanks, Google Street View! Her dad's a taxi driver or something. He deals with people, no? Talks a lot in his job. Taxi. Taxi? Taxi? Yep. Taxi? Yep. He's a taxi driver in Wellington. Success! All three online profiles gave us personal information; in Nitika's case, her actual address. You can imagine what our cyber security expert will say about that! He's got some excellent suggestions on how we can all stay safer online too. You're responsible for the content you share, and that's the reality. Find out how Kelly, Sam and Nitika feel when we come clean about what we've been up to. Their reactions might surprise you. So, Aaron is very good. We could have a new programme on our hands. We might have to come up with a new cover story now. We've blown that one, haven't we? Our three targets were clearly pretty spooked at what our so-called mind reader was telling them. What happens when they find out what's really going on, and what it means for them? He was all, like, whoa. Will it change their behaviour? I knew I was getting Punk'd! And what you really need to think about. I'm a primary school teacher, so I've, like, blocked it all off, so no one can look me up. People really need to re-evaluate trust. Welcome back. It's now crunch time for Kelly, Sam and Nitika. They must be getting freaked out by our mind reader Aaron's apparent psychic powers. But we want to make a pretty dramatic point to them about the stuff that matters to them ` the stuff they thought was personal and private. We wanted to see how much information we could piece together about three perfect strangers using only what they posted online about themselves, so we convinced them to be part of our social experiment. They think they're having a session with a mind reader on a TV show Mindful. In reality, I'm out back hunting through their social media profiles and feeding the mind reader their personal information. He's actually an actor. Has he convinced all three he can read their minds, and will our revelations really change their social media habits? Time to come clean. STATIC CRACKLES Whoa. What better way to illustrate the magnitude of their sharing than by showing them what I've been looking at? EERIE MUSIC Oh, this is so weird. Oh. Random. Now we've got their attention. Hey, Kelly. > Oh! Sam. > Sam. > I've been Punk'd. This is your life online. All about you. Wow. This is a little bit stalkerish right here. I'm Garth, and you're on Fair Go. Ah, true. I knew I was getting Punk'd! We don't want you to freak out. I'm not freaked out at all. No, there's, like, a thousand people in the room and this guy's like, whoa. All three just discovered they've been sharing way more than they thought about their private lives, but they're still coming to terms with what that means. Thank you for taking part in our little social experiment. You can probably figure out most of where we found out. You can probably figure out most of where we found out. So out of it. I actually was pretty fooled. I was, like, 'Whoa this is really cool. He's reading my mind!' You share a lot, don't you? Yeah, well, obviously I can't help it. I feel like I know you really well. Do you think you put a lot online about yourself? > Probably` I probably put too much on. Everything we talked about today, anyone could find out. That is ridiculous. These three have been lucky; we're the good guys. But our expert wants you to know that being this open can leave you vulnerable. The default issue is identity theft. People getting too much information about where you live, what your relationships, are, you know, your mother's maiden name, your phone number. The same sort of stuff we found out. Think of your middle name. Think of it very hard. Lee. Lee. Lee? > Lee? > Yes. If you take that information, and you add a little bit extra to it, you could assume an identity. Do you think you're a pretty guarded person with your stuff online? Well, I'm a primary school teacher so I've, like, blocked it all off so no one can look me up. You thought you did. You thought you did. Well, I thought so. And it's not just personal. If you have employees and they're sharing stuff, it could have consequences for your business. So, if someone's vulnerable, you're saying they could make you vulnerable as well? Yeah. Yeah. We're all in it together, whether we like it or not. We're all in it together. Andrew has been thinking hard about privacy and computers for decades. He thinks we should all pause for a moment before we hit Share. Remember Nitika? She shared a picture of a letter with some good news online, but in doing so, she also gave us her home address. You're on a busy road. Very busy road. I'm seeing letterboxes in a row but not uniform. There's more than one letterbox. LAUGHTER LAUGHTER It's a little bit creepy, now that you're bringing it to the surface. Many of us share stuff without considering the consequences. There are cases where people have used your personal information to find out where you live to come and steal your stuff, because you say you're going to the Rolling Stones concert, so they know you're gone for the next four hours. Why do we do it? Our expert has a theory. If you spoke with most people about sharing information intimately, they're fine with that. In a global space, they'd all say no. Because it's your computer, it's your tablet and your friend, it's OK. But that communication's global. And there's no guarantee that if you do set your settings to private, they'll stay that way. We're not keeping it private in any form. All it takes is a system glitch, which Facebook experienced a number of years ago. Everybody's privacy settings got reset. Everything's public. Andrew's really interested in our experiment... This is very good. Whoa. He's now starting to contemplate the consequences at this point. Mm. You can see it in his face. He thinks our experiment says a lot about how much we are trusting companies to look after our information. Did it surprise you how much we could find out about you that quickly? Definitely, yeah. Wow! That` And look at all those pictures! Yeah, that's a` that's a bit of a worry. We're relying on these systems, these services, for our social media, and we're trusting that they're going to do what they're supposed to do. But if it's a free service, if you take a look at the terms and conditions, They're not responsible for anything. You're responsible for the content you share, and that's the reality. But you have to read about 20 pages of small, fine text to find it. So think carefully about what you post. Ultimately, you are responsible for it. Because I choose what I share. That's all stuff that I don't mind people knowing about. Yeah, I am a sharing person. All three of them really now see the consequences of sharing, and they'll make some choices whether to share more, share less or completely exit the process. So are you going to change anything now? I actually think I might. I need to think about this a little bit longer. Probably won't stop me putting up my videos or my photos, cos as I said, that's my choice. As a teacher as well, you go on and on to the kids about privacy, and how you shouldn't share your number or your name or your email address. You won't find Andrew on Facebook or Twitter, but he had some advice if you want to be safer when you use social media. You can compartmentalise; you have a pseudo-anonymous personal account with a very small collection of friends, intimate friends, nobody else and be careful what you share there, and you have a professional account where you share larger things and you treat it like you're at work. This is you out here. There's no secrets, right? This is you out here. There's no secrets, right? There's no secrets, I don't think. There are no secrets. There are no secrets. No, no, I've just learned that the hard way. Wow, what good sports, because that would be very daunting, wouldn't it, seeing your whole life come up on screen. The look on their faces when all those came on. Extraordinary. Now, we want to make it clear that by the end of that night, Kelly, Sam and Nitika all understood what they had taken part in and exactly how we staged our experiment. They all generously agreed to allow Fair Go to share their experiences with you, so we can all get something from it, and we really appreciate that. Thanks, guys. So lets not waste their hard-won knowledge, as Sam said. He found out the hard way there are no secrets out there. You may not be fazed about that, but if you are concerned, here's five tips that we've also posted online and ` yes ` on our Facebook page. Imagine your boss, your partner or your mum asking you, 'what's that photo about?' Log out of your social media accounts, then look at them as the world sees you. Strike a balance. Run accounts you use just for professional purposes ` Skype, Facebook, Instagram, whatever, and separate ones for family and besties. If it's free to sign up to something, that's a sign they're harvesting your data and selling it to people who advertise to you. Keep that in mind. Here's how to check your privacy settings on Facebook ` if you want to know how your profile is seen by someone who's not your friend, you'll need to click here and here. If you want to check on your privacy settings, click here and here. Then follow the simple privacy check-up. Don't worry if you didn't follow that exactly. We'll put that on our website. Another thing to think about when you post ` they don't have to go to all 'your friends'. You can select specific people for the post to go to. So, that's the show tonight, but we will be on Facebook for the next half hour to answer your questions. Our programme is all about your problems, your thoughts, so do get in touch. We're on Facebook. Email us at... Write to us at... And next week ` Looks nice, the grey pair, right? Yes, with the gold buckle. browsing, banking, shopping online? You just wouldn't suspect a thing, so that's why it's extremely dangerous. Meet the woman in the middle... You thought you were connecting to the internet, but you were actually connecting to me first. ...who wants to keep you safe. Can you see it? (LAUGHS) Oh my God. That's next week. Good night.