If you're on Facebook, you've already compromised your privacy to some degree, while doing nothing more than simply signing up.
I agree. This is why I think promoting the use of facebook groups for something like the AAWA without first warning of the potential consequences is reckless. It may be appropriate for a small, well controlled private group of volunteers but even then there is a risk that it exposes them unless you can verify everyone who will ever be granted access.
Sending out open invites to all and sundry but then falling back on claims that the group is 'secret' is I believe a little disengenuous.
However, I'm unclear as to whether the administrators of AAWA auto-added people, or whether individuals, such as my friends that I referenced above, did the auto-adding in this instance. If it was FB friends, and not the AAWA administrators who auto-added people, then it's the FB friends who deserve the blame.
Can someone clarify the facts re: who was responsible for the auto-adding of members to the AAWA FB page?
There was some confusion initially about whether it was just a non AAWA copy-cat group that this happend to but then it did appear to be the official AAWA group people were added to because it was left open (in the sense that it was apparently secret but didn't need any admin-approval for people to be added) and then actually made open for a period. I don't know what the official relationship is between people who were adding people and the AAWA organization but the organization created and were the only ones able to control membership of the group.
The truly sad thing is that we've only heard from people who already know they have been outed. There may be information passed on to elders that will result in people being 'invited' for a chat in the back room at the KH because they either chose to join without realizing the danger or were added without their knowledge.