Facebook: Becoming your legal residence on the Web?

It's bad enough that you have to watch out for stalkers, pedophiles and con artists on the Internet. Now, it seems lawyers and bill collectors might come looking for you on Facebook - and this time, the social networking site isn't the one to blame.

In Australia, an attorney who had been trying to catch up with a couple that was in default on their mortgage was having no luck by showing up at the house or sending e-mails to serve the couple with legal papers. But when the lawyer found the public profiles of the couple on Facebook, he asked for permission to serve the couple with the paperwork via the site, according to a post on the Ars Technica blog.

The lawyer explained that the couple had listed their full names and birth dates on their public profile and were friends with each other on the site. The judge, obviously convinced that the lawyer had the right people, said he would consider the couple served on Facebook if the lawyer also left the papers at their last known residence and sent them via e-mail. The lawyer says the couple has been served, but the Associated Press reports in its own story that the couple's profiles have since disappeared - either deleted or put into a private setting.

Note to self: be sure to set my Facebook profile to private before I default on any loans - or at least delete my birth date and unfriend my wife. (Sorry, honey!)