Barry Gibson column: Reflecting on Mr and Mrs MI6

Jul 8 2009 By Barry Gibson

AS Facebook pictures go, it’s not that embarrassing.

The snap shows a middle-aged woman and her daughter standing on chairs and thrusting their rear ends upwards.

It would be just another run-of-the-mill photo, like millions of others on Facebook, were it not for the fact that one of those rear ends belongs to Lady Shelley Sawers, wife of Sir John Sawers, the soon-to-be head of MI6.

Not only did she post family snaps on the site, she also mentioned where she and her husband live and work.

All this information was freely available to millions of Facebook users in London until a newspaper contacted the Sawers, who promptly removed the information.

It’s the kind of thing which has "multiple breach of security" written all over it.

In fact Lady Sawers’ Facebook fetish may end up costing her husband his new job, which he is due to begin in November.

But what have we learnt about the family Sawers from the Mail on Sunday’s expose?

Well, as previously mentioned, Lady Sawers enjoys standing on chairs, for reasons best known to herself.

Sir John meanwhile, likes wearing blue speedos on the beach and has a bright white torso which screams "Brit on holiday".

But how much can you really learn about Mr and Mrs MI6 from their Facebook page? Do social networking sites really provide a window into a person’s life?

To try to find out, I clicked on the Facebook page of a man I know very well, to see if it provided an accurate reflection of him.

His name is Barry Gibson.

And what do I find? Well, first of all, he has 148 friends - or at least 148 Facebook "friends", which may not be quite the same thing.