Angie Clever

How many times should I say, yell, write, and highlight this important fact. Nothing on the internet is private! You say you know that, but do you really.  Check this out for example. The August 20^th and 27^th issue of Business Week (we are talking a magazine with tens of thousands of readers nationally and internationally) contains an article titled “Facebook’s New Wrinkles” which addresses the increase in users over the age of thirty-five.

What Does this Have to Do with My Privacy?

The number one rule of internet privacy is that there is no privacy.  Anything available online, is available to the public, especially on site such as MySpace, Facebook, Livejournal, and string of other social networking sites.  If you don’t think your pictures are being saved on other peoples’ computers, used in other peoples promotions and print material, and otherwise pirated, you are wrong.  Content is money on the internet.  It generates traffic.  Go into this expecting that other people can and will use your material.

Secondly, the article I mentioned in Business Week had a bigger point.  It addressed how many recruiters and executive services are now checking out potential (and current) employee and business partners’ Facebook accounts.  Particularly for the younger generation who have grown up with Facebook and MySpace as a common factor in their personal lives, as more businesses use these tools for personality matching (in the case of potential employees) and more, where does the line between your business life you’re your personal life go.

Deteriorating Line Between Legal and Personal Online

Its more that just investigations of your personality by potential employers, but also your online information may be used in legal situations. For instance, in court the deciding factor in citizenship in either Pennsylvania or New Jersey was taken from a woman’s MySpace account and where her residence was listed. Particularly if you are headed to court, it would be best to take down those accounts, because all that information is fair game. Even if you have “privacy settings” a court order can get that information. And worse yet, even taking down your information may not be enough. Certain service providers and third party companies back up and store data for future availability—that’s right, once you put it online, it has a life of its own.

Wouldn’t you love to be, say, involved in a custody battle at age 40 and have something you wrote or a scandalous picture you posted online in your twenties come back to bite you?In court?It shouldn’t be legal, in my opinion, but the fact is that it is. Much like the any other publication, the fact is that you must be conscious of the information you make available. Young people that have grown up with the booming internet culture tend to put the internet in a different perspective than other publications, but we all have to remember that information online is accessible—probably more accessible than most printed media.

Pros and Cons of Online Community Sites

I personally have a MySpace account, and I’ve grown up with the internet (Two thumbs up for the Y Generation).  I’ve spent more hours on AIM and ICQ than I want to admit, though I have less tine for it now-a-days.  I’ll be the first to defend such services against those that want them shut down, or stuck with high legal fees.  The fact is that such services have resulted in improved communications between families, college and high school friends, and even business contacts.  In a way that was never possible before, small interests (community groups, bands, and other small organizations) are able to develop high traffic, free places to build contacts, gain members, and more.  The material gains are evident.  I even advertise Game Design Center on Myspace, resulting in a nice little traffic boost. The real benefit (and the major drawback) to these sites is that information is widely accessible.

How to Protect Your Privacy

The best way to protect your privacy online is not to do anything online that you wouldn’t do in public.  You wouldn’t post half-naked pictures of yourself on a public bulletin board in town square, nor in your school or workplace.  Don’t do it online.  You wouldn’t send out a signed letter to the local newspaper with details of your sex life, so don’t post them online.  You wouldn’t post in a magazine a list of people you feel like killing, so don’t do it online.

Protecting your privacy online is realizing that you have no privacy.  If you wouldn’t say it or do it in “real life”, don’t post it online.  If it is something that would compromise you job or social standing, don’t say it.  If it’s your age we are talking about, don’t lie about it.  (If you’re worried about it say nothing! As long as you are over 13, its not required that you post that information—nor recommended in most cases).

Minors on Community Sites

I sound old when I say, back in my hay-day (all of five years ago) that didn’t happen.  Truth is, it did, but even now it’s hard for me to imagine.  I have a younger brother, so I know some younger guys in their teens.  I link out their MySpace pages from time to time.  Half of the pictures in their “Friends list” are girls about his age, or a little younger.  Link to their sites and you’ll find a whole handful of half-dressed shots bordering on soft-core porn (at age 13, 14, 15, 16…).  Wow, do they not know what they are doing.

Not only are they bating in every “sexual predator” (we’ve all be through the MySpace jazz, heard about the lawsuits, expelling of “Sex offenders” form their database, if you haven’t then read more), but more importantly, they are releasing to the public a great deal of information in picture and written format.  Ask yourself if that’s the kind of information you want showing up when you apply to college, or go for that first big job interview.  Maybe you took it down years before, but what if someone posts it on another site with your name? Sure its illegal, but what are your options?  Months of lengthy and expensive legal battles to get it off one site, when it’ll just pop up on another?  And this applies to minors and non-minors.

Words of Wisdom

Don’t do anything online you wouldn’t do in public.  Be conscious that anything online is vulnerable to be stolen and used without your permission.  Be conscious that potential employers, schools, the FBI, lawyers, and public officials all have access to data that you post online.  Don’t put anything online that you wouldn’t want to have come up at a court hearing.  This is the best thing you can do to protect yourself online.

That being said, use the sites, have fun, stay in contact with friends and family.  But be aware of your surroundings, just like you would in your home community offline.

How to use Community Sites to Your Advantage

Because data is often copied and these sites receive high traffic normally, you can capitalize on community sites.  It is easy to redirect traffic form these sites to yours.  Better yet, post pictures, games, and other proprietary material that people will want to copy.  Put your logo in the bottom corner, and let them post it all over the web.  Wham bam, you’re generating a lot of traffic using the very same principles.  Just remember to use the system to benefit yourself, don’t get caught up displaying highly personal information and let it wreck you.