Privacy 2.0 For Social Media Websites

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Privacy 2.0 For Social Media Websites

Privacy 2.0 is a big issue. Here is a short list of some ways you can protect your privacy online ….

Check your security/privacy settings:

When I first joined a now very popular social media site back in 2004, I didn’t care much for privacy and I didn’t take too much notice of how to control who sees what. Big mistake. I eventually took the time (some years later I must admit) to use the genuine controls the site offered limit who could see what my favorite book is or what I did yesterday. No more sleepless nights worrying if my boss saw that post or whether my mum will somehow figure out what I actually did on her birthday.

Set strong passwords

This is a bit of a no brainer. But you’d be surprised how many people don’t have a strong password. The online community has been encouraging this for years now but too many people just put in their pet’s name, their street name or the name of their favorite band.

Monitor what your friends say and do

I have first had experience of how what a friend says online can go wrong. Actually, it wasn’t something they said, rather an offending picture someone else posted. Without going to the details – in a bid to protect their privacy (see what I did there?) – a friend was “tagged” into a picture they didn’t want anybody to see and it ended in them getting a grilling from the boss. The point I’m trying to make is that it is important to pay attention to what your friends are doing and make sure you avoid implication.

Don’t include dates of birth/address/mobile numbers
This seems common sense right? Well common sense seems to go out of the window when people are online. If you really want someone to have all of your personal data, to use as they wish, put all this stuff up online. You’ll make life easy for them. Think about it. What are the most common security questions online (and offline for that matter)? What is your mother’s maiden name? What is your address? What is your date of birth? Has the penny dropped?

Get expert help

Strange as it might seem, people are so worried about their online footprint that they willing to pay for experts to alter how far up Google’s listings their name appears when they type it in. The phenomenon is called personalized search engine optimization and it allows you to keep the bad news private.

Change your name

If the above doesn’t work you can take a more radical step. Change your name. Seriously, change your name! Google’s top dog Eric Schmidt recently suggesting people might have to change their names to escape the shadow of their dodgy past. If this seems extremely, you could always use an alias. Many do already.

Log out

We could go on all day and offer you a world of tips to stay private, but we have other things to do. That said, this last tip is vitally important. And simple. LOG OUT! Enough said.

I hope these tips help. If not – and if you are still worried – perhaps social media isn’t for you and you should avoid things like Facebook, Google, MySpace or Twitter.

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