Protect your Online Information

By Andy Beaudoin on February 11, 2013

While it’s rather unfortunate, your personal life has probably spilled onto most of the Internet. Millions everywhere can see what you’ve been doing on the weekends: tequila night last October, your shameless Santana cover on Youtube, the terabytes of mirror pics, rants and videos on Facebook or the blogs we kept about the trials and tribulations of being a 16-year-old.

Basically, your past life is ridden with documented mistakes and while we may never quit the Internet, the least we can do is protect our personal info.

Listed below are easy, but very helpful things you can do to protect yourself online.

Keep It Private!

Facebook is full of “creepers,” who like to look at random profiles online. In order to make your life a little more private, it’s as simple as changing your privacy settings. It’s so easy, but most people don’t even bother. You know that tiny graphic of a gear in the upper right-hand corner of the Facebook home page? If you click that, then privacy settings, you’ll be taken to a customizable list of privacy features! If you read everything carefully, you’ll be fairly protected in no time. Facebook will be more enjoyable and way less sketchy for you.

Document your Online Purchases

Like eBay? Me too, but credit card information is tricky and the Internet is not the safest place to keep it. While eBay and Amazon are generally respected as safe, it doesn’t hurt to write down your expenses in the physical world and make sure everything lines up when you get your bank statements. That way you’ll know what you spent and what you haven’t and if there’s anything fishy, you’ll spot it right away.

What’s the password?

It’s convenient to reuse your passwords over and over, but it’s also much more likely that your personal information will be exposed. My advice is to modify: if your password is “smellytoes123” for one website or account, you could easily change it to “rancidfeet456” for another one. These types of modifications are similar enough for you to remember, but totally different when it comes to hackers searching your online information.

Know the Image You’re Portraying

Your online reputation is just as important to maintain, as is your financial information. It’s necessary to know the kind of content you want to display to others online. Is your Facebook page for fun or for business? Do you expect more profile views from friends or clients?

If you don’t plan to get off of Facebook, you’re going to have to accept the fact that your profile is going to grow up with you; i.e. employers will want to see who you are on Facebook and you will most likely not want them to see certain pictures or statuses that were posted while under the influence. Consider editing the content. Which pictures do you want to be seen? Ones where you’re doing something noteworthy or ridiculous?

Okay, so maybe you’re graduating this year and you’re thinking of throwing out Facebook (and if you still have a Xanga (I do), you might want to get rid of that, too). Fair enough, but you should still have some professional content of yourself online because it’s easier for employers to get a sense of who you are before you meet them. Tumblr is a fairly controlled atmosphere for the more artsy types and LinkedIn is very professional. You probably know how both work, but it doesn’t hurt to think about your online image!

Voila. Just a few tips you can think about in order to better your safety on the World Wide Web. If you have more specific suggestions, throw me a comment.

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