If a stranger approached you and asked for your address, phone number, and birthday, you wouldn’t give it to him. You don’t want him to have your personal information. You don’t want any stranger to have information like that. Yet, what do you publish online for thousands of strangers to look at?
In a world where we depend on email, Facebook, blogs, and MySpace to keep in touch with friends, it’s easy to forget that not everyone is our friend. The internet is a public resource that anyone can look at. Here are some guidelines to follow when publishing personal information online:
- The internet is not a diary: Anything you post on the internet can be looked at by others – both friends and strangers. Before you post something, ask yourself if you are really okay with others reading it.
- Written in stone: Once you put something online, you might not be able to take it back. You can alter or even delete posts, but somebody may have already seen the original. Some users make a copy of a page to use in the future. After you publish information, you can never completely remove it.
- Be careful what you post: Putting your personal information online puts you at risk for a social engineering attack. Hackers can use the details you have supplied like your job, hobbies, or family. The more hackers know about you, the easier it is to pretend to be you, and you could become a victim of identity theft.
When deciding what to post online, use common sense. Protect yourself like you would protect yourself on the street surrounded by strangers.
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