This Saturday, Jan. 28, is Data Privacy Day. DPD, as it’s known, is a
day to “increase awareness of privacy and data protection issues among
consumers, organizations and government officials and help industry,
academia, and advocates to highlight consumer privacy efforts.”Hear,
hear. Data privacy, we can all agree, is important. Nobody, from the
teenager posting party photos on Facebook to the Fortune 500 CIO in
charge of terabytes of data, wants their information compromised.
To honor DPD, Microsoft commissioned a survey (conducted by Blueocean
Market Intelligence) of 5,000 people (children between ages of 8 -17
and adults between 18-74) throughout Canada, Germany, Ireland, Spain,
and the United States. The results indicated that most of us are not
vigilant about protecting our online profiles and reputations.
Your “online profile”, according to the Microsoft survey, is the sum
of online content about you (credit card purchases, medical records),
content that you’ve created (emails, videos, posts on social networks)
and content about you created by others (someone posting a picture or
comments about you on a social network or website).
Your “online reputation” is the image created of you through
information you or others shared online in blogs, posts, pictures,
tweets and videos.
The Microsoft survey indicates that 67 percent feel they are in
control of their online reputations but only 44 percent actively think
about the long-term consequences of their online activities.
Shouldn’t we all — not 44 percent of us — think about the
consequences of our online footprints? As social media sites like
Facebook and Twitter have opened up the world, for better or worse, and
as we do more banking and bill paying online, managing online
reputations has never been more important.
After all, many employers use Facebook to assess job candidates, and
colleges and insurance companies may search for photos and web postings
to evaluate applicants.
So how do we become better digital citizens? Here are some steps you
can take, according a company blog post penned by Microsoft chief
privacy officer Brendon Lynch.
Stay Vigilant and Conduct Your Own ‘Reputation Report’
-Search all variations of your name in search engines, and evaluate
whether the results reflect the reputation you’d like to share with the
world, including current or future employers, colleagues, friends and
family members. Microsoft research found that 37 percent of adults never
do this.
-If you find information about yourself that is inaccurate or less
than favorable, respectfully request that the person who posted it
remove it or correct an error.
Consider Separating Your Professional and Personal Profiles
-When you are job hunting, applying to a school or looking for new
insurance or a loan, remember that your online image can be a
determining factor for hiring managers and application reviewers. Be
sure to use different e-mail addresses, screen names, referring blogs
and websites for each profile, and avoid cross-referencing personal
sites.
-Fifty-seven percent of adults think about taking steps to keep their
work and personal profiles private. However, 17 percent said
information intended to remain private had inadvertently been made
public online.
-Be judicious about adding personal information to your professional
profile. Only include information appropriate in a professional context.
Adjust Your Privacy Settings
-In Internet browsers, social networking sites, personal blogs and
other places where you maintain personal data, use privacy settings to
help manage who can see your profile or photos, how people can search
for you, who can comment and how to block unwanted access. According to
Microsoft research, 49 percent of adults do not use privacy settings on
social networking sites.
-If you use Internet Explorer 9, use the browser’s tracking
protection, which helps block unwanted tracking by third parties. You
can also use Internet Explorer’s “InPrivate” browsing mode.
-Periodically review who has access to your content. It’s OK to remove people whom you feel no longer need access.
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