Take Charge of Your Online Identity
January 28 marked the annual worldwide Data Privacy Day. In this day and age, a person's online identity is a big deal. An individual’s network is much more far-reaching online than in person.
Global popularity of the Internet, cloud computing, mobile computing, and social sites have all made online networking even more accessible, instantaneous, and hassle-free. But these strengths can also be huge threats if your online identity is not managed well. We often talk about how organizations need to take online security seriously, and everyone hears about it when security is compromised in their products and applications. For instance, when Facebook had a bug in its shadow profile feature last year, it made headlines on various news pages.
Organizations do their part to harden the security of their systems and protect their users’ identities and privacy, but it is high time for the user to step up and be his own tester in validating and verifying that he safeguards himself.
A person's public profile speaks a lot about that person. Apparently up to 50 percent of employers these days first check a potential employee’s social media sites before proceeding with further employment discussions. So, building the right profile online can prove invaluable in showcasing your identity and winning you opportunities that you may not have gotten otherwise.
On the other hand, consider how people make their information and important documents available via cloud solutions such as Google Drive or SkyDrive. These services have really helped ease communication and information sharing, but it continues to be an important due diligence check for the individual to see what information he wants shared and how long he wants it accessible.
Your data is not just a source of information; more importantly, it is a source of revenue to others online. The most frequent, legal way your information is used is that it is sold to advertisers to promote targeted advertising. Continuing to check what kind of details—especially personal identifiable information—you have provided online is an important sanity test for you do periodically.
It is still not uncommon to get an occasional email from a contact saying his account was hacked into. This is often triggered not just by untrustworthy sites he may have visited but also due to weak passwords he may have used.
Having an online profile is becoming inevitable, and the benefits do outweigh the risks. However, it is high time for the user to take charge of his own online identity by adopting practices and measures to ensure his profile and information are not being used inappropriately or in unintended ways.
