Who is looking at your profile?
Ever wondered who can see your profile? Is your facebook or twitter account open? Ever been tagged in a photo you didn't know was even on the internet?
The internet can be fun and a great place to chat, share photos and listen to music so it’s important to keep it that way
Being able to instantly upload things to social networking sites, YouTube, video blogs and iPhones, we have all turned into publishers of information, pictures and videos in a matter of minutes. But what if you don't want your information everywhere? Tagging people in pictures, like in facebook, makes it very easy to search for any person's photos online.
We can all edit versions of ourselves on the internet. People can create whole new identities and make up characters online. With so much information and images being published, people can use these to become whoever they want to be behind a computer.
Photos, once online, stay online and can be seen by anybody, even years after they have been posted.
Some people don’t realise that personal information they post stays online and it can be accessed by anyone (including parents, teachers, future employers, predators…) Did you know? Many employers now check their job candidates online. Personal information contained in social networking profiles can be used by individuals who aren’t very nice for purposes which may include grooming. Innocent pictures can easily be displayed in a completely different context, leading to embarrassment, or even bullying. Photos online can be cut, pasted, altered or distorted.
What can you do?
Think before you post. Before posting a comment, picture or video – think about what you are posting and who could see it. Can anyone see your details if they used a search engine? Can everyone see your status updates or photos? Who might be looking at your profile? It’s never too late to tell someone if you see something online that seems weird or makes you feel uncomfortable.
Tips for staying safe on:
Social networking, IM and Chatrooms
Facebook have launched a new timeline for 2012, make sure you check your privacy settings are tight as there will be changes to the settings you had previously set up. Once you have 'timeline' you can delete or hide previous updates in your 'activity log' and you can 'hide' new posts you add from your timeline.
- Set profile settings to private – make sure you don't publish your email, telephone number, school, address and location.
- Only add friends to your profile or lists that you know in real life.
- Can your 'friends of friends' see all your information?
- Could people who don't know you locate or befriend you by your published interests?
- If you are friends with someone you don't know very well, or want to add an organisation, add them to a limited profile.
- You can create lots of 'limited profile lists' on Facebook, these lists can be created in the 'edit friends' under settings' area. This means you can choose how much, or little, people can see of your profile. The benefit of this is once you have created your limited lists you can then choose who can go on there at any time.
- Keep ‘online mates’ online – don’t meet them.
- Only tag friends in photos if they have given you their permission. Like you, they may not want photos of them published on the web for everyone to see.
- Add the ‘CEOP’ app to your profile.
Online gaming
- It's fun to play games against people but be aware there could be some people you are playing against who pretend to be someone they are not. Why not set up a game with your real friends and play against each other.
GPRS Mobile Technology and Facebook Places
- If you have a Smartphone and have downloaded apps with location tracking, turn these off. You could be making yourself vulnerable to any of your contacts being able to trace your every step.
- The same applies to Facebook Places – check this in your profile settings.
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