Digital Security: Online Identity
This is the second in a series of posts on Digital Security from TechNotes. Stay tuned for more information about securing your digital life.
When you post anything online, remember that everything is, in effect, public. Think of your family, friends, teachers, school administrators, future employers, and admissions officers; as well as potential identity thieves and predators. To put it directly, don’t put anything online that you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see – and also don’t put anything online that someone could use to impersonate or stalk you.
So, what should you keep private? Your:
- phone number
- home address
- birthdate
- im screen name
- class schedule
- traditional security question answers (mother’s maiden name, birthplace, etc)
It’s true that Facebook can be useful as a directory – for getting in touch with friends and finding their contact information, but, as Sophos (an international IT security company that recently published a Facebook Best Practices guide) points out:
Users who are completing their profile on Facebook should ask themselves whether it is appropriate or necessary to tell other Facebook users their contact details. Facebook allows users to opt-out of entering this personal information, and as Facebook allows friends to contact each other via Facebook it is not necessary to know someone’s real address or phone number. If they really are a friend they should know where you live and what your phone number is! And if a friend really can’t remember they can always contact you via Facebook and ask you. It’s then up to the user to decide whether they feel comfortable sharing that information, and if their friend has a valid reason for asking.
At first glance, these recommendations might seem like overkill, but just this summer a student at University of Tennessee at Martin who had too much personal information in her Facebook profile was the subject of $1146 worth of credit card fraud. An acquaintance used the student’s email address and birthday (which he found on Facebook) to change her iTunes password and buy three iPods using her saved credit card information! Student Arrested on Identity Theft Charges [The Pacer]
Further Reading:
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