Have you ever tried googling yourself?
Have you typed your own name into a google search and see what comes up?
You might be amused to see some old photos you’d forgotten about!
But you might also be a bit shocked by quite how much information about you is out there in the public domain for all to see.
Are you happy that everyone can see all of that?
Have you considered:
Your reputation
I mean, would you want a prospective employer to see those party photos?
Your security
There are several aspects of security that can be compromised if too much information about you is available on the internet:
- Physical security: For a start, you hopefully know not to announce on social media that you are about to go on holiday for 2 weeks – you might as well post a notice in the front window of your house inviting burglars to visit whilst no-one is home! And you don’t want your child letting strangers know exactly where they will be on a particular Saturday afternoon. And so on.
- Then there’s the password-guessing risk. If you are tempted (and please don’t be!) to use the name of your pet, favourite football team, song, or teacher, street where you grew up, partner or children, significant dates etc as passwords…. and a lot of people still do…..can this information be quickly and easily gathered by a quick search through your online presence? Don’t make their job easy by handing them the keys to your passwords on a (cyber) plate!
How to manage your personal information that is available online:
The simplest thing is not to put too much on in the first place – do you need to scale down what you’re sharing?
Google has an article called “Manage your online reputation“, which has a few useful hints, including how to remove some things that are already out there.
Stay safe – think twice before posting!