One of things that drives me crazy is how we give businesses mountains of private information about ourselves and ask for relatively little in return. Many retailers now have loyalty cards that give you discounts in return for your personal data and the ability to track your purchasing patterns and, in return, you get $20.00 off your next purchase- when you reach 10,000 loyalty points. Are we selling our own personal details about ourselves too cheaply?

My friend used to work for a marketing department of a large retailer. He could tell based on consumer purchasing patterns, what type of prescription drugs you were buying, the day a woman would most likely menstruate and when you may go on vacation. Think about how massive this invasion of privacy is- all for a small discount on our next purchase.

If this was not bad enough, social media, despite all of its wonderful advantages, is the ultimate Trojan Horse to a self-assisted invasion of privacy. Let me partial demonstrate.

On Twitter, there is a search option on the right-hand side of the home page. I typed in the keyword “vacation” and I get everyone’s feed, regardless of whether I have subscribed to be a follower or not, who has tweeted a message with the world “vacation” in it.  The number of people who publicly announced they are on vacation and post the current city they live in on their profile is scary. Without going into specifics, someone could cross-reference where that person lived and, presto, one has aided in the burglary of their own home.

This is an extreme example but, like any other website, Twitter and Facebook are buggy and the privacy controls may not always work (google “twitter privacy bugs” as an example) so don’t trust someone else to protect your privacy- especially if that third party’s business model depends on selling information about you to others.

The medium is fine. But the consumer warning being, carefully how you use the medium. I have put together some best practices in relation to social media and your privacy:

1. Think of who may read this assuming the privacy controls fails. Your employer, your future potential employer, the girl you are trying to impress, strangers with ill intent. Do you want to give them anything they can use against you?
2. Pictures- you control who takes them and who posts them. Never allow yourself to have your picture taken in compromising positions. Your employer can use it against you. Your insurance company can use it against you (there is a growing body of law on what an employer can use or not use against you posted on social media). Your spouse can use it against you. If the pictures include children, you fill in the worst-case scenario.
3. Set ground rules on how your children use social media. Let’s face it, they will get on it. Give clear ground rules on what they can and cannot do. Kids don’t know any better about protecting themselves. Set up your own account so you know what the applications do and set out ground rules to protect themselves and explain why those rules are in place (you may not get that summer job because employers now reference check through Facebook). No pictures, no personal info, no specific addresses, no announcing of too much information etc.
4. At the end of the day, use the “subway car test.” Pretend you are in a subway car with your friend. It is full and everyone can hear your conversation.  Do you bad-mouth your employer, tell someone when you are going on vacation, strip down to your unmentionables in this subway car knowing that everyone can over-hear you or see you? Of course not. Think of social media as the same thing; it is a quasi public-private forum.
5. Do a full review of your social media presence and cull accordingly.

Now, I am not a heavy social media user so I would like to hear your thoughts on how to protect your privacy on social media?