Red Honey Magazine 2013 Archive Edition | Page 21

Relationships/Beauty/Health If you’re one of the millions of people using MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, YouTube or any number of the other online websites that cater to those who want an outlet to express themselves, connect or reconnect with other people and the like, you may be surprised at how easily it is for anyone with internet access to view your information, including such details as, what schools you attended, the names and photos of your children, family members, your car (license plate and all), and even (if available) to either allow only people on your friend’s list or only a select group of people on your network to view. You can do the same with your blogs. 2) Edit the content that’s viewable online – by only presenting a professional front online, you can still relate your personal insight into life’s events while not providing any off-limit topics for the public to view. You’ll want to avoid any sexually explicit information as well as any alcohol/drug related confessions or photos, and very likely any racist, sexist, or other discriminatory comments. Protect Yourself Online 3) Monitor your profile contents – This may include filtering and deleting unwanted comments like weird ads or potentially offensive or revealing photo/graphic comments left in your guestbook or comments board. 4) Use only your professional email address for job correspondence – This also goes a long way to protecting your profile information, if you use your personal email address for the profile and then a separate professional email address for any job or business related prospects. Same goes for selecting a screen name or account name. photos you took at the New Year’s Eve party a year ago when you had your buzzed face on. It’s great to be able to share these more personal aspects of your life with close friends and family, you know, people you know and love, but unless you are protecting yourself securely, you may be putting yourself at risk. Risk of what, you ask? Well, cree