Make a New Years Resolution You Can Keep!
So now it’s March and like most resolutions I made way back in January, I have yet to drop the weight, clean the garage or learn Italian. But there is one resolution that I have made a priority this year! It’s the one that protects the safety of my family—monitoring our digital security and life!
Here are FOUR easy ways you too can pick yourself up, dust yourself off, get back on the resolution bandwagon, and start taking care of your digital self.
First: Start by checking the privacy and security settings in your social media accounts. Privacy policies on your social media sites, mega shopping accounts, and a ton of banking portals have probably changed since you last looked. It seems simple enough but you’d be surprised what you’ll find when you start reading the fine print.
This next one will be a good lesson in self-control: Before posting on your social media, ask yourself—do I want to see this in 10 years? It doesn’t matter where you post it, who the audience is, or what you “really” meant by it, chances are that data you’re sharing online will outlive you. Does that photo, bit of personal information, or random funny (or snarky) comment REALLY need to be shared with the world? Chances are, if you wouldn’t say it or show it to a room full of strangers, you probably shouldn’t post it online.
For the data you really do want to share—scrub the metadata! Photos and video contain embedded information in the file that may reveal a time, location or other sensitive information about you and others. If you take photos with your smartphone, take a moment to check out your settings and disable the location services. Better yet, upload your photos to your computer first and scrub all the metadata from the file. Be especially careful about metadata when sharing such files that contain details about your children. It all adds up!
And finally: Follow the golden rule “Post only about others as you want them to post about you.”
Here’s a terrific guide showing how to check your privacy settings on all sorts of websites!