How to maintain your privacy online?  Sounds almost ironic, but with so many social networks these days, you’re bound to find information about yourself (even photos) when you least expect it.  It might not even be information that you’ve posted, but from third party sources like your friends and family who are very active social members.

I try to be more private, or at least feel that I am in control of my privacy - so here are a few tips I use to curb my exposure.

Facebook

Maximum privacy settings for Facebook.  By selecting “Settings” and then “Privacy Settings”, you can pretty much control who and what people are seeing.  Only my friends can see my profile, messages, pictures - everything.  I know Facebook acts as a platform for gossip and information, but for me, I don’t like strangers knowing too much.  

Let me tell you a story.  My husband added me as my husband via Facebook and I blindly accepted.  I know it’s not a big deal to put him as my husband, but then I figured I might as well remove it as less is better.  Inadvertently, this action caused quite an uproar.  I was bombarded with questions “What happened?  Are you guys still married?  Did you get a divorce?”  MY GOODNESS!  Have people nothing better to do?  I removed it because I felt like it, nothing happened!  So you see, even the slightest modification and tweaking can lead to miscommunication.  I wasn’t sure whether to be touched by people’s caring attention or nosiness.  

LinkedIn

I finally joined LinkedIn because I received so many invitations for about 3-4 years on and off (more so lately).  What’s the hype?  Well, I guess since I am now back in the professional field, I decided it might be useful.  Again, limited information.  To ensure maximum privacy - under account settings - I’ve turned OFF a public account - that means people can’t find me via a link through searching the internet.  Also, you can visibility to “My connections” only - which means potential employers can’t find you, but that’s my objective.  I am still debating the benefits of this site to me - so will give it another 6 months before I decide to kill my account totally.

Job Boards

I also DO NOT post my resume anywhere publicly.  This includes my own site, job boards, recruiter boards and the likes.  I did try it once on monster.com.hk and within the week that I posted it, I got 5 calls from separate ManuLife recruiters who wanted me to sell something.  For starters, I am a horrible sales person.  I am not too fond of insurance sales calls and have no desire to be.  Secondly, I do not like MLM-style businesses.  That’s just a personal opinion, I have nothing against them except I won’t work for one, nor will I buy stuff from one.  If you do post a resume, leave out the addresses and phone numbers and register a non-personal email address just for these jobs (any free emails will suffice like gmail, hotmail, yahoo or whatever).

Where I Work

You have probably noticed that I don’t make any mentions of which company I work for.  For those who know me, yah, you’ll know - but I did put it up once in a profile for a site I write for and within that month, I was getting calls from local vendors about X service or Y product.  At first, I wasn’t sure what the source was, but when I did a search for my name and my company on the internet (as told by one guy who called me), this site came up and I have removed it since then.  It’s interesting how sales people can find any source and use it.  They simply call up the main line to my company and ask my name and the receptionist will direct them accordingly.  I must say, sales people sure are resourceful.  Having removed my information, I no longer get these random calls from vendors. 

So in short, if you don’t mind being a public figure - I’d say the internet and these social mediums are your friends.  In reverse, if you’re cautious with where your information is going (especially considering that people get fired from Facebook from talking crap about their bosses or gossiping about other people or putting too much personal feelings in), take these few precautions if you’re on social platforms.  I have a friend who adamantly won’t join Facebook - which I completely respect.  But for someone like me, who is curious and not completely afraid to be out there, I do have my limits.  I’m curious though, how many people lie about stuff on their Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter accounts?  From my experience, I think most people tell the truth - so as we all know, you never know when your history will come back to bite you in the bottom (ie:  like those drunken photos in our bikinis during College orientation?).  And it’s true, employers are using these mediums to research candidates, I would too if I were in a hiring position - so moderation is probably a good approach.