Social Media Policy

Social media is a forever growing and changing environment that has become a part of almost every individual's daily life.  Just think about your daily life, how many times a day do you use social media.  I know personally I am on social media for different reasons at least once a day.  Even though social media is an integral part of life, privacy is still a major concern for all involved.  How do you create privacy in a public arena?  That is the question for the years to come.

(Image by Lunarbunny at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], from Wikimedia Commons at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMonitor_padlock.svg)

How do you create privacy in a public arena?

• How do you control where your information goes?
• How do you create privacy in a public arena?
• Can you really control it?

Each individual who enters information on the internet should take a moment to think about where that information is really going and can you really control where you want it to go?  Many people believe that entering information on a "secure" site means that the information will only remain on the internet for that moment that it is needed.  Is this really the case?  The answer is simply a no.  Information that is entered on the internet never actually leaves it is just not visible to those that do not know where to look.  This is just a small portion of the privacy concern on the internet. 

The next question becomes how long does it take someone to see your information and how many people see it in that short span of time.  Think about some of the most popular social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter.  How long after a user posts information is it viewed by others or commented on by others.  I know there are times where in a matter of seconds some of my posts are viewed and even commented on.  So how can internet posts to completely private. You may only want  a limited number of people to view the post but the way the sites are set up now other are also able to see the posts because a friend of theirs viewed it.

Tips for Posting on the Internet:

1. Check your privacy settings: Checking your privacy settings can allow you to control your information to a point.  If you leave your privacy settings alone there are not filters because your internet defaults to no filters.  Taking the time to enter in guidelines and parameters allows you block some people from viewing and sharing your information.

2. Think before you post:  Always remember a posting on the internet cannot be removed from the internet.  Once the information goes live there is no turning back.

The Future of the Internet and Privacy:

Privacy and the internet will always be an issue.  In the future it is not only going to be the businesses that are responsible for privacy and security on the internet it will be each end users responsibility.  Personally, the end user is the one that is going to be the one that determines how 'safe' their information is on the internet.

(All accolades and credit for this tremendous blog post are for Alison Ross who is the author and content creator.)