Social Media, Networking, and your Online Reputation | ITS

Protecting your online reputation is more difficult than you may think. Once a piece of information containing your name or information about you is published, it is beyond your control and will very likely be able to be discovered through some simple searches for a very long time. Even information originally published in print is now very commonly duplicated to the internet.

The following tips might help you better protect your privacy and reputation:

• A complex, easy to remember password that is not written down and does not contain personal info (pets, family, &c.) is a good first step to account security.
• Set appropriate privacy settings on your online profiles. Whether it be Facebook, LinkedIn, discussion forums or message boards, all have privacy settings that can restrict others from viewing contact information and other “directory information” that you may not want to be viewed by
• Only accept “friend requests” from people you know directly.
• Ultimately, consider every piece of information and every photo you post to be public. Again – even if it is not public when you post it, information breaches and the longevity of the data can have unintended consequences.

More information can be found at SocialMediaSecurity.com