Privacy!

It is very difficult to strike an appropriate balance within social media as the lines between public, private and personal are blurred. In fact, even the line between personal and business is hard to see. The first thing that I do is confirm the appropriate settings on each website. My decision on settings will depend on the intended audience (viewers) as well as how easily the information can be accessed by others. I believe checking your settings right from the beginning is very important because you want to make sure that information you want to keep confidential does not end up being leaked. For example, on Facebook I can choose who views my profile, and who I want to block from certain things. There are custom settings on Facebook so that I can control each individual’s view of my profile. Twitter on the other hand is public. Tweet once and it can be re-tweeted in perpetuity. With Twitter, there are no custom settings for what the public views. Anyone can “follow” me and see everything I post, so I find I have to be a lot more careful with the things I say. Balancing between public, private, and personal takes time and a lot of thought. You always have to reconcile the benefit of the particular media with the associated risks. But this is just me! I suppose that if you don’t mind everyone knowing everything about you all of the time then don’t worry about restrictive settings.

However, you always have to be concerned at the prospect of identity theft. The more people know about you the easier it is for them to pretend to be you. This can have very serious consequences. Another example of people choosing their security settings is Youtube, as stated in the article “Publicly Private and Privately Public: Social Networking on Youtube”. Some people want lots of people to view their video and post comments, so they will expand the audience allowance. Whereas some people only want that video to be seen by people they are friends with, so they will limit their audience. It goes to show it really is a matter of the level of comfort for the person posting. It is always about balancing benefit and risk. In my view, the risks associated with not arriving at the appropriate balance are greater for women and even more so for women in business. It is hard enough to be successful in a male dominated business world without your competition knowing every little detail of your personal life. My advice? Never ever mix business with personal in the world of social media.

Youtube is a good example of how a lot of people protect their identity because they don’t want people knowing too much about them. In the article “Publicly Private and Privately Public: Social Networking on Youtube”, it is mentioned that most people use Youtube because they want to stay in touch with friends at a distance, and that it is a way to find common interest with new people. Most people will use the username method of protection but they are also picky with what video they post or comments they make. The want to make sure what they are doing is appropriate but also something that other people will like; which is the main objective. Another way people protect their identity is they just don’t tell the truth. There was a survey done in the article “Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship” that shows 34% of teens have online profiles that are public, and within that 46% of them have lied about something in their profile. This survey proves that even if someone is comfortable to have their information public, it doesn’t mean that they are telling the whole truth just in case. Again, for a woman in the business world, you have to be extra careful with what you post, where you post it and most importantly how you present yourself. The best resume, interview or reputation in the world can be totally undermined by a single inappropriate post.

Now, I understand that even if it is a private profile and I have settings to restrict who can view my personal information, that there is such thing as participatory surveillance. As stated in “Online Networking as Participatory Surveillance”, is when mostly friends are checking up on your profile and what you have been up to. This can be jokingly called “creeping”, but it is a very common way for friends who don’t talk often, to keep up-to-date on each other’s lives. I know, I do it; do you? In this case I know that anyone who is my friend can be looking into every bit of my info. This is why I always make sure it is updated, accurate, and appropriate. I am always trying to balance the benefit of participating against the risk. Ultimately, we have a choice not to participate. In some cases, it is the best course of action.