So I’m told, the Forces teach alpine skiing to novices by taking them to the top of a black run and letting them compete to make their own way to the bottom. True or not, they wouldn’t let them try without some form of briefing on how to ski and on safety.The same is true for social networking. The best way is to just have a go, but you need to know some basics to “keep safe”. Here's just a few tips to get you started ...
For Twitter it’s worth knowing that “Usernames” are case sensitive. So set yourself up as camWElls and that’s what will appear on each of your tweets for ever. Maybe you want to set up SafeSaaS, so do it like that (and I just have!). But having registered SafeSaaS, no-one else can register variants such as safesaas or SAFESAAS.
It’s also worth knowing you can delete tweets, if there’s a mistake,. But if they feed automatically into another system such as LinkedIn, it’s best to assume that it won’t be deleted there.
For Facebook, you can have as many "walls" as you like, all called "camwells" - here is a "product/service" & this is a "local business". But so can anyone else add a wall with your business name (go on try another camwells!) . So worth checking periodically for pass-offs, "fakes" and any other problems.
Blogging and Forums
In blogging and forums, some let you edit/delete a post once you’ve made it, some let you edit/delete comments, but few do both. So worth knowing which is which, and being extra careful with those that don’t allow edits. [Note to self, I can edit this post but can’t edit any comments I add later]
There’s 1001 other tips for each of these systems you’ll find by doing a few searches.
Keeping Mum
Some years ago I heard a talk on ethics. The speaker asked how we would feel if an "indiscretion" were to appear on the front page of the Times. You’ve no doubt seen stories in the papers about “inappropriate” private emails going global electronically, and which have really bitten the originator (and others) in the backside.
It’s worth assuming that any electronic communication could be passed on and seen by anyone - I've certainly seen this happen accidentally - such as forwarded emails including an earlier private email conversation with someone else.
Social networking takes this to a new level. Do a Google search on your child, your employee or indeed yourself and see what comes up. Photos legless at the office party? Slagging off their boss? Children giving away details you’d rather they kept secret?
MORE ON FACEBOOK PRIVACY
A week ago we looked at Facebook privacy, which is an important “safety” issue if you, your business and/or your family are going to use it. After all “With the popularity of Facebook, it is becoming hard to keep your personal life personal”. At that time, I looked at the official announcements by Facebook.
I also promised to look closer at what the rest of the world is saying, around three key elements:
- What can people see and do on your "wall"?
- What can computers & "bots" see?
- What information is Facebook is actively giving or selling to advertisers and other people?
What information is Facebook actively giving or selling to advertisers and other people?
In the early days, Facebook reckoned it “owned” the data, photos etc loaded onto its website. This is not the case with the current Ts&Cs, which state:
- “You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings.”
- “…subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License")”……
- “When you publish content or information using the "everyone" setting, it means that you are allowing everyone, including people off of Facebook, to access and use that information, and to associate it with you (i.e., your name and profile picture”
- Re ShareLinks: “You give us permission to use and allow others to use such links and content on Facebook”
You have to appreciate that Facebook is a free service, paid for principally by advertisers. Facebook can and does use and “sell”information, subject to your privacy settings, as stated above. This is set out in some detail in their privacy policy section 5 “How We Use Your Information”
What can computers & "bots" see?
According to the Irish Times “It’s not so much that this data is being sold to companies as being handed out willy-nilly to the wider internet. Anyone can interrogate and add to Facebook’s databases now with its “Graph API” feature. The escalation in the amount of data Facebook is making public largely comes from its attempts to feed this open interface more useful information.”
According to the Independent Mail “Websites and applications can get data about you through your friends, your profile will show up in Google searches and your info pre-populates into certain websites.”
What can people see and do on your "wall"?
As Facebook evolved from being a small group of friends at Harvard to some 400 million users, the concept of "friends" was developed. The privacy settings allow 4 options
- Friends – these are people you have individually allowed to access and/or post information
- Friends of friends – you can let certain information be seen not only by your friends but by their friends also
- Everyone – the whole world
- Customise - where you can allow access by (and/or hide from) specific people if you require
Under the “Account” menu in the top right hand corner of the Facebook screens, once you have logged in there are two sections :
- Application settings
- Privacy settings
PostScript 17th June: An open letter to the CEO of Facebook has been sent, highlighting remaining privacy issues.
Happy socializing! But do be careful!!
We'll look at privacy for businesses and organisations, which is important but somewhat different, in a separate article.
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