Infographic byWordStream Internet Marketing

Take Control of Your Internet Privacy

Here are  3 simple steps to control your privacy on the Internet:

1. Never post personal information on the Internet.  Once information is on the web, it can be copied and shared without your permission.  Once posted, you’ve lost control over where it can appear.  What may seem harmless can lead to the wrong people having your information.
2. Use an anonymous proxy to hide your IP address.  Your IP address is one identifier that can lead back to you.  By hiding it you can throw would be stalkers off your trail.
3. Clear your cookies.  While normally cookies are not harmful, they do provide information back to websites you visit about your habits on their website.  This may or may not be something you care about.  It depends on the websites you visit.

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With blogging becoming such a popular and widely utilized pastime, people are beginning to see the security issues it represents. First of all, there is the possibility of someone tracking the blogger from his or her page, and maybe even posing as a friend (which isn’t hard to do online) to arrange a real life encounter. There is also the simple possibly that the blogger is just putting too much information out there. While they may talk about other things, blogs are often centered around friends and their activities together. Oftentimes you will see a blog that lucidly describes the place they are discussing, (sometimes even an address…) people involved in the event, and usually a picture attached of the person and their friends. This is everything and more than a criminal needs to find this person and rob, kidnap, or steal from them.

This new awareness of blog safety brought about the anonymous movement. People realized that the root of their problems and the biggest danger in their blogging lives is that they were being tracked and identified in real life. These blogs are often public too; imagine if a boss or potential employer were to view someone’s blog and turn them away from the job! The reverse of this happened a little while ago; a woman who constantly blogged about her disdain for a local politician and his methods was anonymous online. After some time and after having built a strong fan base, she decided to go public, and posted her name, a brief bio, and a picture of herself. Her boss, being an avid supporter of the ousted politician, fired her and forbid her from coming back to her job. She is now blacklisted from many employers in her area, for fear of being guilty by association.

Use an anonymous proxy to stay anonymous online. This is the best and most powerful way to do so. High bit encryption services will protect your identity, and a changed IP address will ensure you safe and anonymous browsing; and the avoidance of any identity-based privacy issues.

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Germans and Germany in general are very cognizant about what goes up on the Internet, as they are often haunted by constant reminding of the Holocaust and the stigmas attached to it. Lately the German population has become suspect of the U.S. company FaceBook. They are convinced that FaceBook is completely disregarding their privacy rights and not securing all of their information.

The Germans have banded together to send MySpace, FaceBook, Xing, and other social networking sites complaints about their lack of protecting their information. They accused these companies of sharing their details, browsing histories, and even details off of their private pages with third party companies. The sites would share this information with online advertisers and other solicitation agencies for a cut of their profits. The people afre outraged at this, and feel that their privacy is being compromised. They also complain that the terms of service agreements that are mandatory to accept on most every site force them to give up many of their privacy rights and other protections they enjoy as citizens. They argue that the change in the status quo should only allow individuals to be able to control what is released, and that possibly they offer incentives for releasing some information.

The people say that if the companies don’t comply with their complaints that they will take them to court. Grassroots movements have begun to boycott the services, and try and put them out of business, or at least make a statement.

The Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue is what they organization has called themselves, and they demand that the people hold all jurisdiction of who knows their data. They are almost eighty organizations strong currently.

They also argue that if a user cancels their subscription or profile with the service, that they permanently delete all information on the user, and not keep any of it surreptitiously  in a hidden data base.

Be wary when signing up for these social networking sites, who knows what rights you are giving up. Always read your terms of service before you blindly click accept too, as they know nobody actually reads these and will try and stick things in them small print. Be careful about what you put on your profile as well, because who knows who will be reading it and who might use some of your information for bad reasons.

If you wish to stay safe and anonymous online, try and avoid posting any personal information on these sites and be careful about what you are getting yourself into when you sign up. It may seem like a harmless communication site, but criminals know that is where clueless Internet goers flock.

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