The internet, social platforms & Data privacy.

Today I had to provide some personal info online which started me thinking of the sharing personal data thing.
We are now given more opportunities to share ourselves & our lives than ever before.

We can tell Twitter what we are doing. On Facebook, we can tell everyone a relationship is on the rocks, or share pictures of embarrassing nights out & where we are.

But there are 2 sides to this - sharing also means we can work together, support each other, meet new people, gain new interests & keep intouch whilst jduging whats appropriate & whats not;-) But there is also the need to keep some online data private just to protect ourselves & thats not including the Social Engineering techniques that can be used (is the act of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information, rather than by breaking in or using technical cracking techniques. While similar to a confidence check or simple fraud,, the term typically applies to trickery or deception for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or computer system access;

Its amazing how much info you can get about people online from even just a birth date (I only become aware of this when I worked with some Info secuirty experts & now my Eyes have definetly been opened).

The old adage the safest way is just say "No" the issue of keeping private online is really that simple.

"When you're faced with a Twitter box or a Facebook status boxin front of you, you can choose to put something in it, or not."

You can also just provide the most basic of info on your profile, In a world of tweets, status updates, blogs, YouTube clips and dating accounts it is, ultimately, a personal choice. Although most of us are quite keen to embrace the Internet & Technology in general not everybody is keen to embrace for one reason or another

I still cannot understand why the concept of tweeting away the minutiae of daily life has become such a big success.

We share where we are, who we are with, and what we are doing. We need to keep in mind that it can be used against us - spouses etc that facebook relationship status has had people break up/divorce or even killed!

Even if you are careful about what you share - you also have to be careful about what others share in relation to you! remember that its not always just your friends, looking their info/account can get hacked too.

Globally privacy worries are high on the political agenda - In March the EU, outlined ideas for the reform of data protection laws - "four pillars" of privacy, including the "right to be forgotten", and "privacy by default".

But i'm asking myself "Do we really understand what we are sliding into?".

Before we've been able to escape the gaze of our neighbour, the gaze of our parents, our wives, our children.
Now depending on the info you share the world will become a place where we won't be able to escape the gaze.