Teen Privacy Online

Social Networking, Privacy Policies

and Security Risks: How to protect

your personal information online.

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Brought to you by . . .

� Intel and the International Association of Privacy Professionalsproudly join in the celebration of Data Privacy Day 2008. We encourage all students to learn as much as possible about how touse the Internet and its many communication and ecommerce tools as safely as possible in ways that protect the privacy of your personal information.

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Online Privacy for Teens

� Online Privacy: Why It is Important

� Social Networking

� You Can’t Get Something for Nothing

� Know the Basics: Disclosure of Personal Information and Networking Behavior

� It Isn’t All About Common Sense

� Think About Tomorrow When You Act Today

� Privacy Policies and How to Read Them

� Security Risks

� Sources and Resources

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Online Privacy: Why It’s Important

� Teens and young adults among most knowledgeable and creative users of the Internet

� Personal Information (PII)

� Name, address, phone numbers, birth date, social security number, credit card numbers, photos, shopping history

� Technology Increases Risk of Inadvertent Sharing

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Data Privacy Day 2008

� 28 January 2008

� United States and 27 European countries celebrating Data Privacy Day

� Raising awareness about data privacy, protection of personal information, and online safety

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Privacy: What Is it?

� Privacy is the right or opportunity to decide

who has access to your personal information

and how that information should be used.

� Knowledge is power.

� When you go online, KNOW:

� Who has access to your personal information?

� How will your information be used?

� Is that okay with you?

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Social Networking

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Social Networking: What Is It?

� Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, and other social networking sites

� Creating personal profiles

� Interacting with other people online

� You can interact with school friends, people from your city, people you work with, people from your region, people in a particular “network,” or people all over the world

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Data Protection and Privacy in

Social Networks: The Main Ideas

� You usually can’t get something for nothing

� Know the Basics: Disclosure of Personal Information and Networking Behavior

� It isn’t all about common sense

� Think about tomorrow when you are acting today

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You Can’t Get Something for

Nothing: The Cost of Networking

You can participate in many social

networks for free. BUT . . .

you must provide personal information to

participate.

Who can benefit from that information?

How do they use your information?

How can you protect your privacy?

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Who can benefit from your Personal

Information?

� Web Site Operators

� Make money by advertising. The more users they

attract, the bigger the audience, the more valuable

the ad space, the greater the ad revenue.

� Companies that want to sell you things

� Want to advertise and sell you their products

� Want to know about you and your brand loyalties,

preferences and interests

� May want to track and tell your “friends” about items

you purchase as another form of advertising

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Who Else Could Access your

Personal Information?

� Colleges

� May want to know more about you than just your

grades and test scores. Your profile may be a

good resource.

� Current and Future Employers

� May want to know what kind of person you really

are – beyond your resume and interview.

� Parents

� Sexual predators and pedophiles

Know the Basics

Disclosure of Personal Information

and Social Networking Behavior

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Basic Guidelines for disclosure of

personally identifiable information:

� Be sparing with

personal

information. If you

network socially,

provide only that

information you need

to provide to network

effectively.

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Basic Guidelines for disclosure of

personally identifiable information

� If you have a username, avoid including your

actual name or birth date. Never share your

password with anyone.

� In a profile, generally speaking, do not provide

your last name, your phone numbers, home

address, date of birth, school or team name, or

travel plans. Do not provide your social

security number, family financial information,

bank or credit card numbers.

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Exceptions to basic guidelines:

� Birth Date: You may be required to provide

your birth date to sign up for a social network

or other online service because federal law

prohibits the collection of information from

children under 13 years old.

� Arrange your privacy settings so the birth date

is not visible on your profile. If you want to

display your birthday, show the day of the

month but not your birth year.

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Exceptions to basic guidelines:

� School Name: Although you generally

should not provide your school name

online, some sites feature school-specific

networks, and the name of the network

will reveal your school online.

Limiting your social networking participation to

a school group, as opposed to the world at

large, may provide an extra degree of

protection and privacy for you.

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Back to the Basics:

� Use Privacy Settings!

� Only share the

information you are

comfortable sharing.

� Limit your audience.

� Default settings usually

allow sharing. Take

affirmative steps to limit

disclosure.

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Adjusting privacy settings can be a

multi-step process:

� Access the Privacy Settings page on the

social network of your choice and learn

how to protect the privacy of your

information.

� Some sites offer you the ability to set

different privacy settings for different

parts of your profile page.

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Privacy Settings are not Foolproof

� Maintaining privacy requires diligence and maintenance.

� Learn about the privacy settings of each site you use. If you don’t understand the options, contact the site and ask.

� Regardless of the settings you use, privacy settings are not foolproof. You should always continue to be cautious about information about yourself you place online regardless of how restricted you believe your audience is.

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Basics of On-line Social Networking

Behavior: The Number One Rule

� Unless you would be willing to attach

something to a college application or

resume, share it with your parents, your

grandparents, current or future

employers, don’t post it. If you wouldn’t

put it on a poster and hang it on your

locker or your dorm room door, don’t

post it.

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Basics of Behavior (cont.): Blogging,

Journals, The Wall

� When you journal or blog online, these entries are archived, or saved, and the content of these entries can be searched. � Some blogging sites offer you the ability to choose which subscribers can see what you have written, and some allow you to block any anonymous replies.

� Think about why and how you are using your profile page. If you are blogging about your daily activities or your social life, be extremely cautious what personal information you provide about yourself and others in those contexts.

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Basics of Behavior (cont.):

“Friends”

� Don’t invite people to be

your friends on-line if

you do not know them in

the real world.

� If you must accept a

“friend” that you do not

know, do so cautiously,

recognizing that often

people are not who they

claim to be.

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Basics of Behavior (cont): Photos

� Do not post images of yourself that you wouldn’t want to share with grandparents, colleges, and future employers.

� Don’t post images of other people that they wouldn’t post of themselves.

� If possible, ask permission before posting an image of someone else on your site.

� Always honor any individual’s request to remove a specific photo of him or her from your page.

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Basics of Behavior (cont.):

Avoiding Risky Behavior

� Sex -- Just don’t talk about it on the Internet, particularly with people you do not know.

� Never agree to meet someone in person that you “met” on the Internet.

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Other Ways to Protect your Privacy

� Use services with age and identity

verification systems

� Use services that allow you to report

inappropriate content

� Look for sites with privacy seals like

TRUSTe and the Better Business

Bureau

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More Ways to Protect your Privacy

� Talk with a parent, older sibling, or other adult

you trust about your Internet use.

� Educate your parents about technologies that

are new to them.

� Check out any safety tips provided by the site

you are using. Use online resources to find

additional safety and privacy information.

� ALWAYS KNOW how your information is

being used and stored by others.

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It’s not just common sense.

� “Don’t get in a car with someone you don’t know.”

� “Don’t open your door to a stranger.”

� But . . . Don’t talk to strangers? Isn’t that the whole point for some users?

� Common sense only takes you so far. Some technological understanding is helpful.

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Caching

� If you put something on the Internet, it is

difficult if not impossible to take it back.

� Search engines and browsers cache

websites, allowing photos, videos and

text to be retrieved long after the website

has been deleted.

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Caching and Public Computers

� Caching also raises issues you should be aware of when you use computers in public libraries or other public spaces.

� Web browsers cache sites that you have visited.

� Web browsers can also cache temporary internet files, cookies, info that you enter into websites and address bars as well as passwords.

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Think About Tomorrow When You

are Acting Today

� Do you know how much money it costs to remove a tattoo? Hundreds or thousands of dollars, depending on the size and quality of the tattoo.

� This doesn’t mean you should never get a tattoo – it just means you should be well aware of the costs and consequences associated with making such a decision, now and in the future, before you do it.

� Social networking and blogging online are the same –� information and images can be

extremely difficult if not impossible to take back. Even when you delete information from your profile or site, older versions are still accessible to others.

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Think About Tomorrow (cont.)

� Do not jeopardize the privacy of others.

� Treat others the way you would want to be

treated online.

� Respect the privacy and personal

information of others.

� Don’t identify others on your page in a way

they would not identify themselves or post

photos they would not post.

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Privacy Policies

� Many websites have privacy policies or statements.

� Main function: to describe what personal information they will collect, whether they share it, how they will use it, and how they will secure it.

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Privacy Policies should provide:

Reasonable security measures to

protect your information from loss,

misuse, or alteration

Security

The ability to access your information

maintained by the site and the

opportunity to correct inaccurate

information

Access

You should be given a choice about

the collection and use of your

information

Choice

Exactly what information they collect

and how they use it

Notice

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Privacy Policies (cont.)

� The language can be

confusing.

� Look for:

� Whether the site will

sell or share your

information with

third parties

� The chance to opt-

out of practices you

do not like

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BUT . . . .

� Always keep in mind that a policy is merely a

policy.

� Because the policy is essentially the measure

of your rights on the site in which you are

participating, pay careful attention to the ways

in which the policy limits the site’s exposure

and accountability.

� Look for a web seal that lets you know the site

takes its policy and your privacy seriously.

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Recap:

� Find the privacy

policy and read it.

� But always continue

to act cautiously

online with your

personal information

regardless of a

policy’s

representations.

Security Risks

Passwords, File-Sharing, Spyware,

Phishing and Updating

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Protecting your personal

information: Passwords

� Keep your passwords in a secure place.

� Do not share passwords.

� Experts suggest: the strongest passwords have at least 8 characters and include numbers and symbols as well as letters.

� Do not use your personal information, your login name, or adjacent keys on the keyboard as passwords.

� Change your password every 90 days or so.

� Use a different password for every online account you access (or at least a good variety).

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File-sharing software

� Avoid down-loading file-sharing software.

� If you use this software be extremely careful about the information you share in order to protect your personal information.

� Read end user agreements, understand whether you are allowing spyware to be installed on your machine, and understand the risks of free downloads.

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Spyware

� Spyware is a program that can be installed on your computer from a remote location to steal your personal or financial information or to monitor your online transactions to capture that information.

� Install antispyware software to detect and remove these spyware programs.

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Phishing

� A phishing scam is one designed to elicit your personal information (username, password, account information) on a fake website.

� When you receive a suspicious email, do not click on a link provided and provide personal information.

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Phishing Protection

�When you receive a suspicious email, go

to your browser, contact the company,

and ask whether it is trying to reach you

or if there is a problem with your

account.

� Use anti-phishing software.

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Automatic Updates

� As a final note, automatically updating

your computer helps ensure that your

computer is protected against the latest

threats.

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Sources and Resources

The foregoing information was drawn largely from information found in a number of articles and on websites concerned about online safety and data protection. These sources and resources will provide additional, helpful information for you if you are interested in learning more about any of the privacy issues discussed today.

Please visit www.privacyassociation.org for a full list of sources and resources, along with links to educational videos about data protection and online safety.

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