Sharing personal information online

Every detail you share online about your life and the extended group of people you interact with is stored somewhere. Understanding the way this information accumulates is critical

People post resumes that include hobbies, past employers, past addresses, and professional associations. People post highly personal and identifiable information on blogs. On travel sites you may reveal your excitement about an upcoming trip. Perhaps you are exposing friends and family’s e-mail addresses by forwarding e-mails.

But you are not the only one sharing information:

• Employers need to consider the level of information they share about employees. Consider carefully how much information is appropriate to include in an employee bio that is posted on your company Web site. How much should be visible to other employees on your intranet? When you attend a conference is the attendee list shown in online conference documents? If your company encourages employees to leave out of office messages on their e-mail be aware that these may reveal when an employee will be away from home and make him or her a target for burglary. And you will probably never make the connection between the online information exposure and an offline crime.

• Schools should be cautious about exposing student information on their Web sites if those sites are viewable by the general public. Posting photos and identifying students by last name can place the student in harms way. Posting schedules of after school activities along with information about what activities a student participates in can give an online criminal a physical location and time where he can find that student.

Before you share any information online consider how sensitive the information may be if it is abused, and who you want to share the information with. If the information is general in nature or restricted to a site that is not available to the general public, there should be little risk in sharing it. However, if the information identifies you, your possessions, or someone else in some way you may want to limit access to that information or not post it at all.

Here are some categories of information you may want to consider as you determine what you are comfortable sharing or having others share about you publicly. This list does not presume to be a definitive inventory of identifying information. It is intended only to get you thinking about what you share and where you share it.

1. Your name and the names of family members and friends (mother’s maiden name is often a password reminder or reset verification)

2. Ages and genders of you, your parents, your children, or grandchildren.

3. E-mail addresses, user IDs, nicknames, and domain names should not include information such as your name, age, birth year, birth date, social security number, city, state, hobbies, emotional state, zodiac sign, or other information someone might easily find out or guess.

4. Address, including home, work, or any other place you will predictably be found such as at school, attending social clubs, visiting health clubs, and so on. If city and state information can be combined with a piece of secondary information such as a local sports team name, local newspaper article about you (including birth, wedding, graduation, or death announcements) you may be very findable.

5. Locations of others close to you, including parents, children, and friends.

6. Phone numbers. This includes home, mobile phone, work number, or friend’s numbers.

   • Keep in mind that with caller ID, your number is exposed when YOU call someone as well. It is no longer enough to tell children not to give their phone number out. They also shouldn’t call or text message with people they don’t know.

7. Passwords. Choose strong passwords and don’t use the same password for all of your online activities; if that password is ever compromised, everything is compromised.

8. Personal numbers. Bank accounts, credit cards, debit cards, PIN’s, phone calling card, SSN, passport, driver’s license number, birth date, wedding date, insurance policy numbers, loan numbers, VIN numbers, license plate, locker combinations, student ID, and more can help to identify you or put you at risk.

9. Photos that make you or other family members or friends identifiable, or show locations such as your home, school, or place of employment.

10. Information about others. Don’t place information about others online without first obtaining their express permission and ask your friends and family to do the same for you.