A prospective client who was looking for office space contacted me to ask a few questions. By the end of the phone conversation we had traded our contact information and had scheduled a meeting for an hour later.
During that hour-long gap, I was able to do a couple of Internet searches and very quickly found all of the following information:
€ her company name
€ her business partner's name
€ her current office address and phone number
€ her email address
€ the college she attended and her graduation date.
Having all of this information at hand made things a lot easier for me during our appointment because I had a general sense of what she was looking for as we sat down. However, the ease with which I was able to find this online information reminded me of how much information is available on the Internet and how we all need to be cautious about what information we place online.
Within moments, anyone who has your name and a computer, including potential future employers and/or clients, can most likely find out more information about you and your company than you probably want them to know. So be vigilant about the information you post about yourself online, even in supposedly secured websites like MySpace and Facebook. This can take some of the fun out of your Facebook posting about what you did over the weekend, but it can eliminate a number of problems in the long run.
Some general rules to follow when posting information online:
1. Always look for either https:// in the URL of a website and/or a padlock icon at the top of your Internet browser when submitting information for online purchases. Both of these indicate that the website you are visiting employs Secured Socket Layer (SSL) technology that encrypts your information.
2. Never post your home address or telephone number online even temporarily, as any information that is cached once by an Internet server effectively becomes part of the public domain forever.
3. Never divulge personal information that you might not want an employer, client, employee€"or on a personal level, a significant other€"to know about. Save that story about your trip to Mexico for the next time you see someone in person if that story involves anything more than feeling the sand between your toes.
4. Resist the temptation to spread gossip and/or write excessively negative reviews. Gossiping and negativity are two traits that many employers frown upon when making hiring decisions.
5. And obviously, NEVER EVER post your Social Security number online. This may seem obvious, but it's worth repeating.
You may also want to consider creating an anonymized email address through a service like Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail (i.e., super1@gmail.com) and use that address when contacting websites and/or people that you don't already know. By providing this type of address, it's far more difficult for them to find out personal information about you. Setting up an additional email address means you'll need to visit multiple email providers to check all of your incoming messages, and a generic email address is considered less professional than a company-specific address in a business setting. But the extra security may be worth it.
By taking the above security measures, you'll minimize your risk online and maximize the benefits of your Internet presence.