The Blog of Ross C Brown

For the last few days I’ve found myself employed on a freelance basis for a large (and arguably faceless) multinational company looking into methods of using data and information gathered from social networks in their Business Intelligence (BI) Decision Support Systems (DSS). Having looked into the data types available the most important pearl of wisdom I can pass on is that you Facebook/Bebo/MySpace page is telling the world a lot more about you than you might like.

I’ve been writing the specification of some tools for data mining social networks and automatically determining the value of the data collected. Probably the easiest to explain implementation of the mining technology is to assess the links between ‘friends’ on these networks by measuring interactions and the quality of said interactions. Using ideas from the semantic web, the tools being designed attempt to understand the public messages you send to your online friends.

Rule 1: When you publish online, you lose control of your content.

I can’t believe that I actually have to remind people of this. Just because there is a ‘delete’ button does not mean you can easily remove that drunken comment from your Bebo page. Firstly, deleting comments only prevents the comment from being shown on your page. Nine times out of ten the offending comment is retained on the social networks servers. This goes for photos and videos too. It is also important to remember that there are hundreds of archiving and caching servers indexing the web hourly that will also copy your content and make it accessible after you ‘delete’ if from your social network page.

Rule 2: You can censor yourself but not your friends.

The company I have been working with has been using social networks to check out future employees. Even if you delete all the inappropriate content and revealing photos from your page you have little control over what your friends will or have posted about you on their pages. Not a big deal if your best friend has blogged about you getting exceedingly drunk? Yes it is! Because your best friend is only one click away from you. The company I have been working with has been investigating the person in question, their friends, and the friends of their friends. Guilty by association!

Rule 3: Security through obscurity.

If you are going to join a social network, make your profile private! Do you offer up your private thoughts and photo albums to anyone you meet in the street? Most people wouldn’t offline, so why do it online? Make people request access to your page and only allow people you know (and trust) to access your profile. Remember, this method is not foolproof, it is only as secure as your least trusted friend. Everyone has their price and will eventually divulge information you give them in confidence.

Rule 4: Keep online and offline separate.

One nice way to enjoy social networking but still preserve your privacy is to keep online exclusively online. In your profile don’t make reference to your name or offline life. That means no pictures too. Use screen names that are not related to your real name and have different screen names for anything that links your online persona to your offline identity.

Rule 5: If you’re under 16, talk to your parents about your online activities.

This is simple. Let your parents or guardian help safeguard your identity and privacy. Talk to them about your new friends and who’s posting what. They’ll always look out for you.

Delete your profile.

The above rules will help you secure your privacy online but none of the methods are 100% secure. The only way to eliminate the threat of your online presence is to hit the big red delete button. If you are graduating college or seeking a new job you should consider wiping your online profiles and starting over. If there is something out there that you’re not proud of it will, sooner or later, be discovered. The support department will help you in permanently deleting your profile.

Stay safe online…

[poll id="2"]