Know the Risks

No matter how real online interactions seem, they’re not quite like hanging out with friends because you never know for sure who you’re connecting with. You may be revealing personal details to a much wider audience than you realize–a mix of family, buddies, acquaintances, co-workers–and complete strangers.

When ordinarily you might share only a part of your life with any one person–intimate details with close friends, complaints about your work load with colleagues–online you may be sharing everything with everybody. Unlike a private conversation, after information has been published on the Internet, it’s effectively there forever. It’s available to future employers, friends, job recruiters, and others with consequences you may be unable to imagine.Most people you’ll meet online are genuine and decent, but just as in the rest of the world, some are up to no good. They could misuse the information you disclose to tarnish your reputation, harass you, steal your identity, even jeopardize your physical safety. They could also try to break into your computer to plant spyware, or exploit your PC to send spam or commit crimes. (more…)