The Unseen Viewer

The Issue

Do you remember that contest in the mall that you entered your information into? Yeah, that green Ford Mustang that you have always wanted since you were a kid. What about that magazine subscription you fill out online just the other day? Did you know that in placing your information into those little boxes you are putting yourself on the auction block?

Companies buy and sell information for "marketing" reasons. They play by the idea that if you scratch our back by provide information that I can sell and also lower marketing costs then they will in turn scratch yours by lower the cost of the product. Is that worth it to have a duplicate of your self out there in a digital form, i.e. a digital profile? Do we have much of a choice?

Unless you plan on never using the internet, filling out a warrenty card, or any other type of form you should start thinking about how to limit the information going into your profile and being spread through the internet. While the places I mentioned that keep your profile doesn't sound too scary, think about all the people who have figured out how to tap into that digitial profile that are not for mere marketing reasons. They desire to do other things such as acquire your identity.

You can start right now and decide how you would like to limit this digital profile and the information sent out through the internet so no cyber vagabond or predator can acquire the information.

There are a lot of websites out there that will keep you updated on the big pictures of information privacy.

A lot of these issues apply to classrooms because of how connected to the internet/technology the students are connected while in class. I think a downfall of living in a digital age is that we can get desesitized to the dangers on the web because we are surrounded by the internet all the time. It becomes a normal part of what we do. Now we need to make it sure that saftey precautions are a part of the habit as well.

Safeguards

If you are going to use the internet in the classroom then the school should consider setting limitations on what can be accessed through said computer. The teachers should spend a little time, before letting them roam free on the computer, to talk about some saftey precations.

If you feel like your class is in need more education on the matter you can consider acquiring different tools, exercises, and informative video. 

Teachers and Administrattors can cut down on the digital profile growth by educating themselves on their computer software and paying attention to 1. their expiration date (virus protections),   2. the necessary updates for browsers and software and 3. privacy settings on websites. All of these things will mean you have the latest protection. There are constantly people out there, our internet vagabonds and predators, that are figuring out how to bypass the safeguards that have been created. If you use the updates then you are receiving the latest protection and ensuring to stay ahead of the hackers and those unwanted invisble viewers to your information. Take advantage of being able to choose your privacy settings in order to add to your filter and means of protection.

Teachers also need to ensure when they use such tools as wikis or blogs that they are not using too much personal information and allow for some anonimity on the web. Let them create their own user name while you maintain a list at home of who is who.

One of the biggest things students need to know about safe guarding their digital selves is to limit what is put in this profile. They shoud learn to filter. They need be aware of where they are putting their personal information such as addresses, full names etc... This might seem weird to them because of all the social networking options available and all the information that could be enetered in there. They need to be reminded to use the privacy settings to ensure that only those people they want to see their information has access to it.

Places for social networking are a whole different monster, but there are two concerns you can present to the students: Personal information theft (to be used for the wrong reasons) and the influence things on the internet have on a future job. There is a permancy to what is added to the internet.

Do you think there should be mandatory classes in school on how to use the internet? Should it just be little tips before projects and use of the computer or full blown lessons? Does your administration address these issues during the pre or post school year planning sessions? Should they?

If you want to keep learning more and some of the most up to date things you can do to protect your privacy then consider visiting the website or participating in the International Data Privacy Day.