Internet Safety

I have a Facebook account for personal use and a Twitter account that I use for personal and professional purposes. Each account has it's own issues.

Having been a Facebook users for about 7 years I know that I need to check on my privacy settings at least once a year. They change their policies so often and I like to keep that account private so I know it's important to know what is being changed. I make sure that people can search for my name and see my profile picture, but not anything else. People can send me messages and friend requests without being my friend but that is all. I know I don't want just anyone to go through my pictures or friends lists.

I've gone back and forth about how I've wanted to use my Twitter account. I decided that I would NOT have a personal and a separate professional account because I didn't want to deal with yet another account! I also had to decide if I wanted a protected account, but thought that defeated my purposes for using this site in the first place. So anyone can follow me or see my tweets. I keep this in mind when I make any sort of tweet. I want to make sure anything I post is appropriate for anyone to see. I follow people for both professional and personal reasons as well. I find a lot of value in the professional connections that I have made. I also try to keep up to date with any new policies from Twitter, but have so far found this to be a much easier task than keeping up with Facebook.

Erin, you bring up a good point about Facebook continuously changing their privacy setting and that users should go in and check their settings on a regular basis.  I think that we have become too trustworthy and complacent with our own personal information and forget that we need to protect ourselves.  

It's hard to keep up with all the changes in the privacy settings. It is a good reminder to check this often. I have two twitter accounts but thinking about deleting one. I really only use it for school use so it would help me manage it.