Facebook, Google, MySpace, Twitter, Bebo, Habbo, the proliferation of social networking means people are making more information about themselves accessible to strangers than ever before.
As attitudes to privacy are starting to change, here is a short list of some ways you can protect your privacy online:
1) personalised search engine optimisation - strange as it may seem, people are willing to pay for experts to alter how far up Google's listings their name appears when they type it in. The method allows you to keep the bad news private and highlight whatever - true of false - information you desire. As one firm put it: "If you’ve ever Googled yourself and been less than happy with the results, you’ve discovered a need for personal SEO."
2) change your name - stranger yet, Google's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, has said young people might have to change their names when starting adult life to escape the shadow of their dodgy past. Many adults already use aliases for sites like Facebook so only those who know that know where to find them.
3) change your security/privacy settings - a lot of Facebook users, to name just one social networking site, simply don't bother taking enough interest in this but it offers you some genuine control over who sees what. Do you really want a prospective boss checking what you used to do at the weekends?
4) set strong passwords - this is something online registration has been encouraging for years now but too many people just put in their birthdate, pet's name, or the name of the site. To add to the problem, there are thousands of hacking guides specifically designed to get into Facebook which are available via Google. The best advice remains: use a long, interspersed combination of lower-case letters, capital letters and numbers.
5) untag yourself - social networking sites allow other people to "tag" photos of you but you have the opportunity to remove it, which is sometimes wise. So pay attention when you are prompted to do such things.
6) don't include dates of birth/address/mother's maiden name - such things are almost invariably used as security questions for banks and credit card databases. Therefore giving them up compromises your security and makes it easier to forge your identity, "clone" your cards and steal your money.
7) don't respond to dodgy emails - an obvious one and a bit of an old trick now but people still fall for it. If you get an unsolicited email from an African business (a stereotype but often true) wanting to give you an incredible amount of money for a simple task, delete it. It's a scam. And you could be opening the door for electronic intruders.
8) log out - if you're in a library or some other communal space, people can get onto the machine you've just vacated and dive into your profiles if you have not logged out properly. Clearly this is most important for financial matters.
9) wi-fi - if you've got wi-fi at home, give it a good password (see above). Otherwise it allows intruders in with few barriers to overcome.
10) don't use Facebook - if you're absolutely terrified that someone might learn your darkest secrets or that a German fancy dress evening might backfire later in life. The only certain way to avoid embarrassment is to avoid social networking sites altogether.
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