Online Security means more than protecting your PC from viruses and keeping your personal data safe. It also means protecting your online reputation. If you have a website, use a social networking page such as MySpace or Facebook, or have a blog, you owe it to yourself to protect the content and ensure that everything on the sites you control is accurate and reflects you as you want others to see you.

Here are a few guidelines on what you might not want to put on your personal blog or MySpace page:

1) Avoid publishing pictures or confessions of you doing illegal activities. I know this one sounds obvious, but it never hurts to put a little reminder out there. Many employers are now trolling the social networking sites when would-be employees apply for jobs. They are looking to see if a potential new hire will positively or negatively affect their image as a company if they hire you. Would you hire someone who confesses to be drunk and out partying all night and every weekend?

2) Avoid libel. The Internet has turned everyone into potential publishers. Anything you put online will remain online in one database or hard drive somewhere, even if you take the original page offline. Be sure you keep your comments and opinions clearly denoted as your opinion and that they cannot be taken as false statements or attempts to defame people, companies, or their products.

photo credit: joelogon

3) Be aware of what personal information you make available online. Your online presence should reflect a level of professionalism that is distinct from your personal life. Giving out your real name, a phone number, or an address can lead to unwanted attention from strangers or identity theft. Carelessly giving our private information online is a major mistake no one can afford to make.

4) Use the search engines to view the web content similar to yours. This is market research of a minor form and you can use it to ensure your content is associated with the people and products you’d be proud to be seen with.

5) Be aware that plagiarism exists and be prepared to deal with it. Learn the copyright laws and how they protect you. Once your content goes online it can be taken and used elsewhere without your permission very easily. Keep an eye out for keywords and content that you feel is being used without your permission or in a way you do not appreciate. Ask the plagiarist to take the content down or contact the web master for assistance.

The Internet is perhaps the easiest and fastest way to get content online and viewable by the largest audience possible. However, as I’ve stated before, it is a double-edged sword if you are unprepared. Learn the tricks to keep your personal data and your content safe. The things you do, publish, and are associated with will influence how others see you. You have to work hard to make sure the image you want projected is visible at all times.

Protect your PC with Managed PC Care, and monitor your children with the best Monitoring Software on the Planet… Get More MySpace tips!

More Blog Posts From Around The Web:

Protect Your Rep: The Importance of Online Reputation Management – David Snyder, a Search and Social Media Strategist at http://snydeysense.com/ will be lending his knowledge over in this neck of the woods about once a week. Here is his first piece for… Your Online Writing Life: Protect Your Reputation — and Future … – Your Online Writing Life: Protect Your Reputation — and Future (Part Six). Perhaps this series will never be concluded so long as the creative ways in which people use the Internet and the true impact of the information disseminated via … Security Trends of 2008 Part 4: The Dreaded Storm and MPack – In order to protect your system from those malware, new ways are being preached and practiced. IronPort’s 2008 report summarizes these safety measures into five:. 1. Secure web traffic. The reputation of a website is a key to determine … How To Protect Your Reputation Online – Do you have a clue what your customers are saying about your company online? Do you follow the leading consumer blogs that discuss products and services in your industry?

Written by: OSAblogger / Bill Wardell - Please Read Our Latest OSA eZine Edition

Popularity: 25% [?]

Other Places You Can Find Me…

Digg - LinkedIn - OSA Community - Facebook - StumbleUpon - MyBlogLog

If you're a concerned parent, you may want to subscribe to the: OSA~RSS while your here, please JOIN our: OSA Forum... also Follow Me On Twitter Thanks for visiting!

OSA Technorati Tags: Managed PC Care, MySpace page, personal blog, personal information

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Related Posts

• Easily Fix A Slow Computer - You'll Be Amazed! This way or another, without any warning you find yourself with a slow computer and from that second your Windows won't work as it used to. You look for some kind of help on the World wide web while trying all kinds of techniques that'll help you to fix......
• The Web's New News Thing It's time to say: "enough is enough" or scream out from the rooftops that "Were not going to Take IT Anymore!!" We as an Internet family have to band together and force politicians, the Federal Government, and International leaders to make changes in how we treat Cyber Criminals....
• How You Can Stop Identity Theft The FTC recently released a list of top consumer fraud complaints received in 2007 and not surprisingly, identity theft topped the list for the eighth year in a row at 32% of the overall complaints. Consumers reported over $1.2 billion in losses last year, even though there are many ways......
• OSA's Brand New Top 10 Lists on Online Security Issues for 2010 The world can be a dangerous place. It is often scary to allow our kids the freedom to venture out and spread their wings when we, as adults, know all too well the dangers that exist out there. But, in the end, your kids are going to be kids and...
• Online Banking, Is It Really Safe? The key to keeping your details safe online is to approach your online transactions with the same amount of vigilance and care that you would exercise in a normal bricks-and-mortar environment....

Related Websites

• A Perspective on Micro-blogging from a Microblogging N00b In 2007, a micro-blogging service called Twitter took the 'Net by storm.  I will often jump onto public (and sometimes private) betas to check out new products, but for some reason Twitter never grabbed me.  In real life I am somewhat social, but online I never really developed the kind......
• Getting a Better Corporate Blog Ranking pt 1 If you ask ten different bloggers about the best way to increase your search engine ranking for your corporate blog, you will certainly get at least ten different answers. There are a myriad of different ways that you can increase your blog's search engine rankings in the top search engines......
• Ideas for Blogging Content Pt 2 Business blogging is rife with benefits for anyone who is able to utilize it properly, as it adds a significant amount of value to a company's web presence, increasing search engine visibility and encouraging excellent and meaningful interaction from readers, driving an increase of traffic to your website in the......
• How To Get More Content on Your Web Site If You're Not A Writer Getting more content on your web site is a great way to get more traffic to your web site. The search engines love it and it gives people a reason to visit again and again. You can also use the content or articles to steer people to some of......
• Mistakes to Avoid When Blogging For Business Most businesses today recognize the power of blogging and are using it to their advantage. Everyone from the bigger companies to much smaller businesses are taking advantage of the free advertising and wonderful increase to website traffic that can be gained from successful blogging. There are some mistakes that you......