While Using Social Media

It’s good practice to assume that anything you put on the Internet can be seen.  However, even information that you have not entered into a website yourself can show up on the Internet - for example, if you have a magazine subscription or if you donate to a political campaign, your personal information can be accessed on the Internet.  Despite privacy settings, computer hackers and computer spyware can potentially access your information.  You can read more about spyware on our Internet Security page.  

A good test to find out how searchable you are on the Internet is to search your own name (using a search engine such as Google) and see what comes up.  If you have a common name, try modifying your search by including some basic information like your city or high school.  If you find articles or images about yourself, you may try to contact the administrator of the website and ask that s/he remove them although there is no guarantee that the website administrator will honor your request.