Are your secrets safe online?
Ever since Facebook’s little privacy policy backlash, more and more people have approached me with concerns about privacy. Who can see what you put online? How safe is your personal information? Anytime you put information on the internet, you take a risk. However, you can take steps to protect yourself and your secrets.
CNET wrote an article about a company called Rapleaf in 2007. I went and investigated this company.
Rapleaf makes its money by conducting research for companies interested in social media demographics. But what’s more important, is that they offer a free service: showing you what information about you exists on the internet. We’re going to walk through how RapLeaf works by showing you how to set up an account.
- Go to the Rapleaf personal page and register.
- Make sure to verify your email.
- Discover all the information about you that is open to the public.
- Choose what information you want to share with RapLeaf.
- Make sure to read the privacy policy, just because you’ve hidden your information from Rapleaf, doesn’t mean that information can’t be found.
- If you want to delete something, you’ll have to go back to the original site to change it.
If you sign up for RapLeaf, let me know what you think of them!
Image by AMagillTags: personal information, privacy, protection, rap leaf, rapleaf, secrets, Social Media
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:42 pm
[...] My friend Kat Rice, of Verabatim e-Consultation and Design, wrote an excellent post about how companies are tracking your social media activities and selling data about social media demographics. She takes you step-by-step through looking at what’s out there about you from a social media perspective. I recommend that you take a look. [...]