How to Protect Your Privacy

Would you let a stranger look through your wallet, read your personal journal, or search your parents' tax returns? Probably not. Some things should stay private.

It's the same on the Internet, where maintaining your privacy can help you avoid problems that range from spam to identity theft. Revealing too much information online could even threaten your safety.

If you use the Internet for shopping, gaming, or social networking, it's almost impossible to avoid entering personal information when you sign up, and to limit who uses your information in a directory, mailing list or other public arena. But you can have more control if you're careful.

These tips will help you protect your privacy on the Internet:

• Have multiple interests? Use multiple e-mail addresses. It's a good idea to keep separate e-mail addresses for school, social networking sites, shopping, and your closest friends. Separate addresses create smaller targets for spammers, and if you run into a problem with one e-mail address (a deluge of spam from a shopping site, for instance), you can identify the problem and clean up or shut down that address without having to mess with the others.
• Play it close to the vest. Just as in poker, it's better to "keep 'em guessing" by limiting the amount of personal information you make public on a Web site. When you sign onto sites where information—like addresses and phone numbers—are optional, leave them out. Providing only minimal information is a good way to help protect your privacy.
• Check out privacy statements. Nobody likes to read the fine print, but in this case you could be signing away your privacy if you don't know what a site plans to do with the info you give them. Take a few minutes to find out what you're agreeing to. If you don't like what you read, if they ask for more info than necessary, or if the site doesn't have a privacy statement, go elsewhere.
• Free may not be free. Be careful with contests or "free" offers that you see online or in e-mail. Does it really make sense that someone would give a free MP3 player to anyone who answers a few questions? More likely, they plan to sell your personal information to marketing companies that will flood your inbox with spam. The worst offenders may want to steal your identity for their personal gain.

These general tips will help you protect your privacy on the Internet, but online communities—including social networking sites, e-mail distribution lists, chat rooms, and message boards—require special vigilance because they often encourage users to let their guard down.

Protect your privacy in online communities

Online communities are generally great places to connect with friends, share interests, or get information on specific topics. It's just that spammers, phishers, and online predators also use online community settings to find victims, so it's smart to be careful and safe.

Keep these tips in mind when you visit an online community:

• Personal information is expected, but you have control. At the very least, you'll be expected to login with an e-mail address, username and password, so choose names that are unique to that site. Often you'll have the option of posting a user profile and it's fine to list your interests, but avoid questions about your birth date, home address or phone numbers, your e-mail addresses, and other personal information.
• Watch what you say. Comments you make on public sites are often permanent. Post only information that you wouldn't mind sharing with strangers, and don't say anything in haste that could embarrass you later. Also, keep in mind that teachers, college admission advisors, and prospective employers may search the Internet for your name. Remember not to post words or photos that could give people the wrong idea about you.
• Beware of bullies and stalkers. If someone takes a personal interest in you and it seems unhealthy—either they're mean, they ask too many personal questions, or it just doesn't feel right—don't encourage the communication. Ask them to stop bothering you and end it there. If the harassment continues, talk to your parents and let the Web site manager know what's going on. If you are ever threatened, tell your parents and contact the police immediately.