Internet Safety Tips from Someone Else.

I was having a lovely morning on the StopSign Twitter account yesterday, checking out tweets, when I ran across the link to a great blog post over at MamaKatsLosinIt.com about Internet safety and how a simple email really shook up the site owner, Kathy, and made her reevaluate how much information she shares online.

I won’t ruin any surprises for you by giving you specifics (you really should read her blog post), but suffice to say that even the best of us slip up and let personally identifiable information slip out of our hands and onto the Web. They key, however, is not to live in a world of fear and never post again. In fact, in the post she says “I refuse to live in fear of what could happen.”, which is a great attitude to have. Instead, Kathy’s post reminds us to be ever-vigilant about keeping things like our full names, home addresses, and other places would-be bad guys may be interested in off the web. Make it hard for them to track you down.

At the end of the post, Kathy said she was going to use the weekend to look for anything with her last name, her address (even in pictures, as we’ve mentioned in our blog post “Staying Safe Online (and Offline)”), and anything else that might identify her or her family. I really loved this idea, and I went home and did the same thing myself that night. I suggest you take Kathy’s suggestion and do the same.