Today’s world is increasingly marked by texting, tweeting, posting on “walls”, updating statuses, and sharing pictures and videos widely and instantaneously. In this whirlwind of activity, it can be easy for people to believe that they’re losing control over what they post and what others post about them online.

But here’s something to important to keep in mind: privacy protection starts with you. You can take control of your online reputation. You set your own privacy settings. You decide who to follow and “friend”. And you decide what to post about yourself and others.

All this to say, you can protect yourself by thinking twice before you post something that could damage your reputation or that someone else could use to hurt or embarrass you. You can also show and encourage respect by checking in with friends before posting anything about them.

Passing along a rumour about friends or tagging them in pictures affects their privacy. That’s why it’s always a good idea to ask if it’s OK before you post something about others. You can also ask the same from your friends in return. In addition, if you’re tagged in a friend’s photo that’s already been posted and don’t want to be, you should feel free to ask that the picture or tag be removed.

Remember, when you are posting things online, it’s important to think in the long term. Everything leaves a digital footprint. Whatever gets posted or created online may never go away. If you or one of your friends doesn’t want to see it tomorrow, you’d better not post it today.

 Stay tuned for tip #10: When online, avoid disclosing where you are in real life.

That’s why the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA) forum, which includes the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, has made Privacy Resources for Young People the theme of Privacy Awareness Week 2012, April 29 – May 5. 

Since 2008, our Office has been developing a variety of tools designed to teach young people about the relevance and importance of privacy when using modern technologies. The OPC has a Privacy Awareness Week 2012 web page with links to all of our privacy resources for youth, parents and educators, as well as links to privacy resources for youth developed by members of the APPA forum, at: www.priv.gc.ca/resource/paw/2012/index_e.asp.

If you would like more information on youth privacy, or to stay informed regarding our tips and tools for parents, educators and youth, you can further explore this youth website (www.youthprivacy.ca).

You can also visit http://www.privacyawarenessweek.org/ for links to a wide variety of international privacy guidance including tips, animations, brochures, discussion topics and interactive website materials.

We also encourage you to follow us on Twitter:  @privacyprivee, Privacy Awareness Week: #2012PAW

We would also like to express sincere thanks to Encounters with Canada, and the teens participating in its Politics in Canada week, who selected our winners.

Winning Videos:

The top video artists in the Privacy Issues Related to Cybersecurity category were:

1^st place: Brooke Davis and Alyssa Lynn of Hillcrest High School, Ottawa, ON, with a video titled “Your Online Life.”

The top video artists in the Privacy Issues Related to Mobile Devices category were:

1^st place: Matt Paddison and Julian Figueroa of Chatelech Secondary School, Sechelt, BC, with a video titled “Your Phone is Your Everything.”

2^nd place: Fumina Takara and Maryam Hashim of Hillcrest High School, Ottawa, ON, with a video titled “Mobile Information.”

The top video artists in the Privacy Issues Related to Online Gaming category were:

1^st place: Benjamin Reyes and Zachary Spence of Canterbury High School, Ottawa, ON, with a video titled “Credit and Safety.”

2^nd place: Mason Wik and Pierce Thomson of F.R. Haythorne Junior High, Sherwood Park, AB, with a video titled “Game Over.”

The top video artists in the Privacy Issues Related to Social Networking category were:

1^st place: Pamela Khouri and Hannah Chan of Collège Jean de la Mennais, La Prairie, QC, with a video titled “Unknown Exposure.”

2^nd place: Wajid Jawid Ahmad and Dawut Esse of Centre d’action bénévole Bordeaux-Cartierville, Montreal, QC, with a video titled “Spoken Words Are Fleeting… Written, They Remain.”

3^rd place: Katie Fitzgerald of Lorne Akins Junior High School, St. Albert, AB, with a video titled “Words Have Life.”

Congratulations to all of our winners!

Do you carry a mobile device such as a smart phone, mp3, tablet or laptop? If so, like many others, you probably have important information on it. For example, it may contain your personal contact information and that of your friends and family, along with all of your texts and e-mails.  It might even have other valuable data like your banking details.

Think now about what would happen if you lost this device at school, on a bus or at the mall. If your device wasn’t password-protected, it would be easy for anybody to pick it up and gain access to any and all personal information on it. And by texting or e-mailing from it, whoever picked it up could even pretend to be you.

On the other hand, by protecting your device with a password that’s hard to guess, and adjusting the settings so that it locks very shortly after it’s no longer being used, you can protect your device, your personal information and your reputation.

Mobile devices provide us all with tremendous convenience. It’s hard to imagine life without them. As new models are introduced with new features and apps, they have the potential to store more and more personal data. But at the same time, they somehow keep getting smaller and smaller, which makes them easy to lose – or even steal .

And once your personal information is compromised, it’s hard to retake control. That information can be used in ways that could cause you significant personal and financial harm.  All this to say that the few minutes you need to set a password for your device will be very much worth your time.

There are other things you can do to help avoid the risks that mobile devices can bring to your personal information. Click here for our Office’s 10 tips to protect your privacy on mobile devices.

Stay tuned for tip #9: Protect your friends’ privacy, too.

It is important to know that some people do go into other people’s accounts and try to cause trouble.

Consider this example. There were two boys at a Canadian high school who were really good friends. One day one started sending nasty e-mails to the other, and posting rude messages on his social networking page. The second student finally called the other and asked what was going on. His friend told him he hadn’t been on the computer all day. Someone had hacked into his account.

So, what can you do to avoid this happening to you?

Here are some tips: :

Use a strong password

Keep them to yourself and use different ones for different accounts. And  don’t make them too easy.  Something that’s super easy for you to remember may also be easy for someone else to guess. Make sure to use a combination of letters, capitals and numbers and to choose something that only you would know and not something someone knows about you (like your birth date, pet name, etc). 

Don’t use the “remember password” function

It’s possible for people to access your online accounts if you use a shared computer (like one that’s in a classroom, library or even your home) and forget to disable the “remember password” function. This means that the next person who goes to the same e-mail or social networking site could automatically log into your account. Automatic logins can be convenient but are not a good idea if you are sharing a computer with other people.

Log off every time

Make sure you sign out of social media and e-mail sites after you’re done using them.  Closing a browser window is not the same as logging off. Otherwise, someone could access your account simply by using the computer right after you and opening the browser window.

Look out for your friends and ask the same

If a friend is acting strange online (as in our example about the two high school boys), pick up the phone and find out what’s really going on.  If its turns out they’re just being silly, don’t worry about them thinking you’re too cautious.  They should appreciate you having their back.  And let them know you would, too.

Stay tuned for tip #8: It’s important to password-protect your mobile device

Have you heard of the days when people would have to go to an arcade to play a video game and a cell phone was a big clunky thing that could only be used to make a phone call? These days, portable gaming systems make it possible for you to have a virtual arcade in your pocket. Many cell phones can connect to the web and include video cameras, meaning what was once a phone is now a mini broadcast studio.

And it doesn’t stop there. Technology is advancing every day, meaning that there are new products and online features available all the time. And while some of the new features can be fun and useful, some are designed to take or reveal your personal information, so it is important to understand them before you use them.

Take  geo-tagging, for example.  Most newer-model smartphones allow geo-tagging  – a  feature that can reveal your location. If you enable the feature, when you take a photo, thanks to GPS technology, it can be tagged with your location. When you post your geo-tagged photo, people can discover where it was snapped. Who can know your location? Anyone you allow to see your photo – and anyone those people share the photo with. It could be friends or family. It could also be teachers, ex boyfriends or girlfriends – and, of course, complete strangers.

Geo-location applications can be helpful, even fun, since they allow you to see, on a map, the exact location a photo was taken. The point is that it’s important to understand what is happening to this important piece of your personal information before you use the application. It is important to think carefully before you tell the world exactly where you are at all times.

And this is an important tip to consider before you use any new piece of technology or online application. Think about the effect it will have on your personal information before you use it. In the case of geotagging, find out exactly what information is being shared and consider if you’re comfortable with that before you use the application.   

For information on how to disable geo-tagging on many smartphones, click here.

Stay tuned for Tip #7:  Online impersonation: prevent people from hijacking your account and pretending to be you.   

After a few days, I realized that my new job would benefit me both on a professional and a personal level. How? Through simple things, like being motivated to buy a shredder, to clean up my friends list, to further restrict the privacy settings of my social networking accounts and to think twice before filling-out online quizzes or providing personal information at the cash when buying new clothes.

Privacy quickly became palpable.

To me, privacy is the right to decide which information I want to share, and with whom. It’s Googling my name and not finding my whole life exposed to the public. It’s being able to trust companies, to know that if they collect my personal information, with my consent, they will use it for legitimate purposes that they make clear in their privacy policies. They will respect my privacy, the same way I do with my friends’  and vice versa. I understand now that my personal information is precious. Not because I have something to hide, but because I realize how much it’s worth – today more than ever.

What are your thoughts on privacy?

Get inspired. Post a comment.
I’ve told you what privacy means to me. Now, it’s your turn.

Sexting means sending sexually explicit messages or sexual images, primarily between mobile phones.

According to Common Sense Media, young people may send these kinds of messages for a variety of reasons, like responding to peer pressure, showing off, or just showing someone that they like them.
 
Recent media reports suggest it may not be as big a problem as experts once thought. But for a school of 1000 kids, that’s still about one hundred kids potentially putting themselves at risk.
 
Remember that photos and messages can be widely shared and remain online forever. And think about the emotional or reputational damage that can come from having intimate photos of yourself go to a friend who can become an ex-friend and forward them to everyone you know or even people you don’t know.

Our advice on this is easy – don’t send sexual messages or images across the Internet. The risks and consequences are just too great. And it’s just not worth it!

Stay tuned for Tip #6:  Understand new online features before you use them.

Take a minute to think about the number of friends you have on your favorite social networking site. Would you say that, on average, you know these friends:
1) very well?
2) well?
3) somewhat?
4) not at all?

In the real world, we are generally selective about the company we keep and the personal information that we share with them. However, when using social networking sites, too many of us forget to think before we click.

Accepting a new friend means more than just a click of the mouse. If you haven’t set up different privacy settings for different lists of friends, you are giving that person access to all of your personal information.

Many of us have social media “friends” that we would more likely consider acquaintances in real life. Now, take a moment to think about the information that they can see about you. If you are revealing details about your life that could potentially be twisted or used against you – which could be details about a relationship, or even a simple expression of your feelings towards someone who turns out to be less of a friend than you thought – you really need to think about who you are allowing to view that information. For example, when you write something as simple as “off to a ski chalet for the weekend” as a status update, that may signal to a thief that there’s nobody at your home all weekend, making it an easy target.  This is an extreme case, but the same principle holds true for other, less extreme scenarios. Maybe you announce that you’re going somewhere, and someone you don’t want to see makes sure to bump into you there.  In the end, the more you share, the more information that is out there for others to use – potentially in ways that you hadn’t thought of.

We aren’t encouraging you to avoid social networking sites. We do, however, want you to be aware of the potential risks when posting information, and encourage you to take a few precautions to fully benefit from the positive aspects of these sites. This may mean taking a second thought about the information that you post online. It may mean taking another look at your privacy settings, which may have changed since you last checked them. If you are very active on your social media pages, maybe you should only let your real-life friends see your page, limit what some friends can see within your page, or limit what you post.

Go over your friend list frequently, and restrict access to friends who are no longer in your ‘inner circle.’ While you can always delete friends, it’s best to avoid going through that trouble in the first place by being careful when accepting a new friend request. Consider only giving your real friends access to content that you consider private – someone you don’t really know doesn’t need that information anyway!

Stay tuned for Tip #5: Sexting – don’t do it!