You may relate to “The world’s in my backyard” if you own an online profile. Social media has enabled us reconnect with long lost friends, have an online profile, made business easier and even saved us money (a status update on LinkedIn is read by hundreds of thousands – now compare doing the same with letters) However Social media also comes with a price. Be warned of the dangers lurking.

One of comments I received on my blog “Are you a technosaurus?" http://tiny.cc/hzuy6 was “I had a Facebook account which I deactivated after a couple of years of using it. I want to take a step back and rethink about sharing information online and how much am I willing to share knowingly and unknowingly. I think it's good to be in the know and keep abreast of all tech things that our world is inundated with, but not feel compelled to use” You make a good point Lols.

Take Facebook’s default privacy settings for example. In 2005 only you & your friends could view your photos, wall posts, networks, contact info, birthday, gender and other personal profile data. Fast forward to 2010 and the entire internet (yes you read correctly ‘the entire internet’) can view your networks, wall posts, photos, likes, friend’s list and other personal profile data. Check out Matt McKeon’s insightful graph @ http://tiny.cc/wcg5s

Now if you belong to a breed that thinks it’s ok for the world to know who you are, what you do and where you live then that’s your choice and I respect that. However if you’re protective of yourself, your family and privacy, then wake up and do something about it. I’m not suggesting deleting your social media accounts (remember nothing dies on the internet) but to change your privacy settings to a level that you are comfortable with.

Make no mistake, I love social media & use it’s benefits but I equally love & value my privacy.

The world has changed people, stalkers no longer lurk below your window sill………….they are just a mouse click away.