Digital Tattoo Take Two

Like a tattoo on your body, which is permanent and visible to the public, there is a such thing as a digital tattoo. A digital tattoo is digital information about yourself that is permanently online. It is information that is easily searchable by anyone who knows how to use Google or a search engine.

In one of my previous courses I did a data mine on myself. I dug around on the internet to find out what information, that I thought was private, was actually available online for the public. I was very shocked by all the information that was out there. My original post and reaction to the data mine can be found here.

Privacy Checkup

This time I decided that I would like to go into each of my social media accounts and take a look at my privacy settings. After seeing all the information that available to the public, I think it is important to go through and make sure your settings are just how you want them. I used the steps found in the article Social Media For Teachers: Privacy and Guidelines  to guide myself while checking privacy.

Facebook

Before going into the privacy settings of my Facebook account, I believed that it was pretty private. I thought that I had myself unsearchable unless you were my friend, and that only people who I have accepted can see what I am posting. 

Here is what I found when I went through Facebook's Privacy Checkup and more specific settings: 

• Posts are only viewable by friends 
• E-mail address were set to private 
• Birthday, hometown viewable to friends 
• Posts I'm tagged in have to be reviewed by me before being posted to my wall 
• Only Friends of Friends can send me a friend request 
• My friends list is private (only I can see who I'm friends with) 
• People were able to look me up using provided phone number

Facebook provided privacy checkup (personal photo) 

The only thing that I was surprised by and wanted to change was the fact about my phone number. I don't have a phone number listed on my account, but my Facebook is linked to my cell phone through the app. I don't want people to be able to look me up just using my phone number because my phone number is a pretty public piece of information. Overall, I was happy with the privacy of my Facebook account. 

Instagram

Next, I decided to look into my Instagram privacy settings. Again, going into this I thought that my Instagram was set as private as it could be. 

Here is what I found:

• My account was set to private 
• The only account linked to my Instagram is my Facebook
• My posts are shared to Facebook, my stories are not shared to Facebook 
• Only my followers can see and reply to my story 
• My followers can share my story 

Instagram privacy setting (personal photo) 

Overall, this is exactly what I expected. I didn't change anything when it comes to privacy for my Instagram. 

Twitter

Finally, I looked into both my personal and professional Twitter accounts. Going into it, I knew that my personal twitter was set to private and my professional was set to public. 

Here is what I found:

• Professional Twitter
• Private
• Tweets are sent without location
• People can find me based on e-mail and phone number
• Others can tag me in photos
• Anyone can send me a direct message
• Personal Twitter
• My tweets are protected (private)
• Others can not tag me in photos
• People can find me based on e-mail and phone number
• I can not receive direct messages from someone unless I follow them

Again, just like Instagram, I was not suprised by my privacy settings. The only thing I changed was that my private account was able to be searched via e-mail or phone number. I made that so it wasn't possible anymore. 

Final Thoughts

For all three personal accounts I have, I am set very much to private. I did this because I don't want people being able to find me outside of personal friends and family. I do not want students or parents to be able to search me on these platforms. It has even been hard for some of my coworkers to find me at first. I feel more safe with my accounts set this way. On the other hand I am okay with my professional account being set to public. Things that I tweet out from that account are meant to be a part of a Professional Learning Community and can only be that way if they are public.

I'm really glad that I went through and did this activity. I think it something that everyone should sit down and do. I think is especially important to do after something on these platforms changes. You never know what the platform change did to your privacy settings.