Charlie Sheen Reminds Us, The Internet Has a Memory

Like millions of other people around the world, I’ve been watching Charlie Sheen’s rants and explosions with rapt attention.  I find myself thinking less about Mr. Sheen’s extreme words and actions, and thinking, instead, more about the built in dilemma of publishing them on the Internet. Even if Sheen wanted to take back every word of it, and managed to apologize enough to dilute the memory of the public, nothing ever defeats the memory of the Internet.

Interestingly, intertwined with the rise of popularity of social media is the fact that as more of us work to create a public face, the more important it becomes to manage our privacy.  We need to be careful with not only our business or banking, but also with our personal privacy.  Information, pictures, pieces of writing, comments, concerns, and anything that we post on the Internet can do far more harm than we’d like to think. By our own conduct, we build a permanent record, be it in a virtual form, of everything we do online.  And most of it, unless we are careful, is available to the public at large. That means that recruiters, employers, friends, enemies, and criminals can access our lives, whether we want them to or not.

According to Career Builder 45% of employers are “screening” social networking sites when hiring new recruits.  Over 80% of college recruiters asked in a Kaplan Test Prep survey suggest that social media will play at least some role in future recruitment.  For people who tend to be over-sharers in their social media worlds, these trends can prove to be disastrous.  Prospective students and employees might be denied employment or admission; or, in other cases, they can be removed from their posts or institutions. Not even Charlie Sheen is immune to this effect; he was fired on Monday.

Even when we think ” that posts are temporary, they really aren’t – just ask Gloria Huang.  Huang accidentally signed in to the Red Cross Twitter feed (to which she has access given her position with the organization) and Tweeted about getting beer and getting drunk.  The Tweet was deleted after about an hour, but there were innumerable screenshots made of and stories published about the “rogue” tweet.  Thankfully for the Red Cross, they were able to pull something redeemable from the incident, but it does highlight the point that nothing is temporary on the Internet.

When it comes to the way I look at my own online presence, I like to think of it more like my reputation. If I wouldn’t show a picture to a meeting of my fellows at work, I won’t put it online. For kids, or parents thinking about their children’s online reputation, try thinking of your social media profiles as “grandmother approved.” In general, keeping our profiles private, be they on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc, is a really good idea.  In a day when we can Tweet from a smartphone and post to Facebook from an iPhone, keep a simple rule of thumb in the forefront of your mind at all times – do you want to see it in the front page of the New York Times sitting in your grandmother’s house?  If not, keep it to yourself.

Really, the more we know about Over-the-counter Viagra the memory of the Internet, the more we should think before we post our lives online.

A Different Key for Everything that Matters

A colleague of mine recently learned a difficult lesson when her computer was stolen from her car. At first, she was mostly concerned about having lost all of the work (she’s a writer) that was stored on her machine. Sadly, there was a lot more than poetry at stake: her entire identity was at risk.

While using one password for all the secure sites she visited seemed smart at the time, it turned out to be a disaster. It was anything but smart. One little password gave the thief access to literally every aspect of her life: banking records, bills, medical records, emails, social networks and more.

To put this in perspective, think of what we already do in the real world. We have a different key for everything that matters – house, car, safe-deposit box, gym locker, work, file cabinet, desk drawers, etc. And yet, many of us do what my colleague did — use the same password across multiple websites from social media to online banking to shopping sites. Many of us learn the lesson of safeguarding personal security after it’s too late.

The good news is that this kind of privacy invasion can be avoided with some relatively easy steps. Exercise caution in choosing passwords by selecting passwords that can’ t easily be connected to you. Names of loved ones and important dates (births, anniversaries) are too easy to guess. Passwords that contain combinations of numbers, characters, and letters are great choices. If you have a laptop you frequently travel with, even if it’ s just to your local coffee shop, consider turning off your browsers’ password storage function. You’ll notice this function when a pop-up comes up asking you if you want to store this password.

Most importantly, use a different password for every site that matters, just like you do with your keys. Examples of sites that matter are sites for banking, mortgage payments, bill pay services, online shopping, and social media sites where you share your personal life with family and friends. If all your passwords are the same and someone fraudulently obtains your login info for one site, they will have obtained ALL your passwords in one small coup.

Different logins for everything might sound daunting but not only is this the single best way to protect your valuable information, it is also not as terrible as it sounds. Thankfully, there are many password storage sites and pieces of software that are fairly priced or totally free that will help you keep track of your passwords. For example, try using software like Password Locker to keep all of your passwords organized and secure.

Choosing hack-proof passwords and different log-ins for different sites have saved thousands of people money, time, and hassle by making their personal and financial information that much more secure.

And we can all appreciate a little more security and peace of mind online.

The Facebook Revolt

We talk a lot about the impact of social media on commerce and human connections.  The social media platform has the ability to transfer news and ideas faster than news and ideas can even be generated.  Since the start of what the media is calling the ‘Arab Spring’, social media has literally become something quite revolutionary.

Last spring, the conflicts in Bahrain and Egypt showcased the true power of the Internet, particularly of Facebook.  Before the proliferation of the Internet, protestors spread the word of an upcoming rally or demonstration through posters on city center walls and word of mouth.  Sitting governments would try to quell these movements by forbidding posters, declaring curfews, and outright banning demonstrations.

And then, along came the Internet and along came social media sites like Facebook.  Against all odds, Facebook has become one of the most powerful tools for the promotion of freedom.  It has made spreading the word to organize for a cause easier to do, faster to execute, and more far-reaching.  And yet, the best solution to stopping such an upheaval in today’s times is the same as it has been for hundreds of years – silence the protestor’s ability to speak and organize.  For a government, this means removing the newest weapon from the hands of the people, and that weapon is the Internet.

For many of the protests we’ve seen in the last year, the ultimate goal has been to overthrow the oppressive policies and actions of a government through massive civilian uprisings.  Historically, anti-government citizens achieved their goal by various means – organizing peaceful protests, seeking help from international organizations, taking up arms, and sometimes engaging in violent attacks against the government and military.  All of this remains true today, with the added power of the Internet.  For the protestor, the Internet is a powerful tool for increasing strength, gaining greater and broader support, and reaching out to family and friends.

It’s shocking to a great number of people that Facebook would become instrumental in the overthrow of long standing dictatorships or brutal regimes. People of Egypt used it. People of Tunisia used it. People of Bahrain used it.  When the war ‘ended’ and the NATO participation in Libya finally came, it was announced on Facebook.  It seems as if there is no end to the reach of the Internet, social media, and the concomitant power of Facebook.

The importance of the Internet in a revolution goes beyond the individual.  Foreign nation-states play significant roles during an uprising, and the Internet is one of many tools at their disposal. In many cases, providing Internet support and continued access to the Internet has become much like providing artillery support.

At end of the day, the Internet has become one of the most powerful tools for promoting freedom.  Amazingly, a platform that started as a means by which people share photos has evolved to help topple brutal dictators. There’s no telling where all of this could lead civilization.