Privacy in the digital era
Nowadays, information about most adults is readily available online in their digital records, with technology tracking your details including locations or online search history.
A simple Google search can show a surprising amount of information about someone- from personal details to property tax records, voter registration rolls and sometimes even employment details. Some background check companies sell personal information to others and also digital court records make it easy to look up criminal history and civil disputes. Newspapers often list court cases online, which can be another way to find out about one’s criminal history.
Some media organizations (newspaper and television) now publish their news stories online, meaning that if you are in a news story, it will likely end up online, accessible to the wider internet.
Social media sites have made it easy for us to share our personal life with an enormous online audience. Unfortunately, using social media also means that we are giving up much of our privacy. A lot of hiring managers will look up potential job candidates on major social networking sites to check their public profiles. In addition to that, you must also be mindful of what your friends share about you on their own profiles.
The technology you use can also share private information — like your location and what you look up online. Any computer device you use online is assigned a public IP address (by internet servers) that will show your relative location which is also saved by in the history of its users. Social media sites like Facebook also collect a lot of personal information about users in the background.
Smartphones will track user locations and their usage. Whenever you use your smartphone to call and text, the carrier will record the time and location. Many mobile apps will record and share your location data as well. This information is monitored and used so they can offer personalized search results (driving directions, maps or weather).
In short, the age of digital technology has dramatically reduced our privacy, giving everyone access to the information you agreed to share online. You also need to remember that anyone can potentially find out more personal information like criminal records, civil suits, marriages, and divorces. However, this information can sometimes be inaccurate. If this happens, consider hiring a reputation management company to clean up your online information.
Finally, your computing devices, smartphones, and mobile apps can track your location as well as record your search history — so be careful how you use those devices and also make sure you read the privacy agreements before agreeing to share your personal data with any app or website.
