Appropriate week to double check your online privacy

I'm sure my clever readers don't need to be told that this week is Privacy Awareness Week, writes Jillian Allison-Aitken in this week's Online.

However, online privacy is a huge issue – even for the well-informed – so this week is probably a good time to double check your own methods of protecting your privacy and perhaps spend some time with less tech-savvy friends and family to ensure they are also taking the right precautions.

Spyware, cookies, web forms and spam are all ways you can be tracked by third parties but you could also be leaving a trail by entering too much personal information on message board profiles, chat programs and so on. With easy access to online phone and other directories, it's easy to cross reference the information a person leaves at different sites and build up a profile of them, along with their personal contact details.

There have been cases in the United States where paedophiles have done just that to make contact with potential victims. Unfortunately, because the internet can seem so anonymous, it's easy for the ususpecting users to forget just how exposed they are. Especially kids, who tend to go through life thinking they're bullet-proof.

These days, everyone wants to know what you're doing, when you're doing it, for how long, and who you're doing it with. It's entirely up to you how much information you give out.