Buttoning down your online security and exposure

Key to the open door, a photo by Tawheed Manzoor on Flickr.

This post is the first in a series with suggestions on how to improve your online exposure.

Reviewing your Google Account

On March 1, 2012, Google made changes to its privacy policy that had many folks chattering online.

It’s always a good practice to periodically review your account settings, privacy settings and online exposure. Here are a few places to check:

1. Go to http://www.google.com/account/ and review your settings. Pay attention to Account Overview, Profile and Privacy as well as Google+.

2. Consider what data is really necessary on your profile. Purge what is not.

3. Review your Google+ posts, as well as your +1s. Purge any that are unnecessary.

Use the page “Keeping personal information out of Google” as a reference and guide to clearing other unneeded items.

Refer to “Me on the web” to monitor and alert you when information is posted about you on the web, and for a guide in requesting removal of information.

We don’t often think of how freely we share information about ourselves on the net. Spending time periodically sweeping and checking your online exposure is an important investment in protecting your online security.

About the author:  To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box. Read more from this author