Most sites allow you to create a profile for yourself. This can be as simple as a username and contact email address, or it may include a photo, a description of you, likes and dislikes, music and videos. It may also link you in to your online friends’ profiles.
Be careful about what you post online. Little pieces of information can be used by others to construct a picture of you that could be misused. Don’t reveal your personal information such as your home address, telephone number, date of birth or where you work to strangers. Keep your password safe and avoid obvious ones that others may guess, particularly if you also use it for other things like internet banking. Develop a separate email address just for social networking so you don’t have to give away any other contact details.
Privacy settings control the amount of information people can see about you. On some sites these are automatically set at the most private level but on others all your information can be seen by other people unless you specify otherwise. Set the privacy level as strictly as you can. Remember, you can’t take information back from people once they’ve seen it but you can always put more information on once you become more comfortable with a site and its users.
It’s worth regularly reading the privacy policies and user agreements on sites to understand how they use your personal information, for example do they pass it on to marketing companies?
