5 Ways to Protect Your Privacy on Social Networks

Studies show that by 2009, there were more social media interactions than e-mail communications on a daily basis. Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Twitter have become prominent forms of our business communication. While most companies don’t have social media policies in place, it is important to have your own best practice strategy when using a social media platform for such communications.

Here are 5 ways to protect your privacy on social networks:

1)      Treat your social media platforms as formal, business platforms.

In a San Francisco Masters Conference Panel, Partner of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, Gordon Calhoun, urged the audience to use proper etiquette with all communications and to avoid red flag words. Typical red flag words include “stupid” “huge mistake” “dumb” “can’t believe” “just between us”, and so on.  

2)      Don’t talk about confidential information in any form.

Simply put- if you wouldn’t say it out loud in public, don’t share it on the internet or post it on a social media site.

3)      Don’t mix your personal life and your professional life.

Keep separate social media accounts for work and pleasure. Encourage your employees to separate their personal and professional social media sites to help protect privacy.

4)      Understand your privacy settings for each social networking account.

Understand how much is really protected. Be aware that third-party apps used in conjunction with your social networking account may follow different privacy standards. Know your privacy settings and know the privacy policy. According Calhoun, currently only 8% of people using social networking have read a privacy policy.

5)      Keep up to date with changes to your privacy settings.

Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn make updates to their privacy settings often. These changes may kick your account back to a default setting. Check for updates regularly to make sure your settings stay the way you want them.

Below is a 3-part panel from a San Francisco Masters Conference last month. During the panel industry experts discuss not only social media best practices, but explore all the issues associated with eDiscovery and social media platforms.

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