Protecting Your Internet Identity: Are You Naked Online?

by Ted Claypoole, Theresa M. Payton

Today people have an offline reputation and image, but are increasingly creating one or more online personas. Their online image is having an impact on them in many ways. Employers are hiring and firing based on people s online activities. Criminals are using online identities to abuse or steal from victims. Cyberbullies are taking advantage of those who reveal themselves as vulnerable on grieving or eating disorder sites. Schools are denying admission based on adolescent behaviors broadcast online in social networking sites or media sharing sites such as YouTube. Protecting Your Internet Identity: Are You Naked Online? helps readers understand the implications of their online personas, how they may be putting themselves at risk, and how to take charge of this important new aspect of their lives for career and personal success. Offering simple, specific steps readers can take to analyze their online image, determine who they want to be online, and turn their online reputation around, this book is the go-to source for protecting your online image and projecting the persona you want others to see. The authors offer key advice on: .Changing privacy settings .Purging unwanted personal content .Recognizing the risks and pitfalls of online identities .Utilizing social networking to your advantage .Protecting your kids online .Curbing unwanted spying on your searches and interests .Preventing identity theft and other online dangers .Redeeming your online image .Projecting a more professional image

Genres: Nonfiction, Technology

220 pages, Hardcover

First published April 16, 2012

About the author

Theodore F. Claypoole is a Member of Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice in the Intellectual Property Transaction group in Charlotte, and the leader of its Privacy and Data Management Team. He has long been charged with internet privacy issues as in-house corporate counsel for CompuServe and as assistant general counsel for Bank of America. Ted has served on a U.S. Justice Department computer crimes task force and the Information Protection Committee for the Banking Industry Technology Secretariat. He is the co-chair of the American Bar Association's Cyberspace Law Privacy and Data Security Subcommittee, and has presented biometric and corporate security talks at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.

Reviews

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shallow, alarmist, filled with trivia and not much useful ideas. And even those ideas, when put into perspective are zero as the World governments are pushing for using national IDs for Internet authentication. Simply the authors seem incapable to reason beyond what the newspapers present in sensationalist articles. For example: if Senator X tells the press how he is protecting the children with his new law, the authors lack the basic understanding to know that Senator X does not have any idea what he is talking about beyond cheap populism and plain political opportunism. At the same time, multiple governmental agencies do collect private data from the children and even the school can go as far as publish on a bulletin board visible from the street much more than say Facebook is willing to share.

[Eri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing. So many topics, so much data, not enough brain to process this all. Definitely worth re-reading either this or similar piece in few years. Also makes me want to delete my SNS accounts a bit :D

[Mysteryfan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good explanation of online identities and why it's important to protect yours. Good discussion of how that can be accomplished, including specific tools. The chapter on protecting children is especially useful for parents.

[Monika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book with tons of informations that are explained easily. Importance of caution on internet especially nowadays - upsides and downsides of internet. Should be must read for everyone .

[Shannan Debus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Protecting Your Internet Identity has good information about creating your online brand, reducing your digital footprint for advertisers, and keeping yourself and your family safe on the internet.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I picked up this book, I felt like I knew a lot of the subject matter--I mean, I'm an academic librarian, I work with information (and the Internet) every day, and I'm regularly telling students the importance of choosing and evaluating the right online sources for their papers. But in the past year, I've had a variety of experiences that make this book uber-relevant: finding undesirable information about someone on the Internet by simply searching their name, having my Facebook account and email get hacked, hearing countless stories of businesses pass over young graduates because of things they've shared on their (open) Facebook page, and being able to, with just a little clicking, find someone's entire digital life including photos of their children and their spouse that shouldn't have been so easy for me to access (via Picasa and a wide-open Facebook account). And I myself have a very active "digital life": I post on my blog, I write reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and Yelp, I'm active on Facebook daily--the online environment is a place where I'm very comfortable "living" (although I knew someone who ended up closing his Facebook account while going through his divorce because he didn't want any information to possibly get leaked to her, and he was almost horrified by the amount and types of information people revealed about themselves on FB, including me. And yet--he posted reviews on Yelp. Pot? Meet your kettle.)

It seems day after day we give up tiny bits of privacy for convenience, things we would never do if we could see the "online paparazzi" stalking us, involved in our business with our own eyes. But because it's online, we share all KINDS of information--credit card data, personal information, personal stories, etc.--and don't even give it a second thought.

It is clear from the first page that the authors know their subject. Mr. Claypoole is a co-chair of the cyberspace privacy and data security subcommittee for the American Bar Association, and Mrs. Payton has her own business specializing in internet security, as well as serving as the CIO under President Bush (the younger). One of the most useful things about the book are the various resources sprinkled throughout the chapters telling you to check this site, or run this search, or ways to make your internet identity more secure. It's eminently practical and easy to read. I think a big reason so many of us have given up trying to manage our online identities is because it seems overwhelming, and the authors make it easy to divide that job up into bits and pieces, allowing you to feel like you have more control over your information and identity. And I have no children, but if I did? I think I'd be an Internet lockdown nazi (and Claypoole and Payton tell you how!) Goodness knows what kind of information kids would post about themselves if they were allowed to (and I've heard of horror stories about people finding things their children have posted on YouTube and FB).

Most of all, the authors are practical about how to manage your information and they certainly don't expect you to stay off the web entirely--but you can keep your life private. The last chapter, entitled 'Turning off the lights: choosing to be invisible online" gives you specific tips to regain your anonymity online. It's an interesting, relatable, easy-to-read book on something that we pretend doesn't affect us, but it definitely does. Every day. Every time we touch or click that icon that connects us to the web. So protect yourself!

[Dig163282 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was awesome! It was not difficult to read it as the topics on the book where closely related to my everyday online life. The Scenarios established gave more reason why to watch your online activity. For example, it talked about people stealing your identity and how business tracks your every move online. Criminals stole identities through information they acquired through Facebook Paige's or trough malware they had stored on your computer. Normally I would not worry about someone stalking me such as a company to know more about what I like but when it is a criminal it becomes an all new ball game. I learned dangers about technology that I did not ever think of. Such technology was Geolocation, which is in all IPhones that gives the exact location of where you took the photo when uploading it to a site. It makes you prone to robberies, because if you upload a picture of your new game system or car you are bound to get a few unfriendly visits. However not all was negative as the book gave great ways to stay active online in a safe manner. Not only did it help you stay safe but it prepared your online persona to the future of what you want to be. It turns out many business employees and colleges check your online profiles to see what type of person you are. If you play it smart, and display a good online persona you may even land a job through sites such as Linked.com. Reading this book changed my perspective of how I conduct myself online, and I have already started teaching my sibling how they can post online and still be safe. Surely this should be a book for many teens that make up the social media online and at times may expose more than they should. As exposing too much may lead them to unfortunate events. However we must be positive and be positive online, stay safe!! And pick up a copy of “Protecting Your Internet Identity: Are You Naked Online?”

[Raf · Rating 3 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from my local library. A very informative read with good details about how your privacy online is jeopardized on a daily basis. The authors provide good facts and describe various scenarios with examples on how your personal information is extracted both legally and illegally. They also provide some sound advice on how to protect your identity and what tools you may use to be more vigilant in cyberspace. I did not however think it was necessary to read chapters six and nine which dealt with managing your online persona and marketing yourself for success. These two chapters threw me off from the topic I wanted to focus on which was how to protect myself and my identity online. Poor organization on the authors’ part there. Overall, good information but not necessarily worth paying $15 for.