Netiquette
We can all help make the online communities we participate in nicer and safer places.
Find it annoying when big companies just assume they can tick all those boxes by default on your behalf? Find it infuriating that you have to make the effort to login and then navigate through six screens to turn off the options you don’t want?
Then don’t make the same sorts of assumptions on behalf of your colleagues, family and friends.
Ideally we get to choose to what degree we participate in the social web.
Different people will make very different choices about what trade-offs they are prepared to make with their privacy and security against convenience and inclusion.
It seems to be an emerging trend to take another person’s photo, post it online, tag it, and – to make a bad thing even worse – add a location identifier; without asking their permission. This often includes photos of other people’s kids.
Am I the only one who thinks this is not okay?
The answer to this particular cyber security conundrum is more social then technological, and both the offenders and the offended need to change their behaviours.
If you are comfortable with a very high level of exposure online don’t assume everyone else feels the same way. Show others the courtesy of asking their permission first before you post photos or information about them on the web.
Don’t assume people will let you know if something makes them uncomfortable after the fact. By then it is too late, plus it can be really socially awkward to pipe up.
If you are one of those people who are finding it difficult to then remember: it’s okay to step out of photos, it’s okay to ask people to delete a photo they took without your permission, it’s okay to ask them not to post it online. It’s okay to ask them not to tag you. It’s okay to ask them to remove any geo-tags.
Sadly as a point of law we can’t insist on these things. But it’s rarely criminals who compromise our security by posting information about us online. It’s us doing it to ourselves, or our well-intentioned friends and family.
Cyber security is not limited to the virtual world – it’s a huge part of your personal security. So don’t be shy about to speaking up and asking others to respect it! It likely never occurred to them that you might mind.
Paul Ducklin is Head of Technology, Asia Pacific at Sophos in Sydney, which is home to one of the company’s four global 24/7 research labs. He joined Sophos in 1995 from the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which is rather like Australia’s CSIR. Paul is a respected industry spokesperson. He recently won the 2009 AusCERT Director’s Award for Individual Excellence in Information Security.
