Be Careful What You Put on the Internet^©

Be careful! Organizations search the internet to find any material authored by and about a potential employee and sometimes current employee. A person needs to be aware and sensitive to what they write and put on the internet. Documents that contain innocent material to you may not be considered innocent to other people. What you have written and published to the internet may in the future come back and bite you.

I am writing articles and publishing them to my wed site. I am aware that if I write about a political subject, someone may read the article and disapprove of the view point I included. When this article’s content may surface in the future is not under my control. Internet search engines can copy the articles published on an internet web site. You can delete the article, but it may be stored in a search engine’s data base for many years. I may write about a topic that I think is very safe for me in the future. I may be surprised by a person objecting to what I write. I can write using a humorous twist that may irritate some people.

Do not put anything on the internet in a blog, web site, social media site, email, etc. that you would not want your mother, future spouse, future boss or a reporter to read and/or put in an article.

You may think that removing the material from the web site will get rid of the material. You are wrong. You have to assume that organizations related to internet search engines and government organizations that copy web sites’ pages will keep them for future reference material. You have no control of the life of internet published material.

A photograph you put on a web page has a message about you. There is truth in the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Be aware of what the photograph says about you.

A person that has any future thoughts about getting in the public’s eye, getting into politics, or having an important position in a company should be very careful of what he writes and publishes on the internet. Be sensitive to how you think people can use in the future the published material against you. Be careful mentioning specific people, organizations, personal activities, political parties, attitudes, social concepts, etc. that could be used against you.

There is a way of getting on the internet without you doing anything. Other people can put your name and things about you on the internet without your knowledge. They can write something and include your name in the page. They can put a photograph on the internet of you at an activity doing questionable things. Camera telephones are growing as a source of people’s photographs being put on the internet. A picture of a person acting silly can look different when view out of context. A person can put a photograph on the internet showing you drinking or looking like you are a heavy drinker. Material about you can be published on the internet without your permission or knowledge.

The only thing you can control is what you personally publish on a web page, blog, and other organizations where the public can put material on the internet such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, etc. There are a variety of internet-based organizations through which your name and photograph can get on the internet. The list is growing.

Be careful what you publish on the internet.

People that are looking to steal a person’s identity are able to use software to search the internet looking for data about your name and data about you. Be safe and use software to protect your personal computer from being searched for personal data by a person that has used a virus to attack your computer.

Be reluctant to include on the internet personal information about yourself and family members. You have to be alert anytime you put data on the internet. Be careful who you trust on the internet.

Dale Lee

A former resident of Pot Neck, Tennessee

Date last modified, September 10, 2010

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