Cyber Savvy: Protecting Yourself Online

Editor’s Note: Erin Weed founded the Girls Fight Back program after her sorority sister was murdered in June 2001. Determined to prevent similar tragedies, Erin created Girls Fight Back to educate women about campus security, personal safety, violence protection and self-defense. She now travels the nation giving personal safety seminars and has spoken to over 100,000 women nationwide. The following column is excerpted from her book, Girls Fight Back!:The College Girl’s Guide to Protecting Herself.

Holla if you love Facebook or MySpace! Who's got themselves a mighty cool blog? Let's face it, we're the connected generation and, frankly, we love it. I'd go so far as to say most of us believe we couldn't live without it. Technology experts estimate that there are over 120 million people on the Internet on any given day. In December 2005 alone, MySpace drew 28 million visitors. But as our society becomes more technologically advanced and reliant, our safety protocol online also needs to evolve. While I believe that technology bringing humans together can be a very good thing, it can also be used for malicious intent.

AVOID T.M.I.

Unless you want the whole world to know something about you, don't post it online. When you're logged on, make yourself as unidentifiable as possible. As a general rule, don't type anything you wouldn't want to see on the front page of The New York Times. Be ambiguous by following these tips:

1) When possible, do not list any of the following on networking websites: class schedule, cell or home phone number, residential address, email address or full name. the less personal info you volunteer the better.

2) Choose a generic and genderless screen name. Since women sometimes take the brunt of harassment in general, don't pick an address that will bring on negative attention. Something like ihavebigboobs@hotmail.com is bound to attract cyber freaks.

3) Don't use your real name or an easy-to-figure-out nickname online.

4) Avoid flirting online since you don't know who is really on the other end.

5) Get a private email address that is not affiliated with your university to use on any communications where you wish to be anonymous. I recommend getting an address from a service like Google's Gmail. You don't have to give your real name or address to register.

6) Don't waste your time filling out forms online for surveys or contests. In most cases, they are used to harvest your personal data and sell it to direct marketers. And who ever wins those things anyway?

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