Hands On Activity: Personal Information Online

Students are often blissfully unaware of the extent of personal information that is available about them on the web. Much of the information that students share about themselves on social networking sites (such as Facebook and MySpace) is now routinely indexed in search engines. To give students a real life lesson in what is out there, direct them to the search engine Wink and have them search on their name. They'll be surprised at what they find.



Student Discussion Questions
1) How many of you have a MySpace or Facebook account? Have you changed the basic privacy settings on the account or just accepted the defaults? (on Facebook, you can op-out of having your information indexed online in the privacy settings).
2) Employers routinely search the web and social networking sites for information about prospective employees. Is there anything on your site that you would not want an employer to see?
3) What problems can arise from having your personal information posted online?