For those who closely guard and monitor their private information, every new iteration of Facebook’s design and interface inspires a new round of comments and guides. Knowledgeable users spread the word and navigate the changing privacy settings,1 seeking to close potential holes. However, even the most knowledgeable users don’t always get it right. The privacy debate touched a member of Facebook founder’s Mark Zuckerberg’s family when his sister’s photo accidentally appeared as public on her Facebook news feed last December.

flickr image by acidpix

Does It Matter?

Some would say that the notion of private information is an outdated one, destined for the same fate that claimed the buggy and the pay phone. As our increasingly connected world makes sharing photos, thoughts, and likes and dislikes easier, does it still matter what we keep to ourselves? The new Facebook Home app merges the social network with the very operating system that runs your Android phone, blurring the lines between interfaces and deepening the connection between users, Facebook, and advertisers. A Facebook company spokesman defended the changes to CNN.com, reminding users and media representatives that the company only has access to the data users give them.2 Some would say that Facebook is only keeping up with the times we live in. Mark Zuckerberg himself pointed out how societal perceptions of private and public have evolved in the last ten years. In his mind, we are now more predisposed to share information publicly than ever before.

The Government is Behind the Times

If there’s one organization that has no shortage of opinions about internet privacy, it’s the government. Some legislators fight to protect a citizen’s right to privacy while others feel the government needs more information to protect its citizens. Some laws intended to protect privacy can be used to prosecute, too. Others have failed to evolve with technology. One example is the ECPA, or Electronic Communications Privacy Act. This law gives the government access to any of your digital communication more than 180 days old without requiring a search warrant. It need only produce a subpoena to read emails and search history. Although, if this same information were on paper in your desk, it would still need a warrant.

The CFAA, or Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,3 restricts the ability to share information. This law was used to prosecute Aaron Swartz, one of the co- founders of Reddit.com, for stealing information from a MIT database, known as JSTOR. Meanwhile, the Trans Pacific Partnership is still being hammered out by participating Pacific Rim nations and will legislate Intellectual property rights and trademark laws. The upcoming debate in Washington, D.C. around CISPA, or the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, is sure to spill over into forums around the web.

Be Aware

Protect yourself and be aware of your privacy settings for id theft protection. Be smart when it comes to financial data. How worried should you be? Sharing pictures of your breakfast and status updates is one thing, but financial information is another. Be aware of encryption protocols when completing online financial transactions, and only use a secured Internet connection. Protect yourself and your money by being smart about security and your privacy. Contact your representative and let them know how important privacy is to you.

Sources

1. http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/03/08/managing-your-privacy-with-facebooks-new-news-feed/

2. http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/09/tech/privacy-outdated-digital-age

3. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/031213-privacy-laws-267614.html?page=2

The post Your Digital Life Is Not Private by The Social Robot Admin appeared first on The Social Robot.

Here’s my Big Omaha 2013 Day 1 Recap.

Hover over the business name to go to their website in a new window.

Antonio Neves: MC of event and ThinqAction

• Be worthy of the gift
• Take advantages of the opportunities that you have

Mark Ecko: Ecko Unlimited

I didn’t know what to expect with Mark Ecko; I had only known about him from his clothing lines. But, I can’t even put Mark Ecko’s talk into words. It was amazing. He used rapper The Notorious B.I.G.’s song, The Ten Crack Commandments and how each one applied to business. Unfortunately this talk isn’t on the Silicon Prairie News Live recordings page. It was totally unique and probably one of the best speakers I’ve ever heard.

• Entrepreneur versus artist- he’d rather been known as an artist, but it has a misrepresented connotation
• Unlabel: Book coming out in sept 2013 about not selling out. Preorder at unlabel.me
• Quit counting and keeping track. Stop seeking validation. There are no straight numbers in nature
• Predictableness in business is not a good thing. You are not data. It’s not ok to talk and talk, create value for others. Use discretion
• Don’t look for comfort in business. You can find comfort at night, on your pillow
• Hubris: don’t get high on yourself. Don’t be diluted with grandeur. Fame = success in culture, not true.
• Don’t eat where you shit. Don’t do business in your precious places (@ home, with family)
• “Credit, dead it”. Be careful who you lend to. You are not obligated. No one should ride for free.
• Keep your family and business completely separated. You are not rational, you are emotional. We have to ACT rational. We have to work at being rational. No separation could result in nepotism
• Do not micromanage. Don’t be a fake ass Steve Jobs. Micromanage does not get things done. Just let people do their thing.
• Fuck the politics. The soap opera shit is not cool. There’s no place for it in business, yet it exists. Avoid alterior motives. When you refuse to be labeled, you then play by your rules, not theirs. Instead of complying e standards, create your own.
• “If you owe the bank $100, that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100m, that’s the banks problem.” -Getty. Be careful who you take money from. Inventory kills. When it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Partners are greater than lenders. Distribute the risk. Don’t be an equity hoarder. Distribute the risk so you can get the most reward.
• We over-intellectualize the hustle. <—love this
• Learn by doing. You don’t go to school, school comes to you.
• Don’t learn by avoiding that hole/pitfall. Know that you might have to force the hole tomorrow and you might just have to fall into it.

Diana Kander: Kauffman Foundation

• Difference between an idea and a startup.
• There’s a high chance that your idea will never turn into a startup.
• How others reaction to you. Once you’ve made the commitment, no one is going to tell you that you have a terrible idea.
• Once you make a commitment to something, people won’t always be honest with you about your idea.
• Idea Process: Organized, Calm, Proactive, Objective to learn
• Startup Process: Exhausted, Just doing what it takes, Survival mode, Spending money, No room for errors
• We haven’t been able to use technology to decrease the gestation cycle over history. Same should go for startups.
• Assumptions: figure out what concept you are solving in the marketplace or what you are doing differently. Test these assumptions. Take off your sales jacket. Stop trying to convince the world that they need what you have. What assumptions have you already validated?

Dave McClure: 500 Startups

Dave’s talk was riddled with f*ck. Probably 100 times at least. I normally don’t mind profanity, but this was over-the-top. Especially when he called a girl in the audience a bitch because she refuted his claim that her iPhone battery sucks. Not impressed.

• Everything sucks and nobody notices. Nobody wants to tackle the problems that everyone has.
• It’s easy to make shit better.
• Let geniuses make up lives amazing, don’t try to be them, make their shit better.
• Improve the innovative shit by 1% every month.
• Most people and things suck. So the bar is set extremely low.
• Don’t copy their behavior, copy their work.
• Be a smart midget, standing on their shoulders.
• Most businesses suck at innovation. Don’t know marketing, social, video, tech, code, mobile, design.
• Most things are not amazing, but you can fix it.
• Tech+web= reduced overhead costs
• Search and social= better marketing
• 3 types of brands: Virgin Airlines (sexy), Southwest Airlines (convenience and value), niche (just for you and me)

Cindy Gallop: IfWeRanTheWorld and MakeLoveNotPorn

Cindy was awesome. She had a clipped British accent and was so open about her platform and her ideas.

• Today’s marketing: co-creation
• Tomorrows marketing: co-action
• Business model of the future: shared values and action = shared profit, financial and social
• Talk about sex open and honestly privately and publicly
• Wants to socialize sex: Makelovenotporn.tv. Pro sex. Pro porn. Knowing the difference.
• Ha! “The etsy of sexy”
• Blog- talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv
• Your business model can be anything you’d like it to be.
• Redesign the way that you do business.
• You cannot do new world order biz from an old world order place.
• Don’t do things just because they’ve always been done that way.
• Do collaborative competition
• The future is competitive collaboration
• Women are the major purchasers or influencers in any product sector today.
• Women challenge the status quo because we are never it.
• There’s a huge amount of money to be made in taking women seriously.
• Changing the world through see.
• In order to predict the future, you have to invent it. -Alan Kay
• From the moment we are born, society teaches women to be insecure about everything about themselves.you have to meet women more than halfway.
• If you don’t promote yourself, who will? <— Loved this!
• Women who play it natural are looked at as weak. But women who play as men are seen as aggressive and domineering. Be the bitch. Don’t fade into the wallpaper as too feminine.
• Put yourself out there in a way that is out of your comfort zone.

The post Big Omaha 2013 Recap: Day 2 by Kelsey Jones appeared first on The Social Robot.

Jeff & Dusty of Silicon Prairie News welcome us to Big Omaha 2013.

I had the pleasure of attending Big Omaha 2013 last week, and I learned a ton (as I normally do in these entrepreneurship and innovation conferences put on by Silicon Prairie News). Here are some of my highlights and important points that I took away from the conference.

Hover over the business name to go to their website.

Tony Conrad: About.me

• If you don’t think though the journey, think through the steps.
• If we don’t have core beliefs or an idea of true north, we aren’t going to get there.
• Believe in making the world a better place
• Innovators are the most important national treasure
• The most important startups aren’t starting businesses, they are starting movements
• About.me- wanted to give people more control over their online presence
• Google algorithms should not define you.
• My tweets don’t define me.
• If you’re going to spark a movement, you have to think about how you fit in
• Just because its cheaper than ever to start a company, doesn’t mean that you should

Megan Casey: Pack

• Tech people build communities
• Stand for something: boil it down to one thing you are going to stand for
• Openness without guidelines or admission can be bad for the Internet (spam)
• The most shared topic on pinterest and Instagram are photos of dogs
• Build small and beautiful
• The first 1000 people are the ones that are the foundation to your success and are the catalyst. Build the site for them.
• Psst: here’s my Pack profiles

Dr. Peter Hudson: iTriage

• Climbing fences: it all starts with a passion: Technology and innovation can help people climb over fences in their lives
• If you do your hobbies as your jobs, sometimes they start to feel like work.
• If you want a challenge, do something meaningful.
• Medicine may be practiced differently around the world, but we all have the same needs.
• Entrepreneurs should feel like they “can’t not do it”
• Start with user interface and user experience
• Reviews of your product are what really matters
• Unnecessary services in medical cost us $750b annually
• The US Government owns 50% of any dollar spent
• Your resume is not always a static piece of paper, it’s more like a facebook profile
• Provide free resources to consumers to engage patients in a different way

Alejandro Velez & Nikhil Arora: Back to the Roots

Back to the Roots at Big Omaha 2013

• Find other disruptive retailers (companies doing things differently in their industry) and get them to partner with you
• Find people that don’t look at what other people are always doing, they look into the future
• Opportunities and competition come through change
• P.S. The AquaFarm is awesome!

Catherine Rohr: Defy Ventures, Inc.

Catherine runs an organization that puts freed convicts through an MBA type education and training program. Her story was amazing and really made me reevaluate my prejudice against convicts. 

• Non-white people get convicted more than white 20 more times, even though they deal/use the same amount.
• 1 in 15 people have been in jail
• 70% of people end up going back to prison
• 70% of children of convicts go to jail
• “If you were known for the worst thing you’ve ever done, what would your life be like?”
• “If you died today, why does your life matter?”
• Launched businesses from landscaping to real estate investments

Anil Dash: ThinkUp

Anil’s talk was one that you’d need to watch online to fully get how awesome it was.

• Introduce accountability to yourself. If your product sucks, refer your users to someone else.
• Public spaces are at their best when they let us do unexpected things
• If you’re not a jackass all the time, people will show up.
• We say no to people who might otherwise give us checks because we know that we can do better.
• “What if that succeeds? and what if that’s worse [that it succeeded]?”

Ben Milne: Dwolla

• Creation is greater than consumption
• Writing tweets is better than reading them….write content instead of just consuming it, you will attract people
• A pointed finger elicits a reaction, not a conversation
• Your team at work AND home has to handle your bad decisions at either place
• “I see more potential than what people had actually done already”…Not everybody really wants to grow that much. You can’t make decisions about who you want people to be without their permission. You can’t start making decision about who people should be.
• “Cut out the cancer”– what isn’t working for you at home and work
• Scale how you think, not how much work you do. There is a point where you can’t do more work. You need to be smarter about how you work
• Just say no to cubicles (they stifle creativity)!
• The more successful we become, the more successful people become
• Likes the Midwest because of traits unique to this area– holding open door, holding your tongue. Midwesterners stick together. (I agree!)
• Disagree respectfully.
• You need to accept that you will need to change more minds. Be ok with that.
• Respect that your employees’ children are relying on you for food.
• If you don’t like your job, quit. Stop waiting.
• There is no reason to assume that anyone will do anything for you. If you wait, all you will have is depressing stories about how people didn’t do anything for you.
• Avoid shiny shit: Be frugal.
• You are usually right about people when you meet them
• You will regret relationships with people that you knew were a bad idea initially.
• F*ck normal. It’s not important. If you are going to build something meaningful, you can’t be worried about what is normal. Your life is going to be abnormal.

While it doesn’t even come close to being there, you can watch recordings of some of the speakers at the Big Omaha Live page.

Day 2 Recap coming tomorrow!

The post Big Omaha 2013 Recap: Day 1 by Kelsey Jones appeared first on The Social Robot.

These abilities are especially helpful for social media managers, who often have to log into multiple companies’ accounts every day. Without such platforms, such as TweetDeck, hootsuite, etc., they’d log into a profile, post/schedule, and repeat for each corresponding account. And to make it all possible, a slew of passwords and login names would be needed – none of which could be saved within a single browser. Separate login attempts would also be needed to check on interaction, such as questions, retweets, new followers, and more. Because it’s good social media practice to respond ASAP, the social media manager would – in theory – spend the day traipsing from one account to the next.

Impossible? No, but far more tedious and time consuming than is necessary. Thankfully, available multi account platforms eliminate this middle step. For Pinterest, however, there’s no such luck. Because they haven’t released multi platform software, companies aren’t authorized/just plain can’t create these types of capabilities.

The Backlash

For social media managers, this means bringing out a Post-it of login info, and jumping between accounts. Each page must be logged into, explored, and then logged out of – easy, albeit exhausting – to reach a specific profile. For individuals, it’s likely only a single Pinterest account exists, but this still means a separate open app or window, as it can’t be linked to outside social media platforms.

No one is sure exactly what’s holding Pinterest back in this front – perhaps pictures cause logistical errors, or maybe the site isn’t interested in allowing outside hosts. Whatever their hesitation, however, it’s a much-needed necessity for social media users of all kinds.

The public clearly loves you, Pinterest, why not return the favor and allow multi-platform usage? I’ll be first in line to sign up.

The post Pinterest: Why Multi Platform is Necessary by Bethaney Wallace appeared first on The Social Robot.

Because I love working from home,  I have always been on the lookout for fun, challenging, and easy online workout resources that let me burn the most calories in the shortest amount of time. The internet has made me spoiled– thanks to blogs, YouTube, Pinterest, and great membership sites, I’m never at a loss for workouts.

Here are some of my favorite online workout resources:

Zuzka Light: She used to be on BodyRock and now has her own site and YouTube channel. She has 2 DVDs out as well; I have the ZCUT workouts. If you like getting your ass kicked in 10-15 minutes, I strongly suggest you buy ZCUT (affiliate link). I love her workouts and they always make me sore, but sometimes I want something longer.

FitnessBlender: Daniel and Kelly’s free online workout site provides a wide variety of workouts, all on YouTube. From 1000-calorie sessions to some on kickboxing. There are some doozies. I like that they provide time and effort metrics up front so you know what to expect. I also like that they do the workout “with” you on video in real time. The ladder videos with Daniel are all brutal. They have a membership side (free) but the commenting and profile system leaves something to be desired.

GaiamTV and MyYogaOnline (aff link):  These are both great membership sites for yoga and stretching videos. They are about the same price per month (about $10-15) and allow you to save your videos, comment, and learn more about the teachers. They also have pretty good search functions and MYO has a lot of great written content as well.

This Yoga Neck and Shoulder Stretch Video. You feel dumb doing it. But it works. Picture me drawing sparkly hearts next to this one.

So. Those are my favorites. And thanks to my ambassadorship with FitFluential, I recently got to check out another online fitness site, iBodyFit, which provides a mixture of everything I look for in an ideal online workout resource: good community, yoga, great videos, and help when I need it. Franklin from iBodyFit (who was ranked as one of SHAPE’s 50 Hottest Trainers) was generous enough to give me a membership and also wanted to give one away to The Social Robot readers as well! Here are details:

One Year iBodyFit Membership Giveaway

(1) Premium Membership Includes:

1. Unlimited access to all online workouts
2. Unlimited access to all online exercise videos
3. Access to the iBodyFit30 Challenge
4. Yoga and Pilates
5. Running plans (1 mile to marathons)
6. A custom diet
7. Trainer support (iBodyFit helps you find the right workout for your fitness goals, plus you can ask any fitness questions you may have)

After getting your membership, you will fill out your goals and medical history and iBodyFit will create a custom workout and diet plan for you. I am just getting around the site and there is a wealth of content I can’t wait to delve into (along wit my custom diet plan!).

To enter for the free one year membership to iBodyFit, use the Rafflecopter widget below. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Let the Internet Pump You Up: Online Workout Resources + GIVEAWAY by Kelsey Jones appeared first on The Social Robot.

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Murfie is one of those ideas I stumbled across during my copious amounts of time spent online that I am REALLY excited about and want to tell everyone I’ve ever met. Basically, it is a CD to MP3 service that then allows you to sell your CDs on your own online store. You set the price. Murfie comes with an online player and app so you can stream your music from the cloud from anywhere! I did it myself and have found the process extremely easy. You can get a shipping kit here (shipping is free and via UPS!) and soon, you will be enjoying your throwback Mike Jones and LFO like me.

Do you have funding (e.g. are you a start-up)?

Yep! There’s a lot of folks who believe in us, and who want to see the concept of Murfie go far

 

Why do you think your service stands out? 

 The short answer is, anyone who becomes a Murfie member will quickly find out that we are the best place to buy new and used music on the web. Many full albums (not single tracks) in our marketplace are $1, or $2, or $3, and our prices on new releases are terrific, too. You can stream your album right after you buy it, and download in lossless formats, which is awesome. And Murfie is the only online music store on the planet with an unpurchase button that allows you to return any album you’re not completely satisfied with up to 24 hours after your purchase. In addition to our marketplace, you can send your CDs from home to add to your online Murfie collection, and get the ability to access them via web streaming, downloading them to your desktop to add to your music player, and listening on any mobile iOS device (and soon any Android device), while getting the physical disc off your hands. When people find out they can do that with all the CDs in their closet or basement, they go nuts.

 

Has it been hard to break into the streaming community/industry?What has been your proudest accomplishment so far?

I think we’ve always been proud of our great success with streaming. Our streaming is set at 320kbps, which is really top notch, and we’re working on offering lossless streaming. We are proud of the fact that you don’t need to pay a subscription to stream the music you own…and you don’t have to sit through any annoying commercials.

 

How big is the Murfie team?

I’d say about 30 staffers work here. About 20 of them work in Operations, receiving Kits and ripping each individual disc that comes in to its designated account.

 

What is your working environment like?

It’s awesome! Murfie has a diverse group of people, mostly Wisconsin natives. It’s no secret that our company overall really cares about the well-being of everyone who works here. We’ve had two “fitness challenges” in the past, which struck up a competitive spirit here for sure! We also formed a kick-butt MUFA team last summer (Madison Ultimate Frisbee Association), and we are looking forward to doing that again this year. I think we only won one game last year, but we had so much fun. Our office stays stocked with Clementines to munch on–you know, those little oranges! And our staff holiday parties have been very memorable, to say the very least (imagine Matt’s karaoke rendition of “I’m on a Boat” with autotune).

 

Are you working on any other products or services?

In addition to a lossless streaming product, we’ve been researching a few other things, including providing our same service for things like Vinyl albums and books. Right now our focus remains on CDs, but we’ve definitely done some poking around.

 

Can you explain the membership terms and when those will go into effect?

Yes. Murfie is free to sign up for, and everyone can enjoy free streaming of the albums in their collection, along with free downloads of the albums they buy in MP3 and AAC format. Starting 5/1, you will need a Murfie Gold membership ($25/year) to add discs from home to your collection online. Gold members get one free Shipping Kit to add 100 discs from home, with additional ones at $0.49/each. Gold members also get free downloads in Lossless formats (FLAC & ALAC), $1 off all purchases (something going into effect starting 5/1), and free album trading with other Gold members. Pretty snazzy.

 

Have you done any guerrilla marketing, public promotions or “stunts” to promote Murfie?

We did make a video celebrating the 30th anniversary of the CD in the USA, and positioned is as “How to thwart a $5M CD heist!”. When we moved offices, we had to move $5M million worth of CDs, so we had armed police officers as our escorts! They were very nice, by the way  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbGKPzpFNU8

 

Also, what type of marketing do you focus on?

We focus on web-based marketing, since it’s most convenient and practical. We recently started a radio endorsement plan with a local radio station in Madison, WMMM, and are excited to see where it takes us. If it’s very successful, which it’s looking to be, we would like to move towards national radio ads.

 

Do you go to any trade shows?

Why yes indeed! Not too many though, since most shows are B2B and our customers are music lovers, not other businesses. We are trying to focus on web-based ways to get our name out there. But we do pick some select events to attend, like SXSW and the SF Music Tech Summit. We also went to the Madison Biz Expo the other day. Even though we are a national company, it’s great to get to know the other Madison businesses and start-ups, since we are based here. It’s fun to be part of that great community, and we try to use local sources for products and services whenever we can.

 

How do you think most people find out about Murfie?

I think most people find out from being recommended by a friend, which is really great, and also through some major media exposure we’ve received, like through NPR, Time Magazine, and the Boston Business Journal.

 

Anything else you’d like us to know?

 Since we are a web-based company, we enjoy all the interactions that we get to have with our members from all over the country. We’ve been working to make our social media more interactive (blog, facebook, twitter & pinterest) so that we can be more connected with our members, and we’ve also been finding ways to connect our members with each other. One of my favorite new series is our “Shopkeep of the Week”, which highlights Murfie members who have been very active on the site: http://blog.murfie.com/category/shopkeep-of-the-week/

The post INTERVIEW: Kayla Liederbach of Murfie by Kelsey Jones appeared first on The Social Robot.

This honor most recently goes to Kroger, the grocery store giant. The mogul has multiple branches, depending on location; for me it happens to be Dillons.

For years I’d heard Kroger is known for their customer service, but I had no idea just how good it was until I dealt with them firsthand.

The Incident

A loyal customer who loves redeeming fuel points ($.10-$1 off each gallon), I was filling up my tank earlier this month. The pump filled, and then instead of performing its automatic shut off, the gas kept flowing. Out of my car and onto the ground. I told the clerk who said only “OK” and once I pushed the point, that she would report it to maintenance.

A few days later, with a nagging feeling, I told my tale to customer service, which is located on Kroger’s nationally serving webpage.

Their Follow Up

Here’s where it gets good. Within three hours, a manager from the exact Dillions I’d filled up at, called me. He was cordial, friendly, apologetic, and was even able to located the time and date of the incident through their database. But most of all, he was timely. I’ve never been answered so quickly by customer service. This speediness comes in even more impressive when considering the info was transferred from a general Kroger email to my town and branch – a tracking done by their own accord, not by my telling them.

It turned out the employed hadn’t reported the overflowing pump at all, and sure it would have been nice to receive a coupon for the $2-$4 of fuel I watched splash onto the concrete. But every company has questionable college kids working for them; it’s management that matters. Would I still have enjoyed a discount to make up for my troubles? Absolutely. But the manager was just so darn nice that I’m willing to forget this lack of gesture. He was honest, asked questions, and assured me that he would have the issue fixed ASAP. He also promised to work on tact training with his employees. And while I don’t want anyone to get in trouble, it was nice to hear actions for improvement would be taken.

Giving My Support

Overall, Kroger, you’ve impressed the pants off of me. Your customer service is prompt, effective, and so efficient that it got me to write a blog about it. Keep up the good work.

The post Kroger: Customer Service to Live By by Bethaney Wallace appeared first on The Social Robot.

Is Your Computer Killing You? An infographic by Hosting Reviews at WhoIsHostingThis.com

The post INFOGRAPHIC: Is Your Computer Killing You? by The Social Robot Admin appeared first on The Social Robot.

But what if you have a really strict boss? One who watches your every move, follows up with physical workout threats, and has a lot on the line? When say, national security is at risk, the social media rules come a little more strict.

At least that’s the latest from the U.S. Army, who released a 52-page handbook as to what can and can’t be posted online. And that’s for soldiers and civilians – both workers and soldiers’ families.

What’s in the Book?

With 52 pages of eye-popping fun, the book explains the dangers that can come with social media, along with detailed best practices. One of the biggest urges is to not divulge specific information; while it’s ok to say one is deployed in Afghanistan, it’s not ok to list the respective city and camp in which they are stationed. The same goes for those back home, who shouldn’t release their own location.

Another main point is to disable Geotagging, which can pinpoint locations. When in use, social media posts, or even smartphone applications, can determine where soldiers are stationed at any given time. To ensure their safety, soldier should deny permission to these Geotagging features – a measure that the rest of us should consider as well.

Family dangers, networking safe practices, are also included in the book. If it’s social media, it’s likely that it’s covered in the army’s constantly updating handbook.

What Can We Learn?

While made for the army, this handbook takes several important aspects into account, most of which are based on privacy and privacy settings. The Internet can be a creepy place, and by limiting what personal information is available, we can help protect others and ourselves, no matter our positions.

Think before you post; it can save lives.

The post Learning Social Media Security Smarts by Bethaney Wallace appeared first on The Social Robot.