Protect Your Personal Information on the Web

  • What is Private Information?
  • How can we protect our information online?
  • What can happen to our information when clicked?

With the immersion of today’s internet technology, it’s often a struggle for parents to keep up with the latest developments in the newest products that excite and captivate their children.

The message for parents over the past several years has been to place their home computer in a visible place in the home so they can always maintain a good view of what sites their child is accessing. Now we know that this is not enough. With the majority of youth having access to their own cell phones, they are now leaving home with the internet in their purse or pocket.

So the important message now is for parents to maintain a good communication with their youth to develop positive guidelines for their online communication. We all can benefit from understanding internet etiquette. We need to teach them to protect their personal information by setting good boundaries and not telling everything to anyone who wants to know.

What is Private Information?

All personal information that identifies who we are is personal and private and should only be shared with people that we trust. For example, some would be, our family; our friends; our school; our doctor and our employer.

Some personal information to protect includes:

  • Full name
  • Birthdate and birthplace
  • Address and telephone number
  • Gender
  • Social insurance number
  • Any credit card numbers
  • Banking information

Not only do we want to protect our information, we also want to keep our information safe from identity theft as well. Don’t throw away any documents with your personal and private information on it unless it is torn up or preferably shredded.

Don’t share your password to your computer, your phone, your bank account with anyone else.

You are solely responsible for your own and if you share your password and someone is posting inappropriate messages, or taking money out of your account, you are still responsible. Remember NEVER share your Protecting our personal information.