Quite often I get into conversations with people about the security of their personal data when they put it online. This often stems from the fact that I do not use my real name in my facebook account. ‘Why?’ they ask and the conversation starts. The answer for me is obvious but many people are oblivious to the dangers of throwing their data around the internet.

Have you ever Googled your own name?

Try it and see what comes up. I search names all the time. Web spiders crawl the internet consistently and the data they can extract is incredible. Some people may not mind Google knowing everything about them, but personally is rubs me the wrong way as I have never given them permission to collect my data.

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