'There’s no shortage of stories out there about employees getting fired because of what turns up on their private social media accounts. 

But I’d argue that as employers we’re often guilty of taking social media policing too far. It’s common career advice these days to tell recent grads and job hunters to sanitize their social media accounts before starting a job search, expunging photos that might seem unprofessional — from selfies on the beach to shots taken at parties. Recruiters and managers are going to‘check up your social media presence’ the argument goes, so it better look squeaky clean.'

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Take this moment to consider the five laws of your life online. Like laws of the state, whether or not you choose to learn these laws is irrelevant, as you will be tried by them regardless.

1.
Assume everything you do and say will be made public.

2.
Do not be seduced by privacy settings and passwords, which are temporary illusions that distract from the reality of the previous point.

3.
Understand that context and data are often one and the same. When you enter information on the internet, assume that you include the who (you), the what (the data), the when (the time of data input), the where (the site on which the data is being placed), the how (the device on which you input the data), and the why (the purpose of the site).

4.
Believe that all of your credit card transactions are being kept in a colossal, searchable ledger that one day will be made available for all to study.

5.
Believe that data does not disappear when you delete it.

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The revenge porn hotline is a free confidential service run by South West Grid for Learning. ''Don't suffer in silence. Call us for free, confidential advice and support. Whilst we cannot guarantee removal of all images online, our exceptional partnerships with internet industry partners allows us to minimise the reach, and some of the harm caused by revenge porn.'

More information here.

How does Facebook know who your friends are? It's a mystery that has nagged users since at least 2011, when the Irish Data Protection Commissioner conducted a full-scale investigation into the issue. But four years later, there's still a lot of confusion and misinformation about what Facebook's doing when it "finds" your friends.

Did it scrape your phone for names and numbers? Run a reverse-image search of your picture? Compile a "shadow" or "ghost" profile on you over a period of years, just waiting for you to log on and "confirm" its guesses?

Alas, Facebook's actual process isn't actually that sneaky or malicious. In fact, it involves this pretty complex academic field called ... network science.

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The UK Safer Internet Centre have now produced and published three brand new checklists – for Twitter, Snapchat & Instagram, with the same style and format as their hugely popular Facebook checklist. (via Kent esafety)

Read more at Kent Esafety.

 It's sparked frightening headlines and warnings from police departments around the world - but there's no evidence that a social media "game" that encourages children to disappear is anything other than a rumour that's got out of hand. "Game of 72" - a social media challenge where kids are allegedly told to disappear for 72 hours by their friends.

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