How Private Are You?
You might want to do more than just check your facebook privacy settings. Whether you like it or not you have a digital footprint and fingerprint. You’ve touched to many keystrokes and visited to many websites to be anonymous. So what do you do in a world where you’ve voluntarily given up the right to your data? Don’t believe you have, think again. Don’t believe me? Check the terms and agreements of some of your most frequented websites like:
- Facebook.com
- Youtube.com</>
- Twitter.com
- Amazon.com
- Google.com
How Private Is Your Personal Data?
You’d be surprised what they can do with your information. After all you did voluntarily give it up and gladly. I bet 99% of the people that frequent those websites and make data exchanges and digital transactions don’t read the Terms and Conditions of those websites. Who has time to read a book on terms and conditions when they just want to see what their friends are doing or want to buy that new audio book on their kindle?
I’ve come to terms (no pun intended) with being transparent with my personal finance information that some would find simply terrifying. Most bloggers like me obviously have otherwise their wouldn’t be a budgetstrong.com.
A Digital Snapshot of My Personal Life
What if everything about you was held in a digital snapshot? What if a picture of your finances were taken, framed and hung on your friends walls, on a monthly basis? How would that change your thinking, actions, and future choices? I bet most of us would be a lot more responsible and even more of us ashamed of that picture. It’d be worse than looking at your high school picture from your freshmen yearbook.
Well that’s essentially what I have been doing for the past 10 months. I’ve wrestled with the reality that most of my information is out there already and so is yours. Part of me wishes I had more control over it and another makes me shrug my shoulders. True most of it is segmented and encrypted, but that means little when you consider the human element behind it all. Everything from hackers, network security holes, downright negligence to invasion of privacy can and does happen and more often than you think. Everyday my digital fingerprint is left somewhere. This infographic on the left shows where. (Click for a larger picture) This is real data company’s pay to have to market their products. Is that next online purchase worth it?
Here’s a list of security breaches involving personal digital information covered by the media:
- “PlayStation Network Hack Leaves Credit Card Info at Risk “
- “Credit Card Data Breach at Barnes & Noble Stores”
- “NSA’s Verizon Spying Order Specifically Targeted Americans, Not Foreigners”
- “Bank of America target of $400,000 online heist”
- “F.T.C. Warns Data Firms on Selling Information”
- “Facebook, Microsoft Share Some Numbers on Government Requests for Information”
Still think your private information can’t be accessed or used without your consent? “Okay, you’ve made your point” but what’s the point behind the point? Simply this. The choices we make today more than ever have a consequence. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over these past 9 months it’s that each choice we make about our personal lives (especially financial) has a cause and effect. And sometimes it even feels like the cause doesn’t justify the effect.
Your Personal Decisions Equals A Lot of Ones and Zeros.
So when I think about my personal choice to post something on facebook or create a website discussing my personal finances I realize there are risks. Risks that can impact my bottom line (that’s a lot of ones and zeros…okay maybe not that many) if I make a bad decision (or if someone else does). Hypothetically you could get hit by a bus just by walking outside, but you’d never think I’m never leaving my house. That’s because some risks are worth the reward like a $12,000 paycheck from a client. I really do believe that the risk up till now has been worth the reward, but that could change. So what’s the reward (what’s in it for me?) My rewards are:
- The reward is seeing my personal growth because of the accountability I feel.
- Sharing sharing insights in my personal finances so that others can grow. I love helping people to grow!
- Having a documented history of my personal finances has been extremely useful in providing real world data for me to project future outcomes and then adjust my behavior accordingly.
- Watching my personal development is always satisfying. Knowing that I am learning excites me because it can be of benefit to others.
- Writing my thoughts down is a big stress reliever and somehting I enjoy doing.
- Blogging about my personal finances has allowed me to meet some really cool people and have some great open discussions.
So how would your life look if it was digitally mapped? Here’s a snap shot of my social footprint in this awesome infographic! Sometimes it can be fun sharing my digital data. 🙂
BudgetStrong.com