Life & Technology

This morning on the Today Show, Karl and I discussed ‘Your Privacy Online’ and in particular how you can manage your personal information when you use popular social sites.

It seems to be happening at exactly the same rate. As we become more comfortable with the internet, we also become more comfortable with posting more of our personal details online. Facebook, MySpace and sites that let you keep your own blog like Blogger have copious amounts of information from individuals happy to share. We’re recording our daily lives by writing blogs, posting photo’s and video’s, all of this allowing people who we have never met to learn more about us than we would most likely tell if we met them in some other environment.

Nothing new with all of this. But what happens when you decide MySpace is too 2006 for me, I want to go to Facebook? Or if you decide you don’t want to keep in touch with your mates from your last Contiki Tour and stop using Facebook. Have you tried to remove your details and what would you think if your details were still kept on file and shared around to advertisers for future marketing campaigns?

While you’re digesting, have a look at this website called The Web Archive. It’s a website that archives the internet. Type in some of your favourite websites and see how they looked many years ago. Search around for websites that you once created. Are your comments listed? Is the website listed?

When we become an internet publisher we must maintain in the back of our minds that the details we place online now, will be out there forever.

This morning on the Today Show we discussed digital camera's and what you can do to help you find them if they get lost. The camera I use is one of my favourite gadgets. Not only does it take great shots, with loads of features I can use to tweak my shot settings, it has loads of 'auto' modes so my wife can easily use it too! It would be a bad day if I lost it.

Our original idea for this segment was to discuss how websites are popping up around the web that help us to find lost camera's. Check out the 'I Found Your Camera Blog to see what I mean. People who find lost camera's can use this site in the USA to post pictures from the camera online so the owner can hopefully find them.

To ensure my camera could be returned to me if lost, I have added a small text file to the memory card that lists our office address, my email address and a quick sentence on how I will reward the honest person who returns the camera with something nice. All the person who finds the camera needs to do is look on the memory card and they will easily find the note.

If you use windows it is simple to do this yourself. Just 'right-click' in the memory card or Camera folder and select 'New', and then 'Text Document'. Write your note, then save a file name such 'Open Me If I Am Lost'.

Now we have all had some pretty bad experiences with lost camera's and the photo's that are on them – if you have an experience you want to share we would love to hear them.