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Excuse me, that’s private!

Excuse me, that’s private!

With the recent leak of confidential customer information by a certain large telecommunication network in Australia and the slightly less recent privacy policy controversy of a certain large social network, it comes as little or no surprise that privacy policies and protecting your identity online have taken a step into the spotlight lately.

In this day and age, it’s not uncommon to come across tasty internet treats (or website) that asks you to sign up/register/create an account before granting you access to the delicious contents that await you within. So what do you do? Well like the majority of people out there (myself included) you would fill the form out, be frustrated by that little box that asks you to type the disfigured letters to make sure you are in fact human, scroll through a bunch of terms and conditions and finally click accept. Success! We’ve done it, the content is ours! But at what cost?

Mashable.com posted this info-graphic that shows us exactly why as a society it’s easier for us to zoom past this boring necessary evil that plagues our browsing experience, and in my opinion, highlights how obviously broken the typical website privacy policy system can be.

It shows that the policies are long in almost every aspect, taking up to or over 10 minutes to read, and if you do want to opt out of having your information shared, it is a complex and frustrating process.

What’s the solution you ask? While there may be no way around the problem the one thing we can do is browse smarter, be careful about what we are signing up to, and make sure we at least try stay up to date with what we can do to protect our information.

For tips and tricks, the Australian Government hosts a website full of information that can be useful for protecting your information, yourself and your family from the internet nasties! Visit the Stay Smart Online website.

Yours in internet health, safety and tasty treats,

Lee

Belinda Vesey-Brown About the author
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