Holiday

The quest:

Exploration of the topics below to come up with a good mixture of social networking while maintaining personal safety and professional stability.

Personal Safety

• When is posting status updates to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, personal blogs, too much information?
• Do would-be criminals see this as their chance to take advantage of the situation?
• Are your loved ones safe if you announce that you’re out of town or the country?
• Services like GoWalla and FourSquare are fun, but is it too much information?

Professional Stability

• Furthermore, what does it mean to your business partners if they read social network updates from you while you are visiting them?
• Will the fact that you went out for beers and posted a picture of some crazy beer to Facebook, Twitter or your blog, harm your business relationship?
• Do you exercise the same business etiquette when thinking of posting things online that you would while personally meeting with business partners?
• Does it matter if you do or don’t know them personally?
• What about the people you’re traveling with?  Do they know or care if you use their name or activities online?

Exploration:

Personal Safety

Personal safety is of utmost importance, both for yourself and the loved ones you leave at home while traveling.  While thinking about these topics I find myself torn between them.  I would love to share fun things to my social networks, as they happen, but doing so only cements the knowledge that you are indeed away from your home.  Depending on what you say, would-be criminals might know exactly where you are and at what time.  They could use that information against you (for example, calling a loved one and faking a kidnapping to extort money).  They could use that information to plan a robbery at your house if they know you’re not there (they could possibly know exactly when you’re going to be home as well, depending on how much information you share).  Side note: Ever wonder what punishment you’d face if you committed a crime?  Now you can find out, using my iPhone app, iCrime.

Services like GoWalla and FourSquare are really fun to use and I enjoy using them, however, they provide a ton of detail about where specifically you are at the given ‘check in’ moment. Do you choose to not share anything in real time, except for private e-mails, phone calls, Skype, with loved ones?  Do you wait until you arrive back home to share your experiences of the trip with social networks?

To me, it comes down to a few things…

• If someone Google’s your name, or does a whitepages search for you, is your address listed?  Do you have your personal details publicly viewable in Facebook?  You might and not even know it.  Check Facebook settings and ensure only exactly what you want to show, is shown.  Do you have a website listed in your Twitter profile?  Is your Twitter profile public or private?  Mine is public and I have this website listed when you look at it.  A simple WHOIS lookup on your website can display your full address, e-mail and phone number.  Most domain registrars charge extra for a “private” listing and most people don’t select it when they purchase their website.  Any one of these scenarios can provide anybody with your full address and contact information.  Most whitepages sites even give you a handy map to show specifically where your house is.
• How secure is your house/apartment/condo?  Do you have a monitored alarm system?  If yes, do you arm it regularly?  Have you tested it?  Do you lock your doors?  May sound funny, but a lot of people leave the inside garage door unlocked.  Garage doors can be pretty easily opened, so if you leave the inside door unlocked, consider locking it.
• Is there someone that can check on your loved ones regularly and ensure nothing looks suspicious around your house?
• Do you have surveillance cameras around the perimeter of your residence?  A surveillance camera package is relatively cheap these days, consider getting one.  Be sure to hardware the cameras too.  Hacking into the wifi version of cameras is also pretty simple.  Google it and you’ll see loads of video tutorials and footage of people who do it.  Consider looking for a system that can send you real time updates as things happen, so you’re always in the know.

Given the details above, you may choose to do what you will, however, keep in mind the possible ramifications.  If you’re not sure about it, look at your Facebook and/or Twitter pages.  Based on what people you’re friends with are posting, can you determine when they aren’t home?  Do you see any patterns?  I bet you do, it’s common.

Professional Stability

Professional stability is also extremely important, especially for those who travel for and represent their company abroad.  Do you want your company or business partners seeing the details of your personal life on the Internet, while traveling on their dime?

• To address the first topic written above, it really depends on your company and/or business partners.  If you work for a company that promotes a certain lifestyle, perhaps they’d be a little more leaniant to online postings of nightlife or other social activities.  If you don’t, however, work for a company that promote that lifestyle, heed warning that your boss/manager/supervisor/VP/CEO/CIO/CTO, probably doesn’t want the personal details of your nightlife posted to the Internet for all to see.  Some could talk about freedom of speech and freedom of this and that, however, if you wouldn’t personally walk up to your boss or business partner and have a conversation about the same topics, it’d be safer to not post it to your social networks, or your blog.  If you do indeed have that line of communication open with your management and business partners, still be cautious, a verbal conversation is less incriminating than photos or drunken tweets.

• Respect those that you are traveling with also.  If you do choose to share information about the days/nights events online or even verbally, it might be a good idea to ask your colleagues if they are OK with you doing so.  Just because you might have a great line of communication open with management or business partners, doesn’t mean your colleagues do.  It’s about respect and privacy.

Bottom line

Be careful with what you share and how you share it.