Companies and persons worldwide have a common problem? How can we protect our personal and confidential information on the internet?

A 16-years-old girl had decided to have a party to celebrate her birthday. It would be a normal situation if she hadn’t posted the invitation on Facebook and hadn’t asked her friends to share the event. In a few hours at least 200,000 people confirmed to show up. The girls’ parents canceled the party and were called to explain the problem to the police. Yes, it is a real story: it happened this year in Sydney, Australia, and was published by magazines and newspapers worldwide.

What did she do wrong? Well, she should have remembered what Facebook is: a social media, with 800 million users. It is a good way to talk with friends but a fantastic tool for stalkers, too. Confess it: everybody has already stalked the life of a friend, co-worker, ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend. The point here is that privacy is probably the biggest concern of internet users. How can I know who is reading my personal information and messages? And the problem gets worse when we think about another kind of use that this information can be involved beyond gossip.  Just think about who could be interested in your banking information, home address or personal habits.

What can I do to protect myself?

And this is not only an individual or familiar problem: corporations are also concerned about privacy on the internet. Print screens of Windows 8, the next version of Microsoft’s operating system that will be released in 2012, recently leaked on the web.  Confidential data about Acer’s next project was leaked on the web last month. Movie stars, multinational corporations and even the Average Joe – just like you and me – have personal information released on the internet without knowing or wanting it.  Even governments aren’t safe- do you remember all the scandals caused by WikiLeaks?

For corporations it can be difficult to protect confidential information – many hire experts to help in this task.  But for you and me there are few simple acts that can make your privacy safe:

1. Take care when using public computers.
2. Be careful when using eCommerce websites.
3. Don’t trust websites that ask too many personal questions.
4. Change your passwords regularly.

New open source applications improve security and privacy in social media, making it even easier to reset Facebook’s settings and to remove configurations that may leak personal information to third parties.  Web application development such as this is just one of the many services offered by Miracle Technologies, prioritizing quality and security.  Contact us to learn more at http://www.miraclegroup.com/.