Remember: your data are all public

By now everyone's heard this from me multiple times: be careful what you send in email or post to the Internet, on your blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Buzz, etc. Everything you upload in any fashion can potentially be saved forever, and at some point, redistributed.

As this article about an untrustworthy insider at Google illustrates all too clearly, your data are only protected by the goodwill and diligence of the companies you are trusting. Some companies may not have any policies or procedures in place to try to restrict access to your accounts and posts; some may have these but may not aggressively enforce them; and as the Google case shows, even if you have policies and enforcement, it won't be perfect. For example, it's likely that Facebook employees can impersonate you; there are legitimate reasons why that capacity is built in, but remember it can also be abused. Trusted insiders at these companies will have access to large pools of your information, and inevitably some of them may not be worthy of that trust. So far the stakes have apparently not been high enough for affected users to contemplate any lawsuits for breaches, collectively or individually, even when they apparently happen in violation of the representations these web sites make to you in their Terms of Service and Privacy policies.

The bottom line should be: treat absolutely everything you type into a web site or publishing program (blogger, messaging program, texts on your phone!) as though your boss (or your grandmother?) were going to read it tomorrow - because there's always a chance they might.