Auditing My Online Presence

I remember when I was in the 9th grade, my high school invited a guest speaker to talk with the students about our online privacy as many of us at the time had smartphones and had somewhat of a social media presence online. The first thing he said was, "The first thing you should know about online privacy is that it doesn't exist. Many people believe that it does, but it's ultimately an illusion." This saying stuck with me, but I feel like I didn't take it too seriously back then. When I audited my online presence, I'd say that I definitely have an online presence, but I consider myself to have a small presence (hopefully). I don't own a website, but I do use multiple social media sites. The ones I still currently use are Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Unlike many people I know, I've never had a Facebook account. This is mainly because since I was 13, my parents were against me being on Facebook, but were okay with me using other social media accounts.



On Instagram, my account is set to private so only my followers, who are mostly friends and family, can see what I post. I usually post things in my personal life that I find exciting and want to share with others, but I make sure that it is appropriate and try to keep my profile professional. However, I rarely post on Instagram as my last post on my account was posted more than a year ago.

On Twitter, my account is public, but I don't use my real name or show my birthday. I very rarely tweet about anything and I often retweet other tweets. These retweets are mainly tweets that contain news on current events, news throughout the gaming industry, and any tweets that I find funny.

On Snapchat, I often use my account to connect with friends and family by sending snaps. I also use it as my main messaging place for most of my friends. I often message my friends and I'll sometimes share snaps on my story if I think it is worth sharing with everyone that has added me.

By viewing my social media accounts, someone could learn that I am passionate about video games, movies, and that I like to stay updated on current events going on around the world. They'll also possibly learn that I like to post pictures of my travels as well as celebrations.

Besides my social media accounts, I have also given out my phone number and email to other sites. This information is often required by many other sites if you want to create an account, especially when it comes to playing video games. For all video game platforms (Xbox, Playstation, Steam, Nintendo), you need to provide an email account if you want to create an account to play online with others or to purchase games digitally. Even some gaming companies like EA require you to have an EA account to access online multiplayer features for their games.