An eye-opening video report by CNN Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve (watch here) shows just how public our supposedly private information can be online.

The CNN report cites two examples – one somewhat embarrassing and the other downright dangerous – about people who discovered that pictures they posted online had reached far more people than originally intended.

• A newly-married man posted intimate pictures of his Hawaiian wedding on social networking site Facebook to share with “friends,” but when he mentioned it on micro-blogging site Twitter, a link was attached that gave more than 3,000 “followers” access to the photos.
• A mother was horrified to find a picture of her young daughter that she posted on Flickr – an online photo sharing application – used in an improperly suggestive way on another website. When she posted a warning, strangers used the Internet to find her phone number and home address. 

To show how easily available information is online, CNN gave the mother’s name – with her permission – to a private investigator who specializes in harvesting information from the Internet; he found 100 pages of possible links in less than two minutes.

Of course, posted photos are just the tip of the iceberg that is data privacy in the Internet age. CNN reports that more and more Americans are making their private information public on sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube, and warns that any time users hit the "send" button, their information is no longer their own.

While many websites try to provide customers with the tools they need to protect their personal information, the bottom line is that people are going to have to deal with minimal privacy in the future, according to the CNN report, which concludes with the following advice: “Privacy is dead. Get over it.”

However, while privacy may be dead, more people are realizing that personal data – including personally identifiable information (PII) such as name, address, birthday, and social security number (SSN) – needs to be protected at all costs and at every moment. One way individuals can view their own personal data and make sure that the information is current, secure, and accurate is by performing a "personal" background check on themselves.

While most background check providers only service employers and companies, MyBackgroundCheck.com – the nation’s leader in consumer requested and applicant supplied background checks – is at the forefront of the growing movement empowering individuals to take control of their personal information through personal background checks that they may use as jobseekers, students, volunteers, and consumers worried about identity theft.

To learn more about personal background checks from MyBackgroundCheck.com, visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 800-503-2364. To follow MyBackgroundCheck.com on Twitter, visit www.twitter.com/MyBackgroundChk.

pr@mybackgroundcheck.com

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