The “next big thing” online is a direct consequence of the “last big thing” – repairing the reputational damage inflicted by social media over-sharing.
From the moment millions of us began carelessly reminiscing with former schoolmates on Friends Reunited back in the days of dial-up, we’ve been sharing more and more with anyone and everyone – from details of our diets, daily movements and drinking habits to our deepest, darkest fantasies.
Even those who don’t think they’re sharing might be shocked to discover how much of their personal information is publicly available. I tested this theory on my mum, who I wouldn’t describe as a sophisticated internet user (it wasn’t that long ago she tried to delete text by applying Tippex to the screen). Typing her name into a website aggregator, www.spokeo.com
, I was able to see her age, marital status, job title, phone number, email address, home address, the value of her home and several photos of what it looks like from outside.
Consciously or not, we are all sharing far more information online than ever before; 571 new websites are created every minute; Facebook has over one billion users; and 340 million tweets are sent every day. To really put matters in context, it was only three years ago that people didn’t have iPads.
The ‘overshare’ is a natural by-product of the new digital landscape. An extreme example is the infamous Anthony Weiner sexting scandal, which saw the US Congressman send a sexually suggestive picture via Twitter to all of his followers, as opposed to just the one girl it was meant for.
Even messages posted deliberately can quickly be regretted, such as the image the GoDaddy CEO posted of him having proudly shot an elephant in Zimbabwe, cueing outrage from PETA and a campaign to close down GoDaddy accounts. Or when Kenneth Cole tweeted a promotion about their new collection but took advantage of the unrest in Egypt by using the #Cairo hashtag and seemingly making light of the situation. Even a swift apology was incapable of undoing all the harm.
For family offices, the risk of social media causing harm is even greater. First, there are the reputational implications of all members of the family having the means to broadcast unfiltered to the world. “Twitter divorces,” whereby spouses air their dirty laundry in 140-character messages, vividly illustrate the embarrassment that can be inflicted.
**Online safety**
Security issues are also an obvious worry. Revealing addresses, where children go to school and details of the family’s whereabouts can be enough to create a kidnap risk. An excited tweet from a child about their forthcoming holiday is all that’s needed to announce an unoccupied home.
Plus, the children of high-profile parents can be specifically targeted, with people looking to elicit private information setting up false accounts in the names of the children’s friends. The children quite naturally believe they are sharing with a confidant as opposed to a journalist or investigator.
Against that backdrop, it’s no surprise that the best brains in Silicon Valley – and our less glamorous English counterpart, Silicon Roundabout – are striving to create ways to help people remove personal information from the web. There has already been a flurry of apps like _Last Night Never Happened_, _Deleteme Mobile_ and _Tweet Cleaner_ aimed at helping people undo the harm caused by an unthinking post.
**Forgotten rights**
Lagging slightly behind the commercial activity, EU lawmakers are developing a legal ‘right to be forgotten’. Due to come into force in 2014, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation states that personal data must be deleted when the individual withdraws consent or the data is no longer necessary and there is no legitimate reason for an organisation to keep it. But the powers that be in England are unsure about it.
The UK’s chief objection to the EU move is that unrealistic expectations will be created by the idea of a ‘right to be forgotten’. In reality, the proposals will have a relatively limited impact on the way data spreads, or is traded, across websites. Hence the Ministry of Justice’s pronouncement that: “The title raises unrealistic and unfair expectations of the proposals… the reasonable steps required by the draft regulation would promise much but deliver little.”
Whether the new regulation is enacted over here seems unlikely. In any event, neither law nor commerce can be relied upon to provide the full solution to the new challenges family offices face from the ever-evolving digital landscape.
Instead, the answer lies in education. All social media users need to appreciate that nothing can ever be forgotten once posted online.
A digital tattoo is created the moment the ‘send’ button is pressed. It is perfectly possible to live a private life while using social media.
**Things to remember**
Personally, I’m an addict, using LinkedIn to connect with people I know, Facebook to stalk people I used to know and Twitter to follow people I want to know. But some basic guidelines are essential.
Firstly, keep on top of ever-changing privacy settings to avoid being caught out. It’s all too common for private messages to suddenly become public because of an unannounced change in a site’s terms and conditions.
It is also just as important to be aware of the privacy settings of those around you. I can have the strongest privacy settings in place, but they count for nothing if my best friend is zealously blogging all of our nights out.
Thirdly, be aware of what material currently exists about you online, particularly on accounts that are no longer being used, such as old MySpace accounts and online dating profiles (surely I can’t be the only one?!). It’s irrelevant if these sites are password-protected, as any journalist can acquire a password.
This kind of audit is especially important when someone not used to the public spotlight is brought into the family. The first thing the media will do is a social media trawl. Damaging stories can easily be avoided with just a bit of foresight.
Next, it is unwise to have a cyber-vacuum around your online profile – i.e. having no presence at all. Even for those who are deeply against publicity, it’s better to own domain names and social media handles before someone else snaps them up and either starts posting in their name or tries to extort them if they ever want to buy them. Of course, there are ways of dealing with both problems, but it’s better to avoid the issue in the first place.
Finally, social media accounts must be secured against hacking. Huge harm can be done if an account is hijacked, as seen when the Associated Press’s account was recently sabotaged and tall tales of explosions in the White House caused shockwaves around the world within minutes.
One vital (if a little tedious) tip that everyone in your house (and the White House) should remember is maintaining unique passwords for different accounts.
As tiresome as it is to recall a random array of letters, numbers and punctuation marks when logging in to everything from your bank account to Ocado, passwords without a fair smattering of !!!s, $$$s and £££s are weak and essentially worthless.
With these essential principles in place, family offices and those who advise them should have nothing to fear from the TMI (too much information) curse.
