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Managing A Digital Life: Teachers Friending Kids

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Teachers in numerous Massachusetts cities and towns are not allowed to “friend’’ students on Facebook or other social networking sites, and a number of other school districts south of Boston are considering a similar ban.

The Boston Globe reports that many communities are working on policies governing school staff’s use of Facebook, “inspired in part by ‘model’ rules on the subject distributed this fall by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.”

The Massachusetts Association of School Committees rules are designed for administrators to “annually remind staff members and orient new staff members concerning the importance of maintaining proper decorum in the online, digital world as well as in person.’’

Teachers should be reluctant to add students as friends on Facebook, as Facebook and other social media sites blur the lines in the student and teacher relationship.

Growing up, we knew nothing about our teachers. They were authority figures that didn’t seem to exist in the real world. If we ever saw a teacher in public, at a mall, wearing regular clothes, we fell into a state of shock!

Now, because of the personal information made available on teachers’ Facebook profiles, students know more than they should about their teachers’ personal lives. They know if a teacher’s relationship status is “Complicated,” and that over the weekend he “Partied like it was 1999.”

One argument against students and teachers establishing online friendships is the need for a distinction between personas in and outside the classroom, and a necessary distance between students and teachers, in order to maintain respect and define a teacher as “a role model, mentor, and advice giver – not a ‘friend.’”

Ultimately, the teacher-student relationship is all about guiding the student through a set curriculum involving reading, writing, arithmetic, and so on. This is and has always been a professional relationship, not a social one. Social media facilitates a social relationship. Call me “old school,” but it doesn’t seem right for students and teachers to connect in this way.

Robert Siciliano, personal security expert contributor to Just Ask Gemalto, discusses child predators online on Fox News. Disclosures

If You Care About Privacy Don’t Do These 8 Things

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I don’t care as much about privacy like some people do. My concern is personal security. If I was concerned about people knowing “me” stuff then you wouldn’t be reading this because I’d live in a cave in Wyoming with no Internet and I’d blow glass all day. But personal security is something I deeply care about. The following are both privacy issues and a little personal security in there too.

Don’t throw away anything that can be used against you. For privacy and security reasons consider how someone could use something in your trash against you. I never toss anything with a name or account number on it and I’m careful not to toss DNA related stuff either. And I know people are saying that’s crazy. If it can be planted at a crime scene it’s flushed.

 Don’t publish your phone number. Many data aggregators use phone company records to index you. Without a published phone number they have a harder time indexing your name associated with an address. My home phone number is under a pseudonym and it’s also under a business name.

Don’t allow your name to be searchable on Facebook or be on Facebook at all. I broke that rule. When logged into Facebook go HERE to change it.

 Don’t broadcast your location. Location-based services (LBS) are information and entertainment services, accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device. Twitter, Facebook and others are getting in the game with LBS.  Carnegie Mellon University compiled more than 80 location services that don’t have privacy policies or collect and save all data for an indefinite amount of time. I see this more as a personal security issue.

Don’t post videos on Youtube that reveal your personal life. I have a business Youtube page and a personal. The iPhone has a direct connection to Youtube and it’s a blast taking video and quickly uploading. However, my personal page is under another name and all the videos are private. The only way to see them is to login.

Don’t forget to read privacy policies. I don’t like reading privacy policies because they are long winded and confusing. But not knowing what companies may do with your data is not good.

 Don’t use your real name as a username. I broke this rule a few hundred times. It’s a privacy issue when you don’t shield your name. It’s a personal security issues not to grab your name allowing someone else to get it and use it against you. Get all of them at Knowem.com.

Don’t put your name on your mailbox or on a plaque on your home. All the postal carrier needs is a street number. There’s no reason to plaster your last name on your home either. I see this more as a personal security issue. But there are certainly privacy concerns here too.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing Location Services on The CBS Early Show.

Scammers Are your Friend On Facebook

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Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Speaker Expert

Facebook is a trusted site where 20 something’s up to 60 something’s gather to keep tabs on each others daily activities, hard party nights and reminisce with old flames they sought out and re-friended. Some Friends we know well, others in passing -but are still happy to make the connection. We all want lots of friends (at least on Facebook).

In a lighter sense, Facebook is much of what life is or should be. It’s a place to go where you can just be you, bygones be bygones, be with the people in your past and present and hold onto memories that make up who you are.

It’s a place that is generally free of judgment, and social clicks. In Facebook the nerds hang with the cool kids, the dirtbags with the jocks and the hot chics with the geeks. Everyone is cool on Facebook.

This all adds up to a problem.

There’s a lot of excessive trust in the Facebook world. People have entirely dropped their sense of cynicism when logged on. They have no reason to distrust. People who are your “Friends” are generally those who you “know, like and trust”. In this world, your guard is as down as it will ever be. You are in the safety of your own home or office hanging with people all over the world in big cities and little towns and never have to watch your back.

All this is why Facebook is the next big mess of the Internet. Scammers are watching. They know that once they are on Facebook, your guard is way way down.

I don’t share that trust that most people have. I’m a bit more business on Facebook than others. I’m not all that Friendly. Kind of a stiff. I’m also a security dude, not so trusting. Even my cousin messaged me and said “Robby you’re all business”. I apologize to all. I’m just not ready to share my daily routine with everyone just yet. If ever.

Read This

And by Jason Kincaid This

Watch This

If you have time read This

And smarten up.

Then Friend me Here (at your own risk)

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Speaker Expert discussing people scammed on Facebook Here