Before I picked up this book, I felt like I knew a lot of the subject matter--I mean, I'm an academic librarian, I work with information (and the Internet) every day, and I'm regularly telling students the importance of choosing and evaluating the right online sources for their papers. But in the past year, I've had a variety of experiences that make this book uber-relevant: finding undesirable information about someone on the Internet by simply searching their name, having my Facebook account and email get hacked, hearing countless stories of businesses pass over young graduates because of things they've shared on their (open) Facebook page, and being able to, with just a little clicking, find someone's entire digital life including photos of their children and their spouse that shouldn't have been so easy for me to access (via Picasa and a wide-open Facebook account). And I myself have a very active "digital life": I post on my blog, I write reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and Yelp, I'm active on Facebook daily--the online environment is a place where I'm very comfortable "living" (although I knew someone who ended up closing his Facebook account while going through his divorce because he didn't want any information to possibly get leaked to her, and he was almost horrified by the amount and types of information people revealed about themselves on FB, including me. And yet--he posted reviews on Yelp. Pot? Meet your kettle.)
It seems day after day we give up tiny bits of privacy for convenience, things we would never do if we could see the "online paparazzi" stalking us, involved in our business with our own eyes. But because it's online, we share all KINDS of information--credit card data, personal information, personal stories, etc.--and don't even give it a second thought.
It is clear from the first page that the authors know their subject. Mr. Claypoole is a co-chair of the cyberspace privacy and data security subcommittee for the American Bar Association, and Mrs. Payton has her own business specializing in internet security, as well as serving as the CIO under President Bush (the younger). One of the most useful things about the book are the various resources sprinkled throughout the chapters telling you to check this site, or run this search, or ways to make your internet identity more secure. It's eminently practical and easy to read. I think a big reason so many of us have given up trying to manage our online identities is because it seems overwhelming, and the authors make it easy to divide that job up into bits and pieces, allowing you to feel like you have more control over your information and identity. And I have no children, but if I did? I think I'd be an Internet lockdown nazi (and Claypoole and Payton tell you how!) Goodness knows what kind of information kids would post about themselves if they were allowed to (and I've heard of horror stories about people finding things their children have posted on YouTube and FB).
Most of all, the authors are practical about how to manage your information and they certainly don't expect you to stay off the web entirely--but you can keep your life private. The last chapter, entitled 'Turning off the lights: choosing to be invisible online" gives you specific tips to regain your anonymity online. It's an interesting, relatable, easy-to-read book on something that we pretend doesn't affect us, but it definitely does. Every day. Every time we touch or click that icon that connects us to the web. So protect yourself!
