SOCIAL How to stay out of trouble - Sanlam
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SOCIAL
MEDIA
sa
How to stay out of trouble
vvy
Social media is a
wonderful thing, but it is
also a tangled web that
can shatter your life if
you get things wrong,
explains Nicci Botha.
Just ask Penny Sparrow.
12 REALITY WINTER 2018 www.sanlamreality.co.za
Social media is completely context and tone neutral, so the nuances of body language and facial expression that would help people interpret what you are saying are missing. www.sanlamreality.co.za WINTER 2018 REALITY 13
I
n case you’ve been living in a digital
black hole, Penny Sparrow is a former
estate agent, who let rip on Facebook
with a racist rant that went viral. It
made her a pariah and landed her in
court; the proceedings eventually cost her
about R200 000 in fines.
DIGITAL CONTENT IS DANGEROUS CONTENT
“Digital content is dangerous content,” says
social media law expert, Emma Sadleir, in her
latest book, Selfies, sexts and smartphones:
A teenager’s online survival guide, written with
Dr Lizzie Harrison.
Besides her books on the subject, Sadleir
also founded The Digital Law Company three
years ago. She and her team specialise in
educating corporates, employees, schools,
teachers, parents and universities on the
legal, disciplinary and reputational pitfalls
of social media.
Although the book is aimed at teenagers, it
contains useful information for anyone using
social media.
It says content is dangerous because once
you’ve posted something on the Internet,
it exists in cyberspace forever. If what you
posted wasn’t too savoury – whether it was
a photo dating back to your student days,
or a controversial post – it can come back
to haunt you. “If it’s online, it can/will be
found, downloaded, screenshotted, copied
and pasted. Privacy settings change every
day, so hiding something behind them is no
guarantee that it won’t become public one
day,” she writes.
placed in a public area with holes to lock the TOP TIP
THINK BEFORE YOU POST
According to billionaire businessman, Warren
felon’s head and hands in place. The offender
was then shamed or insulted by everyone who
Be safe on Facebook
Buffett, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation passed by. Sound familiar? Regularly go
and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about Besides damaging your personal reputation, into your privacy
that, you’ll do things differently.” But in the posts can impact your career options. settings to ensure
digital age this is more likely five seconds – Prospective employers do trawl through the only your friends
literally the click of a button, Sadleir believes. Internet to find out more about you. Sadleir and family can
So, your digital persona is all about refers to this as your digital CV or footprint, see your activity.
reputation management. Think before you and it comprises everything you’ve posted. Remember, if the
post. If it’s something you wouldn’t put on You also have a digital shadow, which is what answer to any of
a massive billboard in your neighbourhood, other people post about you. these settings is
along with your face, name, address and Employers are also becoming more ‘everyone’, then
employer – then don’t do it, she explains. conscious that what you say in your private your posts can be
By engaging with social media you are capacity can impact their brand reputation, seen by the general
under constant scrutiny, often by people you and that can get you fired. public and not just
don’t even know. In some respects, it has Justine Sacco is one such example. She is a your friends.
become the modern equivalent of the pillory PR executive, who fired off an inappropriate
– that wooden medieval punishment device joke about AIDS on Twitter before boarding
14 REALITY WINTER 2018 www.sanlamreality.co.za
HOW TO SECURE
YOUR PRIVACY ONLINE
Social media also has another potential
danger zone… online privacy.
Safety online
is important. The recent scandal about political research company, Cambridge
Make sure you Analytica, using an app on Facebook to gather personal data on
keep your posts millions of users for Trump’s 2016 presidential election, has left people
protected at all outraged at the invasion of privacy.
times. The truth is the Cambridge Analytica scandal is just the tip of the
iceberg. Facebook and other social media platforms have been mining your
personal information for years to tailor advertising to your preferences.
That’s why the ads on your Facebook timeline, your Gmail account or
your Twitter feed correspond to your recent online searches. Similarly,
those innocuous quizzes about who you were in a previous life, or in which
country you should be living, aren’t just a bit of fun, but market research.
However, there have recently been moves to legislate privacy on
social media. Facebook boss, Mark Zuckerberg, was grilled by the
US congress, the European Union’s new General Data Protection
Regulation will force companies to reveal how they use data and, in
South Africa, the Protection of Personal Information Act (PoPI), is
supposed to do the same.
In the meantime, you can limit what Facebook info you make
available to third parties by reviewing your settings.
TIGHTENING UP YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT SECURITY
Apps
Choose ‘Settings’ under the down arrow on the top right of your
screen. If you’re not immediately prompted to do a ‘Privacy Check-
up’, then click on ‘Apps’ on the left. Here, you’ll find all the apps
you’ve logged onto using Facebook. Click on the pencil symbol to
prevent friends from seeing that you use the app or stop the app
seeing who your friends are.
You can delete the app by clicking on the X. But this won’t remove
your info from the developer’s database. To do this, you need to
contact the company and ask them to remove your data.
To deactivate the ability to log onto third-party websites by using
your social media accounts, click on ‘Apps, Websites & Games’.
Apps Others Use
Unclick anything you want to keep private on the apps and
websites your friends are using.
Ads
You may not be able to control the fact that Facebook gathers data
about you, but you can dictate how the platform uses it.
Go to ‘Settings’ and click on ‘Ads’ on the left of the screen. You
can then turn off ‘Ads based on your use of websites and apps’
(prevents targeted ads on your timeline); ‘Ads based on apps and
websites outside the Facebook companies’ (means you won’t see
FB ads on the rest of the web); ‘Ads with your social actions’ (click
‘No One’ and friends won’t see your likes, comments etc on the
adverts they see).
FRIENDS AND FOES
To limit what your friends and outsiders see of your timeline, likes and
shares, go to ‘Settings’ and hit the ‘Privacy’ button. You can then edit
who sees your future posts and who can send you friend requests by
changing your privacy status from ‘Public’ to ‘Friends only’. Remember
if your posts are set to ‘Public’ anyone can see them.
www.sanlamreality.co.za WINTER 2018 REALITY 15
a plane for Africa. Little did she know that If it’s something you wouldn’t put
during the few hours she was in the air and
offline, she had created a Twitterstorm of epic on a massive billboard in your
proportions that ultimately got her sacked.
That’s another thing about social media.
neighbourhood, along with your face,
It’s completely context and tone neutral, name, address and employer, then
so the nuances of body language and facial
expression that would help people interpret
don’t do it, she explains.
what you are saying are missing.
LEGAL MINEFIELD
Digital content falls within the ambit of Although WhatsApp has become a useful
publishing and is therefore subject to the tool for workplace communication, you still
same laws as magazines or newspapers. need to be judicious about what you post, says
“Something is considered published once it another member of The Digital Law Company,
has been made available to just one other Sarah Hoffman. Not everyone in your office
person, whether in writing, verbally or wants to see photos of your child’s first tooth.
otherwise,” Sadleir explains. On the other hand, is it appropriate for your
There’s something called the chain of boss to message you with a work request at
publication. Even if you didn’t originate the 2am in the morning? Sarah says that depends
content, but shared or retweeted something on your job description, but more and more
without commenting or agreeing with it, you companies are putting WhatsApp guidelines
become part of the dissemination process. in place to manage the situation.
Likewise, you have the ability to stop the
dissemination of information (deleting a
derogatory comment from your post), and Social media is far more complex than a
the ability to disassociate yourself (untagging space to post happy pictures. As it evolves,
yourself) from it. If you fail to exercise that it will become trickier to navigate, but if you BELOW: Every
ability, you’re just as liable as the originator. follow the giant billboard rule, are conscious post has a ripple
effect. Don’t be
“In the latter case, and if the post is on of your digital shadow and think before you caught on the
Facebook, you can turn on the settings that post, you should be okay. Most important of wrong side of
allow you to approve tags or turn on manual all, remember to be kind. the law.
tagging, so that tagged photos don’t appear
on your timeline without your permission,”
Sadleir says.
WHATSAPP, DOC?
Sadleir points out that apps such as
WhatsApp are also social media. Content
published on this platform can also be
disseminated, and be just as disastrous to
your reputation.
Remember the mom who accidently sent
a sexy photo intended for her husband’s eyes
only to her child’s school hockey WhatsApp
group? One of the members maliciously
screenshot the image and it went viral, much
to her embarrassment.
Simply by being a member of a group where
offensive remarks are made can get you into
trouble too. The best action in this instance is to
either leave the group immediately, or reply to
the comment saying you disapprove or disagree.
16 REALITY WINTER 2018 www.sanlamreality.co.za
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