Keep Control in Uncertain Times

Overcome fears with emotional intelligence, use resilience mindfulness & crisis psychology, learn composure & anti-stress strategy to fight anxiety

Simone Janson, Simone Janson, Simone Janson

• Publisher: Best of HR – Berufebilder.de®
• Year: 2024
• ISBN:
  9783965963139
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Mental Health & Wellbeing

Data Protection Data Hysteria Fears and Security: The Lives of Others?
// By Simone Janson

So soon we will all run around with large, colorful bars on our faces to remain undetected or we hope for data protection at this point. Or do we not need it at the end?

Public or private? Who reads everything on the net!

In an ideal world, before using social networks, people would think about what they want with them and how other people should perceive them on the Internet. You would be fully aware that you are presenting yourself publicly on the Internet and would answer the following questions in advance: Am I presenting myself in a completely unadulterated manner, can I stand by myself completely? Or do I want to convey a specific image of myself? Do I want to market and present myself professionally? Or do I even represent a company? Who is my target group? And how do I talk to her? And what data and information do I then disclose to the public? In short: people would know exactly who they are and what they want.

Unfortunately, we don't live in an ideal world. Apparently, many people have not yet learned how to properly assess the impact of their online activities. And the social media activities of many companies often seem like a large field of experimentation. There is no other way of explaining the many big and small mistakes that have caused social media to fall into disrepute: For example, that people are fired because they have blasphemed about their employer or that data that others have too freely shared with others have to be abused. Because many people are apparently not even aware of what they are doing.

Help, boss is reading along!

Lukas Murauer from Völs in Tirol was angry. On his Facebook-Profile he posted the status: “At some point I'll put a bucket on my boss, the idiot!” A student from Freienbach in Switzerland wrote on Facebook: “Ms. H. [her teacher] with her ass certainly doesn't fit in this box.” A sixteen-year-old in Great Britain referred to Facebook her job as boring. And a nurse from Stockholm published on Facebook Photos she took during an operation. Now all of this is nothing special, such postings occur millions of times a day. However, these cases were all known for the same reason: All of these people then lost their jobs because the boss had noticed.

Now some may criticize that the bad bosses are to blame for spying on their employees. Or the internet again, because it robs people of their privacy. But the fact is: In many of these cases the Facebook-Faux pas only the icing on the cake, because the employees concerned had already become conspicuous elsewhere. And all of them had missed one thing: namely the privacy at Facebook set so that their bosses just can't read it. And they had neglected to ask themselves the important question before using the Internet: Am I on the Internet more privately - or more professionally? And who can, may and should notice that?

The world has become significantly more complicated in recent years: In the past, when there was only Xing, the world was still okay for many people. Because Xing was - and still is today - reserved for professional use only. Since networks like Twitter, Facebook and probably also the newly introduced Google+, nothing is as it was before. Because here, on the other hand, the boundaries are more fluid: some use it professionally, others privately and you don't really know exactly how to behave. That makes things exciting - but also complex. And simply using different channels for different target groups may seem like an effective means at first glance. A closer look reveals that this strict separation can hardly be maintained in reality, as Uwe Knaus, blog manager at Daimler, explains: “I myself have been using social media relatively intensively in recent years. In doing so, I notice that it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between 'professional' and 'private'. At first I declared my Facebook- and Twitter account as private - XING was intended for 'business' use. In the meantime, I have been contacted professionally on all three platforms - sometimes around the clock. What matters is not how I organize it, but how the others see it. That's why I always behave in such a way on the social web that I don't have to be uncomfortable either as a private person or as a Daimler employee. "

Online reputation and job search online

Jan Kirchner from Atenta-Personalberatung recommends a radical method when deciding what to post on social networks and what not: Just let it go! In April 2010 he said at our ZEIT ONLINE talk on Deutschlandradio on the subject of job hunting with social media: “Don't write anything in social networks that you wouldn't write in large letters on a wall!” I even go one step further: If you don't want something to get to the wrong ears, just don't tell anyone! Because, as in so many areas, social media does not raise any new questions here either, but only intensifies existing problems: Employees have always had to think about whom their colleagues they entrust something to - and who not. Companies have always gossiped about things that the boss shouldn't be aware of. The only problem is that this communication has meanwhile moved from hallway radio to the Internet, where it can reach a wider audience more quickly - and where it can still be found years later. The schizophrenia that results from this shows attitudes like this: “I might tell colleagues some things in the evening at the regulars' table - and then hope that they forgot about it the next day. But at Facebook I would never post that! " Such round table discussions can become just as problematic as a casual facebook Entry.

However, the question arises as to whether it is even possible to maintain a strict separation of work and private life. Constantly controlling yourself emotionally and refraining from making any private statement is not only inhuman, it also has an inauthentic effect on other people - and therefore disrupts the good relationship with colleagues. Robindro Ullah, Head of Additional Services at DB Services, has therefore found a completely different solution for himself: “The topic of mixing“ private ”and“ professional ”has been with me for much longer than my social media life, which is now three years old. Immediately after joining Deutsche Bahn, I became a member of the TraineeClub, like every young academic in the group. The cross-divisional club brings young talents closer to the Group in forums, chats and excursions, but also at regulars' tables and leisure activities. Questions quickly arose like: 'Do I give out my private cell phone number or my business one? Do I keep my distance or do I also tell private things? ' Because even in such a large corporation, you meet again in a professional context quicker than you think. It quickly became clear to me that a strict separation between professional and private topics is not possible. On the contrary: Mixing leads to closer social contacts, strengthens the network among employees - and their ties to the group. How much private life you let flow into your job, everyone has to decide for themselves. " And that is exactly the problem for many.

Like an open book: Facebook and privacy

The “great” thing about Facebook is that it makes the decision of how much to show of yourself easy for you. By default, Facebook namely set so that all information is accessible to everyone. Because Facebook wants its users to tell as much about themselves as possible, because the more open your own profile is, the more interaction with other users takes place. And this is exactly what is extremely important for Mark Zuckerberg: Because the value of his company increases the more users stay on the site for as long as possible and reveal as much data as possible about themselves, which the company can sell profitably for advertising purposes. And so that as many people as possible keep these standard privacy settings, Facebook as difficult as possible for its users to change them. For example, Facebook no so-called fake profiles, i.e. a profile that is created under a different name than your own. You are constantly asked to verify your account by mobile phone or credit card number - if you don't do that, however, it doesn't happen so far. The trickiest method, however, is that Facebook usually brings out new options every few months, which mean that users have to click their way through the increasingly complex privacy settings in order not to reveal information that they actually did not want to reveal.

These are currently located at the top right under “Account”. The individual options can be handled individually if you click on “User-defined settings”: Now you can select who can see the respective information for each individual point such as pin board entries, birthday or whereabouts: everyone, friends of friends, only friends - or only yourself. In the preview profile you can then see how much the respective friends see of the profile. But even more is possible: For example, you can divide your friends into different groups, for example “private”, “work” or “close friends” and then only share certain information with them.

Keep the boss away from your own Facebook wall - how it works

For example, if you want to prevent your boss - or whoever - from viewing the entries on your Facebook- You can do this in various ways:

• You can Facebook Use purely for private purposes and refuse friend requests to all professional contacts. And your entries are only accessible to your friends. One or the other may get this wrong, but if you follow this line consistently and communicate accordingly, the chances are good that it will be accepted.
• You can call your boss as a Facebook- Have friends, but still prevent them from seeing your wall entries by specifying under “User-defined settings” that your wall entries will be hidden from certain people or entire groups (e.g. from the professional group). You also have the same option for all other information.
• Conversely, you can also make the entire pin board invisible to all of your friends and then decide again for each entry whether you want to approve certain people or groups - by clicking on the small lock below the status bar.
• Or you can share your wall with friends or everyone in the normal way, but in the same way specify that certain entries are hidden from certain friends or groups of friends.

How good are Facebook's privacy settings?

Sounds complicated? That may be: you have to search around, click, try. And presumably, Facebook in the near future even change the setting options again. But if you still have doubts as to whether the effort is worth it, I recommend that friends or relatives have your own profile examined as a decision-making aid. Not because it would help you understand the complicated privacy settings of Facebook to understand. But because openbook shows everyone radically what they have now posted publicly for everyone - according to the motto: “Facebook® helps you connect and share with the people in your life. Now, even if they are not your friends and you don't know them, you can still read peoples recent posts (based on their own words) ”(freely translated:“ Facebook helps people to get in touch and share information. Whether you know them or are friends with them, you can still read their posts. "

No, you don't even have to go to Facebook be registered in order to receive precarious information or racist derailments free of charge with the name of the sender. Simply enter the relevant search terms or the names of people. The site looks almost like Facebook, has nothing to do with Mark Zuckerberg - on the contrary: The three Openbook founders Will Moffat, Peter Burns and James Home are software developers or designers in San Francisco and even at Facebook Registered. Your concern for privacy at Facebook but it was so big that they created Openbook as a deterrent. And they advise every member to change their privacy settings on Facebook to check. Or even better: switch it off completely.

Traces on the net: nothing stays secret!

C't magazin published a sensational article in its January 2011 issue. The authors Marcus Lindemann Jan Schneider had linked freely available information on the Internet in such a way that the profile of a real person resulted. They wanted to show what traces people leave behind on social networks.

Characteristically, they chose the high-ranking employee of an Internet company as protagonist, who still likes to brag publicly about his openness. The authors can find information in texts, reports and photos about their professional career and ...