Never before has information had the potential to be so permanent. Imagine, for example, that the library in Alexandria had been stored online, safe from fires, wars, or the damage of time to paper and papyrus. On the Internet, data is stored in many places, it can live just about forever, and you can access it from anywhere.

But as with many other great benefits of the Internet, you have to look both ways –information about you accumulates and lasts forever, too, possibly accessible to anyone with a connection to the Internet.

In the past, only movie stars or other famous (or infamous) people had to worry that some personal action, comment, indiscretion, or tragedy in their life would be exposed. They had to learn how to guard their privacy and safety or face humiliating headlines, harassment, and threats. Even being careful to keep such facts private was no guarantee of privacy.

Today the Internet has made everyone a "star"… but without the glamour and the money. Now we all have to learn to guard our privacy and safety. We have to understand that exposure to bullying, threats, and crimes can result from the information we post about ourselves and others post about us.

Think of each piece of information as a drop of water. When a drop of water lands, it either evaporates or becomes part of a body of water, indistinguishable from any other drop. But this is not the case with data on the Internet. Today each drop is collected into personal virtual buckets. The information rarely disappears; rather, it accumulates, slowly building a comprehensive picture of our identities and our lives. Small details about our appearance, where we live and work, financial status, emotional vulnerabilities, and the lives of those close to us add up.

Many people, particularly teens, have become at ease with giving out personal information online because they fail to fully understand the ramifications of doing so. Comments, actions, or images you post may well stay there long after you have deleted the material or apologized to the offended party. There is no way to ensure that your retraction is posted along with the offensive action or word. You won’t know who else has downloaded a document or what search engine crawled and stored a photo. You can’t know who else sees your comments and judges you by them, nor will you have the opportunity in most cases to explain.

That means when you want to shed an earlier image and move in a new direction, you may be haunted by examples of old behaviors. Painful memories of an old relationship may stay up for anybody to see. Some of your embarrassing moments may have been documented and those won’t go away. The truth is that a stupid act taken on the Internet today may well be seen by anyone who cares to search for data about you years from now, from the admissions director at a graduate school to a potential employer to your future children or in-laws.

Anyone – those with good intentions as well as those with the intent to do harm – can dip into your virtual bucket with simple Web searches. When they do, you run the risk that identity thieves, predators, or even someone in your life who may want to lash out at you, can cause harm. The number of public figures brought down by information posted online in the last year alone should give you reason for pause.

So think before you post. It is far easier to refrain from posting personal details than it is to try to take it back.

Are the risks of exposing your information online a reason to get off or keep kids off the Internet? Of course not. But it is one more reason to consciously consider what you reveal and how private it is. It's also a good reason to have frequent conversations with friends, spouses and partners, extended family members, and your kids about what’s appropriate and what may make you too vulnerable.

Linda