Today is International Data Privacy Day so it’s a good time to take a few minutes to think about how you protect your information online.

As a mother of three children and a Yahoo who works every day to help protect your privacy on our network, I’d like to offer some simple suggestions for exercising your privacy options:

• The Internet never forgets. Don’t put anything online that you wouldn’t want your kids/future boss/mom/teacher to see today, next week or next year. Online content is easily distributed, and once it is “out there,” it’s difficult to ever pull it back completely. So think twice before you post content online and make sure you protect your online reputation.
• Be aware of your privacy options – and take control. Many companies now offer a variety of online privacy options to put you in control. You can opt-out of receiving marketing email from Yahoo! or opt-out of receiving interest-based advertising. Also, many browsers have privacy features that let you control your cookies and privacy settings.
• Stay educated. Cyberbullies, viruses, inappropriate content – the Web is wonderful but it has its warts. Do your homework regularly and read up on how to keep yourself and your kids safe online. For example, check out our recently revamped Yahoo! Safely site, featuring tips and videos for teens and a parents' guide with regular blogs from some of the top online safety experts in the country.
• Choose your friends wisely. Social networking is a great way to share updates about what you are doing, good deals, and interesting stories. But make sure that you're connecting with people you know. And take a look around the site to make sure you have carefully selected the privacy options that work best for you. For example, on your Yahoo! profile, you can make your profile private, viewable to your connections, or viewable to everyone. And on Messenger, you choose to be “invisible” to some people on your Friends list and not others.
• Share information with sites you trust. Read privacy policies (there should be a link on the front page!) and look for trust marks from certifying organizations like the Council of Better Business Bureaus or TRUSTe before you hand over personal or financial information to sites you don’t know.

Earning your trust is something we think about every day at Yahoo!, and we build that priority into our products and our policies. Yahoo! recently announced a significant change in how we retain the information related to your use of Yahoo! sites, setting an industry-leading approach to user data privacy. The New York Times said that it was “…an encouraging development for the cause of Internet privacy.”

We’ll continue to work for your privacy and hope you’ll take a moment today to learn how to better protect yourself and your family online.

Anne Toth
VP for Policy and Head of Privacy