There's always lots of scare stories about online privacy and how you should be careful about what you give out to people on those, there, internets. Now, whilst I think it's important that you think about what you share, i'm getting less worried about it, to be honest. Just think when you get a bank statement it includes your name, address and bank account numbers and they send it through the post in a bank-branded envelope - not much privacy there! But does it really matter? In most cases, no it doesn't.

Anyway, i've had a bit of an online security audit here and i've decided to remove most of it.

Part of the reason is that through this website i'm fairly open anyway. The contact page as my mobile phone number on it and you can follow most of my online activity through the stalker feed. So i've been through the main social platforms i'm invovled with and freed them up.

My Facebook account used to be quite closed down with only Friends able to see anything. Using the new privacy settings, i've decided to change that so 'Friends of Friends' can pretty much see everything on profile. I've restricted photos to friends, as you never know when you'll be tagged, but i'm pretty open otherwise. Interestingly, but probably not surprisingly, since I did this last week i've had some interesting friend requests and its prompted other people to get back in touch. And to be honest, it also means that other people who don't feel comfortable to 'friend' me will still be able to follow my lifestream, should they wish. The poor deluded fools.

I've also opened up my Twitter account a bit so that anyone can see my updates and can then follow me. I was a very early adopter on Twitter, but there were so few people I knew on it, it never hit the critical mass where it really works. I think it's about there now, so that's unlocked too, and I can better respond (or at least properly receive) direct messages.

Part of the reason i've done this is that actually being online is an important part of my work/social life. I work in an industry, and a business, where the only constant is your relationship with other people. I want to make those relationships as easy as possible to maintain and nurture and being open is a great way to do that.

What this doesn't mean is that i'm willing to connect anyone. My (occasionally breakable) rule for Facebook is that i'm only friends with people who i'd happily have a pint with and tha's tended to serve me well so far.

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