This Privacy Policy explains how LinkedIn gathers, uses, and shares your information when you utilise our services, which include our website and mobile apps.

Information We Collect

·  Personal Information: full name, email address, phone number, and other contact information you signed up with or that is present on your profile.

·  Profile Information: Work experience you have added including the duration of your work and your place of work and title, education including start date and expected finishing date, previous education such as name of your school and the location of the school, skills, and other information you provide in your profile.

·  Usage Information: Information about how you use LinkedIn, such as your interactions with posts, messages, and other content.

·  Device Information: Information about the devices you use to access LinkedIn, such as IP address, device type, and browser type.

How We Use Your Information:

·  To provide and enhance our services, including personalized content and recommendations so it is better suited to you.

·  To communicate with you, respond to your inquiries, and provide customer support whenever you need.

·  To analyze usage trends and preferences, and to understand how users interact with our platform to enhance your user experience.

Sharing of Your Information:

·  With other users: Your profile information may be visible to other users based on your privacy settings, you can change this in settings.

·         We may share your information with third-party service partners to assist operate our platform..

·         We may share your information with our associated companies and partners for marketing and promotional reasons.

Your Choices:

• Manage your profile options, including visibility and privacy.
• You may customise your communication choices on LinkedIn.
• Manage cookie and tracking choices through browser settings.

Question : How can I apply my learning on this module to create a Personal Digital Strategy which supports my control of my digital presence? 

For this e-portfolio we had to use different tools that I had been aware of, but I had not previously engaged with them beforehand. I gained valuable information such as the importance of reading privacy policies and terms of conditions and how to succeed with your digital footprint and make your profiles reach certain audiences. There are a few steps you can take in order to create a personal digital strategy that can control your digital presence.

The biggest take away I have from this module is to always take deep consideration into what you do and post online as your digital footprint is larger than you think. Everything you do online can be traced back to you so it is important to fully understand how social media works and the implications it may have in the future.  ‘’Your online presence leaves a trail; now is the time to take steps to manage your digital persona.’’ (Fulton & McGuinness, 2016)

I believe that certain social media tools all have a different purpose. For example, YouTube can be used to enjoy, share and create content for many different uses such as business or pleasure or education. Whereas LinkedIn is used more professionally, I aim to network, build a professional brand and promote myself. In doing this I think it is important to know your target audience as you want your content to reach the right group of people.

Reflecting on my content is something I now take into consideration whilst aiming to control my digital presence. I ponder the question of how well my content is doing, is it consistent and whether my profiles are excelling or plateauing. If I do not see an increase of activity I will make some changes. Carolyn Cohen wrote that ‘’Without communication, you have nothing. Valuable and mutual conversations get you noticed by other people.’’ This strategy has helped me build my digital presence to where I want it to be.

For various websites I think it is valuable to set yourself some goals and objectives. This will vary depending on the platform. For example I would personally post a wide variety of content on Instagram, but I would be extremely cautious abut what I post on LinkedIn. I have applied all of the privacy features on my Instagram account so that only people I personally know can view my feed, whereas ion LinkedIn I am happy for people to view information about me as this may benefit me for potential jobs or internships. You need to set a plan on whether you are going to use this app fort leisure or if you want to help grow your platform and networking.

Understanding your target audience will be extremely beneficial in aiding you to a successful digital presence. It is important that you curate your platforms to tailor to the preferences and interests of your audience. Tailor your ‘brand story’ accordingly to help attract and keep audiences engaged. Studies have shown that consumers encounter up to 20,000 brands every day, only 12 of which leave an impression. If you have any hope of being among those 12, you must have a brand story that matters to people, which is what 73% of consumers want. (anonymous, 2016). Ensure consistency across all your platforms to help develop your brand identity.

For this module I also became more aware of privacy policies, something I usually tend to overlook, and I always accept the terms and conditions without reading all of the material.  Meta’s readability score is currently at grade level 14, requiring college level education, yet just 36% of men and 41% of women worldwide are educated to this level (Statista, Citation2022a). Making the privacy policies this difficult for people to read discourages people from even attempting to view the policies which ultimately leads to users not fully understanding the implications of social media. I do think it is important to read privacy policies so you can fully understand the extent to which the platform collects data. In the future I will take more consideration when it comes to reading these policies and I hope more companies will make them easier to understand.

Furthermore regarding privacy, it is important to have good security on your account. As a digital citizen learning how to improve my personal digital strategy it is crucial to ensure you have a strong password for all your accounts. If a platform has privacy settings, I recommend setting all of your accounts to private so that only people you know can view your content as opposed to anyone on the internet. Implementing these measures aid in ensuring that your personal information is protected and thus you have more control over your digital identity.

References

Fulton, Crystal, and Claire McGuinness. Digital Detectives : Solving Information Dilemmas in an Online World, Elsevier Science & Technology, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucd/detail.action?docID=4425961.

10 Steps to Building an Effective Digital Strategy

Published Jan. 25, 2016

10 Steps to Building an Effective Digital Strategy | Social Media Today

Statista. (2022a). Education worldwide (p.45). https://www.statista.com/study/87568/education-worldwide

Social Media Ethics and Etiquette

BY CAROLYN COHN · PUBLISHED · UPDATED

Social Media Ethics and Etiquette (compukol.com)