Privacy affects us all, and no more so than when we participate in all of the new and amazing tools and technologies that companies continuously bombard us with.

A popular YouTube personality from Australia, Emmalina, discovered this the real hard way when she apparently discovered her popularity had an unintended consequence — stalkers. Someone with far too much time on their hands hacked into her computer and reportedly stole materials from it, including videos, pictures, and other private materials.

As anyone can increasingly become a personality online, people discover that with the fame comes a lot of unwanted attention from people who would rather mean them harm.

Even if you’re not interested in becoming the next YouTube star, online services can have unintended privacy implications.

For instance, a lot of times people are unaware of the fact that when you write something in an online blog or journal that isn’t password protected to access, the entry will be indexed and searchable by search engines pretty much for all time. That may mean little to you right now, but imagine 10 or 20 years from now when you’re trying to start a new job, a family, or dating a new boyfriend. They Google you, find your rantings and thoughts, and decide to pass on you.

As huge media conglomerates begin to ask you for more and more information and beg you to discover the wonders of entering in all of your personal, private health and mental health information into their databases, take a minute to consider its long-term implications. If a company like AOL can’t keep its members’ information private and, after 20 years of designing software, decides your privacy isn’t real important to them, then why should any other large company be all that different?

Too many moving parts, not enough focus on the privacy needs of their customers. Be aware.

Source: Tassie YouTube star calls it quits

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 30 Aug 2006
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.