My Digital Footprint, Online Presence and Privacy

Hook: the search before the interview

Two students apply for the same summer job at a community centre. Before calling them, the manager types their names into a search engine. One student's search shows a public video of them mocking a classmate. The other's shows a photo of them volunteering at a community event and a short online portfolio of their art. Who gets the call?

Many employers, coaches, scholarship committees and admissions officers look at applicants online. The curriculum asks you to explain how digital media use and social media presence can affect opportunities, and to manage your personal information and protect your privacy. Your online life can be one of your best references, or a door you close without knowing it.

How your online presence affects opportunities

It can close doors. Posts that are cruel, hateful, threatening, discriminatory, or that show unsafe or illegal behaviour can cost people jobs, team spots, scholarships and admissions offers, sometimes years later. Remember that "private" accounts and disappearing messages can still be screenshotted and shared.

It can open doors. A positive presence shows your interests, skills and character:

• a simple portfolio of your work (art, writing, code, videos, projects),
• posts about volunteering, teams, clubs and achievements,
• a professional email address for applications (for example, firstname.lastname@... rather than a joke address),
• a professional networking profile when you're old enough (LinkedIn's terms require users to be at least 16), listing your skills, volunteer work and courses.

Before you post, ask: Would I be comfortable if a future employer, my grandparent, or a teacher saw this? Does it respect other people, including their privacy? Did I get permission to post photos of other people?

Protecting your privacy

• Check your privacy settings on every app. Decide who can see your posts, contact you, tag you and find you by phone number or email.
• Turn off location sharing unless you need it, and don't post your home address, school schedule or real-time location publicly.
• Clean up: delete old posts you wouldn't want an employer to see, untag yourself from photos, and close accounts you don't use.
• Search yourself every few months to see what others see.

Protecting your personal information

Your Social Insurance Number (SIN) is needed to work in Canada. It is confidential. Give it only to people who have a legal reason to ask, such as:

• your employer, after you are hired (the federal government tells employers to ask for a new employee's SIN within three days after the job starts), not on a job application or before an interview;
• the government (for example, for taxes or benefits);
• a bank or credit union, for accounts that earn interest.

Never send your SIN by email, text or social media to someone you don't know, and keep any SIN document in a safe place at home.

PINs and passwords:

• Never share your bank card PIN, and cover the keypad when you enter it.
• Use a long passphrase (several random words) instead of a short password, and a different one for every important account. A password manager can help.
• Turn on multi-factor authentication for email, banking and social media.
• Never give a password or a login code to anyone who contacts you, even if they say they are from your bank or the app.