You must protect your personal information privacy on the internet, because unlike people, the internet never forgets! The internet has made everything easy- from buying books online to buying vegetables; it also lets you share your personal details, credit card number, phone number and email with anyone, anywhere, at any time, but not without some risk to your privacy. Whenever you put your personal information in cyberspace, whether inadvertently or by intention, it may be not possible to control who uses it or how and anyone could use it to embarrass you, damage your online reputation or worse for monetary benefits.

This article explains the key features that you must know to protect your personal information privacy online and take control of your reputation.

Check for a Privacy Policy

Before entering personal identity information like your name, phone number, credit card, address and other similar sensitive information, make sure to check if the website has a privacy policy page. If it is missing a privacy page, leave the site and find another site that provides same service or product that has a privacy policy protecting your personal information. Do not take the risk of identity theft with mistrusted sites because if they do not have a privacy policy page, they aren't worth trusting.

Think before you Share

While using social networking or photo sharing sites like Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, YouTube and MySpace or forums and chat sites, put some thought on what you are posting before posting. Keep your personal information such as address, email and phone numbers private. Change the password of your email every month and manage your passwords responsibly, which means to avoid using same passwords for every email or in any new website you join. Don't use the same password for your credit cards or bank accounts in your online transactions.

Use Personal Information Privacy Services

A personal information privacy service alerts, monitors and helps the frequent web surfers in managing online reputation by protecting personal information on the internet. It warns you if too much personal or inappropriate information is found about you online. Along with that, it also detect misuse of your identity, stop unwanted catalog and mail spam, enable browser privacy using easy to install plug-ins and cookie removal tools and more.

The internet offers various opportunities and has a lot of constructive information and resources that are accessible at your fingertips. Use precautions and make your web surfing a safe and enjoyable experience!