Social media sites such as Facebook are examples of websites that can expose personal or private information.

“People who want to get your information will get it one way or another. That’s what it all boils down to,” said Brian Hyder, LAN (Local Are Network) support specialist.

Hyder presented the “Safe on the Internet” workshop Wednesday at Booth Library and explained how social media sites such as Twitter and Facebok have had privacy issues with its users.

“If you have had your profile completely locked up, then Facebook would change the privacy settings overnight, wouldn’t tell anybody, and have your profile opened wide up,” Hyder said. “It would be your responsibility to lock it back up again.”

Hyder also mentioned how problems with Internet security have affected Eastern students.

In his lecture, Hyder used the example of how Eastern students would give out their passwords to an email sender claiming to be from Information Technology Services (ITS).

“If you’ve ever expected that you’ve accidentally sent out personal information, you can inform ITS immediately,” Hyder said.

Hyder started the lecture by defining personal identifying information (PII) as information that identifies people online. PII includes licenses, social security numbers, names, home addresses and email addresses.

One PII protection tip that Hyder gave was to not send information through email.

According to Hyder, Facebook is the worst communication method to use when giving out personal or private information, and email is just as bad as Facebook.

Hyder said communicating over the phone is more reliable. He said talking rather than texting is safer.

Hyder said email can be unreliable because the messages are written in plain text.

“Anyone that has access to a web server can access your emails,” Hyder said. “Your Internet service provider can go in and see your emails.”

Hyder said the type of computers used also factors in protecting privacy.

He said Windows is targeted the most because most people use Windows and the program is not very secure.

He added Apple computers are more reliable, but may be more unprotected in the future as its computers and software increase in popularity.

Hyder also addressed computer viruses sent over the Internet and how to protect computers were other topics.

Hyder said most viruses are sent through Adobe products, such as when a person downloads a job application with Adobe Flash.

Hyder suggested to get antivirus software and antimalware software to prevent from getting computer viruses.

“A lot of the free software out there is just as good, if not better, as the one you have to buy,” Hyder said.

Other tips that Hyder gave in order for others to protect their privacy included not giving out information to relatives, checking credit reports and limiting the amount of information given over the phone or websites.

Hyder also said to read privacy policies seen in places such as social media sites and always watch for changes in the policy terms.

Alesha Bailey can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected]>/a>.