Most social networking sites and blogs will have privacy settings enabling you to control (to some extent) how accessible your material is. You should make yourself aware of each sites’ privacy policies and how to change and control your privacy settings. You can usually find copies of privacy policies on the site’s website. Privacy policies frequently change so make sure you review your privacy settings often. Below are some things to take into consideration:

• What parts of your page/site are you comfortable with being public? Usually your basic information (name, location, age, etc) is always public and you can choose varying levels of privacy for things like posts and photos. Think about what you want people to be able to see (or not see), depending on if they are ‘friends’ or general members of the public.
• Check default privacy settings as these are usually set to ‘public’. Make sure you change them when setting up your page or profile.
• Social media sites may share your information with other sites. Most of the time when you sign up to their site you are effectively giving them permission to use your information. Think about what information you are providing and if you are happy with this being shared.
• Removing content from your social media does not necessarily mean that it is gone forever. It may remain elsewhere if it has been shared with others.
• Social media mobile apps (especially those that are free) may access other things like your email, contact lists, calling logs and photos. They will usually ask your permission to do this when you download them, if you decline you will often not be able to download the app. Think about how much access you are willing to give an app, just to have it on your phone or tablet.

If you still have questions or concerns, you can contact the site operator. Additionally, Australia and New Zealand have Privacy Commissioners with expertise in this area (see http://www.privacy.gov.au or http://www.privacy.org.nz).