State Trooper Presentation

One of the requirements for the Women, Community, Technology class is being knowledgeable in the major legal, ethical, privacy, and security issues in informational technology. To fulfill this part of the rubric our teacher invited two members of the state police, Sargent Kevin Albanese and Trooper David Aresco of the Connecticut State Police Computer Crimes Unit. Aided with a slide show presentation and their personal experience they emphasized the key points of knowing the settings on your accounts, watching what you put out there, and knowing the risk up putting something on the internet.

Although it may seem simple and harmless, once a picture, status, video, etc. is placed on the internet, it can never be deleted permanently. Some where there will be record of you posting what ever it is to what ever site. Most people know about this, but don't take into consideration the effects it may have later in your life. Sargent Albanese emphasized that what you put up can be used later in life when you are on a job interview and your future employer asks for your username and password to a site. Even though this may seem intrusive, the employer is simply trying to get all the information possible about you and how you function. Not only do employers look at your social networking but cops do as well. Both Sargent Albanese and Trooper Aresco pointed out various instances when something as dated as myspace was used to gather evidence on a person.

In addition to that another point that had great importance was to make sure you know who you are talking to and stay away from anonymous chat rooms. If you have never seen the person in the real world and can't make the connection in your head as to how you know the person then don't give them the light of day. Many people have been taken advantage of because they were talking to someone who they began to trust, but should not have in the first place.

After about two hours of slight paranoia and much discussion I have found that you have to be very careful of what you post and who is able to see it. By simply turning of location apps and changing your privacy settings on your account, you are on your way to making sure that you are relatively safe on the internet.