PRESS RELEASES
Vector Marketing Director Warns Students About
Compromising Privacy On The Internet
Aug 1, 2006
WILMINGTON, Delaware, -- Today's college students may be a bit careless and cavalier about personal information they are posting on various "social" web sites, a situation that can result in lost job opportunities, arrests, and embarrassment.
These were among the comments made by Sarah Baker Andrus, director of academic programs for Vector Marketing (http://www.campusrelations.com), at the recent Pi Sigma Epsilon (PSE) Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. PSE is the national professional fraternity for marketing, sales management and selling.
Vector Marketing (http://www.vectormarketing.com) is the direct sales division for Cutco Cutlery, the nation's largest kitchen cutlery manufacturing company. The products are sold through a national network of college students who sell during in-home, personal demonstrations. The Vector Marketing company is a long-standing corporate sponsor of PSE and its Pro-Am Sell-a-thon.
"Many students aren't aware of the potential problems they can encounter by posting personal information on these web sites," said Andrus, who also serves as a professional vice president for the fraternity. "The illusion of anonymity that the internet provides encourages exaggerations and unflattering portrayals that can lead to unexpected consequences."
During her presentation, she referenced personal sites where students admitted to participating in illegal activities. She also showed photos of students drinking and in other compromising and embarrassing situations.
"In most cases, people join sites like myspace.com and FaceBook as a convenient and popular way to network and make friends," she said. "However, they fail to realize that others may use the sites for their own purposes.
"It's not unusual for campus officials, law enforcement agencies, and corporate recruiters to check people out on the internet," Andrus continued. "While an internet profile doesn't prove anything, it can often cause enough suspicion to initiate an investigation or raise questions about a student's integrity. Once this information is posted, it is available to everyone and individual privacy is immediately compromised.
"These seemingly harmless postings can reflect character and values, which are key issues for corporate recruiters. Nonetheless," she adds, "in my view, any information on these sites is suspect, shouldn't be taken seriously, and certainly shouldn't replace a good background check.
Andrus offered the following advice:
- Never publicly post personal or identifiable information on any online forum
- Monitor your online profile to make sure others haven't posted offensive comments or photos to your site
- Be careful about who you're chatting with online. They may not be who they say they are
- Don't post information from work. Many employers have rules governing this activity
- Most popular social networking sites have security options. Make sure you learn about them, and use them.
"The bottom line is that your privacy can be severely affected when personal information is posted on the Internet," Andrus said. "While these sites can provide some amusing diversion, use some common sense." A good rule of thumb? "Don't put anything on the internet you wouldn't want your parents to see."
About Cutco Cutlery and Vector Marketing
Cutco Cutlery is a 56-year-old company with headquarters and manufacturing facilities in Olean, New York. Vector Marketing is the company's sales division which trains and coordinates the activities of the direct sales force of college students.
