Online safety is always a concern. You want to have important, useful information online for your customers, volunteers and employees, but perhaps you should consider some safety issues. Here are a few important suggestions for your website.
To determine if content is appropriate for your website, think of it this way: If you wouldn’t leave a print out on a table in the food court at the mall, perhaps you should reconsider uploading it to your site. After all, your web site is available to the entire world.
When mentioning people on your site, consider using first name and last initial format (such as “Abe L.” rather than “Abe Lincoln”) and never including personal member information online, unless you have their express permission.
When posting pictures of people on your site, be sure you have their permission. Be careful of how images are captioned, as well. While people might like having their image online, they might not care to be identified online. Children should probably never be named on a web site. Donors don’t always want to be identified for many reasons. Your volunteers or employees should be able to make the same decision. Images of non-willing participants or children can easily be blurred or cropped with modern image processing applications.
Be careful of listing times when people are at specific locations. For instance, if you are listing a roster that includes invitees or volunteers at an upcoming event, it could be seen an open invitation to an empty house. A simple Google search can return an address, a map to the location and even an aerial view of the property. Alleghany GIS maps will show property lines, tax value and sometimes a rough house plan. In today’s world personal information is sometimes too easily accessible. It’s important to balance convenience with safety. Consider listing this type of information on password-protected pages.
If you have a message board on your site, enlist moderators to monitor posts. Message boards are available 24-7 and can be edited by any of the members. It’s important to make sure that everyone involved understands the site’s rules and having several moderators is an easy way to keep up with the site around the clock.
When working with your web site maintenance company, it is important to have one representative from your business or organization that is responsible for regular updates as well as making sure your site security protocol is followed.
Imagine the problems a disgruntled employee could cause by giving sensitive or incorrect information to your web maintenance company for posting. Or, consider the dangers of releasing unedited photographs or any unauthorized data to the wrong person. Dealing with one representative simplifies your working relationship, and eliminates questions of disclosure or the possibility of posting disinformation.
(It also prevents the possibility for extra billing for unauthorized work. For example, a board member who wants “all the photos from the October meeting emailed to her immediately”, might or might not be authorized to make such an order. You or your rep should make that determination, not the website management company.)
If you’ve not already instituted one, consider these suggestions a starting point for your own company policy. We hope you’ll see the importance of developing a safety protocol that fits your organization, that includes data management, personnel and customer privacy and interaction with your web maintenance company.
What other issues with online security have you encountered? Technology is ever changing and, unfortunately, so are the possibilities for misuse. Imaging Specialists has implemented security protocols for our own site and will continue to look for ways to protect your company’s data and privacy.
