Privacy Guidelines for Bloggers and Digital Publishers Today

In an ever-growing and ever-changing digital world, many question privacy, and its place in digital publishing. How private is the content you search for, produce, and publish on the web and how much personal information should you consider publishing?

It is commonly known that Google, along with other large data companies, put together an advertising portfolio for you based on factors such as your online search data. This means these companies take note of the search terms stored in your browser, and suggest ads related to your specific interests.

A New Tool to Protect your Privacy: Good to Know by Google

Google has recently launched Good To Know, a simple tool that allows users to control how their data is used. Good To Know has four different categories: Stay Safe Online, Your Data On The Web, Your Data on Google, and Manage Your Data. These categories include links to various sections, tools, and policies, with videos that explain topics, and grant you, the user, control over data for your own privacy.

In addition to using Google’s newly-launched Good To Know, be careful with the content you publish online, especially as a blogger. Depending on the service you use to publish your blog (WordPress, Tumblr, etc.), your private information could be available to the public. Read your service agreement carefully, so that you are informed as to what control you have over your personal information.

How Much is Too Much Personal Information for a Blogger?

This leads to the following question. Should you include personal information on your blog? Unfortunately, there is no direct answer to this question, as it depends on the nature of the blog itself. Here are a few questions to ask yourself when debating whether or not to include a personal tidbit.

1. Who is your audience? – Does your audience exclusively made up of friends and family? Does your audience include business professionals? Generally, it’s more acceptable to include personal information when writing for friends or family, especially if you can enable privacy settings such as passwords or other types of restrictions. If your blog caters more towards business professionals, it might be okay to include personal information, as long as it is appropriate. For example: if you have a fashion blog that is read by professionals in the field, you could include what inspires you or where you like to shop. But, remember, even if your blog is geared more towards family or friends, it is public information and therefore can be viewed by anyone empowered with a search engine including your employer.
2. What is the purpose of your blog? – Is your blog strictly meant to sell or promote your business services? If the answer is yes, then personal information should be kept in your private journal, and not on your blog. If you’re selling your own expertise or are your own brand (i.e. a writer or an artist), then personal information such as your general background is appropriate, but anything more is generally seem as unprofessional by readers. 
3. Do your readers trust you? – It is important to build trust between you and your readers, and this can be done by sharing personal information, but to a limited extent. This has its positives and negatives. The positive: if you are more personal in your writing more passion and influence is generally added to you writing, leading to better persuasion or interest by your readers. The negative: not all readers may feel comfortable reading your private information. Instead, a great way to earn your readers’ trust without over-sharing is to personally respond to as many comments as you can on a regular basis.

Protect yourself in the digital publishing world. Even if your blog is more conducive to sharing personal information, make sure you do not lose your focus.