“Private Information has extreme value”

I was fortunate enough to be sponsored by the AEU to attend a conference called “Losing my identity: Privacy, Identity and E-Crime”. It was run by the Privacy Committee of South Australia.
Although I left rattled by the continuous conclusion that education (schools) need to change the world I found some really valuable resources. Including the booklet ‘private i’ which I consequently ordered for every student and teacher at my school. 
I know you are as exacerbated as I am at the flippancy employed by most teens to their privacy so some of the following facts could help them change their privacy settings in facebook?
Identity Crime can underpin and facilitate a range of crime including drug trafficking, vehicle theft and re-identification, money laundering, terrorism and people smuggling.
Electronic Crime includes cyber stalking, spam & phishing used to spread malicious software and the possession of child pornography.
I also considered the presented Crime Prevention suggestions;
Preventing crime is more effective than investigating crime
Users need to learn about the technology they are using
Trust is not an option on the internet.
Let’s not get all freaked out and fear mongering about this.. That would widen the generation gap that needs paving up for the best interests of our kids!
Probably the best received information has been ‘Be as anonymous as possible’. Avoid postings that could enable a stranger to profile you.
For example;
Names - Surname, mother’s maiden name
History - Education, sports teams, where you live
Interests - Pets, hobbies
The best place to take care is when choosing prompter passwords for account settings. I encourage young people to create a fictitious person. Of course facebook profile owners will be aware that the privacy commission has ruled changes to the social networking site used by 7 million Aussie’s. If you can still be ‘found’ on facebook you can get help to ‘change your privacy settings’ on the site.
Probably the most useful presenter was Barry Blundell from SA Police. You can access his slides in a post here.
Thanks to my Union I am now informed!