Online Communities
We’re excited to have you as part of the UVM community and hope you’ll take advantage of the many opportunities to connect with your fellow students.
Online communities like Facebook and MySpace have helped students connect in many positive and unique ways. Through these online communities, students have met other students with similar interests, formed groups to explore and celebrate specific interests, and transformed the ways that we communicate with each other.
At the same time, there are some cautionary lessons that have emerged from participating in online communities. We advise you to use discretion when posting personal information on the web and want to make you aware of the following:
- When you post content onto the web, you cannot ensure who does and does not have access to your information.
- Information you post online may continue to stay on the web even after you erase or delete that information from your profiles or blog.
- Without your knowledge, your information can be copied, saved, printed, and/or reproduced for current and future use by anyone who sees it.
- Future employers, graduate schools, and campus organizations may use information gathered from online communities as they are making decisions.
- Anyone with an "@uvm.edu" email address may gain access to the University of Vermont Facebook.com community, including individual student profiles, photos and groups.
- By agreeing to the terms of use, some online communities may have your permission to republish your content worldwide and share information with advertisers, third parties, and law enforcement, among others.
Your profile will be a part of how others know you -- please keep that in mind as you use Facebook, MySpace, Youtube, photo sharing sites, and other online communities.
Please take the following precautions:
- Avoid posting phone numbers and residential address information.
- Avoid posting information about your whereabouts.
- Be selective with the content of personal information that is posted.
- Be aware that information posted may be available to anyone with internet access.
- Use the privacy settings offered at the sites to limit access to your profile.
For more safety information, identity theft, and wireless security, go to this site: http://onguardonline.gov/index.html.
Last modified July 10 2008 11:12 PM