The definition of my personal privacy setting is, “limiting all online material to things I would not mind my parents or colleagues seeing.” Since I began my professional career, I certainly post different things than a typical college student. At BlogOrlando, I learned that I am actually very conservative compared to the majority of those who participated in the discussion.

Many in the room felt that they had nothing to hide or filter online, even professionals. There were very valid and strong opinions being shared. Some felt that if a company or person had an issue with items placed online via networking sites or blogs, then they ultimately had a conflict of interest with the person.

For example, many people place images of them hanging out with friends and they happen to be drinking alcohol. At a company, if you are over 21, it is almost assumed you drink and people feel that posting images hanging out at a bar is not inappropriate. There have been instances where companies have suspended workers, of drinking age, for posting this material.

One of the most popular instances of companies not approving personal online content took place in Pennsylvania where a teacher in training was denied an education degree from Millersville University. Pictures were found on the teacher’s MySpace page alleging they were “promoting underage drinking.“ Interestingly enough, the teacher was not drinking with minors, taking shots or even doing something obscene. The picture in question was of the teacher at a Halloween party dressed up as a pirate and drinking from a plastic cup, and you could not tell what the teacher was drinking. The caption under the picture read “Drunken Pirate.” That simple phrase has cost the teacher their degree on the very eve of graduation. The teacher is now suing the state of Pennsylvania for the education diploma and personal damages.

This leaves a gray area as to what is appropriate content online. We are ultimately left to police ourselves and the content we are willing to place in our online communities. BlogOrlando “Living Online” leaves me to conclude that no matter how open or filtered a person is online they have an “internal privacy setting” that they adhere to. Limiting profile information or blocking users are just a few of the settings we have to guard our level of comfort online. As social networking sites continue to rise in popularity, information available and accessible online is left in the hands of the profile holder.