Have you ever been walking down the street with a friend, talking loudly about an amusing personal story and then right as you got to the juiciest part you passed by a stranger on the street who happened to hear the whole thing? You probably didn’t think much of it since you didn’t know the person. But, what if later that day you went to a job interview and that same stranger who overheard your juicy conversation ended up interviewing you for the position? Talk about an embarrassing situation!

While this situation seems highly unlikely in a person’s day to day routine, this happens to people every day on the Internet. Juicy gossip and embarrassing stories about you, your friends and your family can get spread publicly across social media forums, profiles and message boards in plain view of employers, bosses, co-workers and other professionals. Ever wonder if the information you publicly posted about yourself might have cost you a new job or promotion?

There are no passing conversations on the Internet. Anything publicly posted about you will stay online, often in posterity for all of time – that’s why protecting your private information online is so important.

Some web users are under the misconception that the Internet offers the same privacy and protection as the “real world,” when in fact there are very few laws regulating one’s rights to online privacy. A recent article from the Japan Times by Bruce Schneier called, “Offhand but on Record” covers the top privacy concerns with today’s popular social media websites and the advertising partners that support them. Schneier calls for “comprehensive data privacy laws, protecting our data and communications regardless of where it is stored or how it is processed,” but stricter laws alone will not save users who continue to publicly post sensitive information.

Privacy education is the key. If you are going to use social media websites and blogging tools like Facebook, Twitter or WordPress, be aware of the content you publicly post and make sure you set your privacy settings to block sensitive information from public view. When using job boards and career networking websites like Jobdango or LinkedIn, make sure that your resume and profile are up-to-date and don’t contain errors, typos, or other information that could disqualify you from your future job or promotion.

There is a useful article on the, “10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know” that can provide social media users with additional tips to protect their privacy online while still utilizing social media websites.

As Internet technologies continue to expand the mining and sharing of information, online privacy will continue to be a growing concern. The best way to maintain your privacy online is to use social media and networking sites with caution and to spread the word about privacy concerns with other professionals online.

August 2009 was a big month for us here at PrivacyHarbor.com and one that will not be forgotten anytime soon. Why you ask? Well, to start, we officially launched both our new website www.PrivacyHarbor.com and our new look and feel of our private email service. The response has been fantastic, and the number of new customers in search of true email privacy has been astounding. As a team, we’re thrilled to be able to help our customers achieve private email dialogue. That being said, it is important to us that PrivacyHarbor.com meets your email needs. We ask you to tell us what you want in a private email service by completing our new survey!

The survey will take approximately four to six minutes to complete (really, we timed it!). We want to provide you with an ideal user experience, and would appreciate your important feedback. To thank you for taking our survey, you’ll  receive three free months service to our Personal or Executive Account memberships.

All existing customers will get the survey as a link in an email that you will receive over the next couple of days. Part of the survey asks questions about how you would improve PrivacyHarbor.com email. As a result, if you are not currently a customer, you would need to register for and account and then the survey will immediately be emailed to you.  Please note that the survey is designed for all types of respondents, regardless of your user level. Of course, the survey is anonymous, private and secure.

As always, please contact us with any questions or to learn more about PrivacyHarbor.

Today, the PrivacyHarbor team released our new Beacon Desktop Email Notifier, now available for download. This new feature will alert users via a small pop-up window on their desktop when they receive a new e-mail message, regardless of whether they are logged into their PrivacyHarbor email account.

The new Beacon Desktop Notifier is free for all accounts and includes the following features:

• Beacon Icon Status – Unique icons in your system tray will show you when you are online and have new messages, or are offline and have no new messages.

• Inbox Beacon Message Preview – When the Beacon is active, you will receive a notice informing you when new messages have arrived in your inbox.

• SnapGuard Beacon Message Preview – You will also be notified of new messages in SnapGuard. By default, you will be notified twice a day about messages from unknown recipients that go into SnapGuard.

• Compatible with Windows 2000, XP, and Vista (Please note that Mac OS X is currently unsupported).

To learn more about PrivacyHarbor or to sign-up for PrivacyHarbor email account, simply follow the links or contact us at support@privacyharbor.com.

As always, we love to hear from our customers! Feel free to let us know what you think of the new Beacon Desktop Notifier.