Your privacy and spam

A new app asks for your name, photo and email. Who should get to know these facts?

Privacy means you decide who gets to know your facts. Consent means you said yes first. If someone uses your facts without your yes, your privacy is broken.

Three habits keep your facts yours:

1. Ask before you post. Ask a grown-up first. Do not post a photo without a grown-up saying yes. Once you share a photo, others can pass it on.
2. Keep your password secret. Only a parent may know it. Bank details are for parents only.
3. Know what an app keeps. An app may store your facts. A grown-up can read the app's rules with you.

Now think about your inbox, where your email arrives. Spam is junk email that arrives in many inboxes at once. Some of it sells things. Some of it hides a trick.

A spam filter is a tool. It moves junk away from your inbox. Ask a grown-up to turn one on.

An email may come from someone you do not know. It may hide a trick. So do not open it. Do not answer it. A name typed in an email proves nothing.

Keep your email address private. Give it only to places a grown-up trusts.

Ask a grown-up before you share your facts. Leave email from strangers unopened.

Now try privacy. Ask first, then pass a photo on.