Personal data is more than your name and address. Online it includes photos, school, date of birth, location tags, friends lists, browsing history and what apps can read on your phone.
Today you will spot the usual leak points, rate how you handle privacy now, then complete a Privacy Settings Audit for two platforms you actually use. That audit is a short factual report for your Communication Portfolio, and it is the must-finish piece of the lesson.
If the period is short, keep the self-check light and protect time for the audit.
Hold on to three ideas today: personal data, privacy settings, and app permissions. Then use them on your own accounts.
| Term | What it means for you | Real example |
|---|---|---|
| Personal data: information that can identify you alone or when joined with other details | It is what strangers, platforms and free apps can piece together about you | A tagged school-jersey photo plus a public birthday post |
| Privacy settings: controls that decide who sees posts, profile details, location and friends | You check them on the platforms you use, not once and never again | Stories set to Friends only instead of Everyone; location on posts turned off |
| App permissions: access an app asks for on your phone (camera, contacts, microphone, location) | Some apps still hold the permissions you gave them and can use that access when they run again | A free quiz game asking for your full contacts list |
Here is a worked example on a fictional profile. Aoife is 17. Her birthday and school year are public, location is on every post, her friends list is open to anyone, and a free quiz app still has contacts permission. What she has done well: old posts locked, story set to private, no home address anywhere. The leaks are settings she never opened and a contacts permission she allowed without reading on that free quiz app.
Same pattern shows up on platforms you may already use: Snap Map location left on, an Instagram account with posts or story highlights set to Everyone, a Facebook friends list set to public, or a free game holding contacts access after you leave it.
Rate how you handle privacy right now. Every rating needs one sentence of evidence from something you have actually done or left open. Nobody adds these up, and you do not have to share the answers out loud.
This self-check stays with your Privacy Settings Audit draft. It is classwork that sits behind the Portfolio piece, not a Portfolio or Reflective Journal entry on its own.
If time is tight, three lines with solid evidence is enough; protect the minutes you need for the audit.
Open two platforms you actually use. Confirm the privacy settings you can reach, then type the audit below, filling every field. This is your Portfolio piece: a short factual report of what you checked, not a journal entry and not free continuous prose.
Check at least: who can see posts, profile details, friends or followers list, location, and story (or the nearest equivalent).
If apps are blocked, phones are pouched, or you have no login here: audit one platform you can reach now. For the second, write from your last honest memory and finish the live check tonight before you file. If you only have one social platform, go deeper on that one and use a browser or email account as the second: recovery email visibility, whether your profile photo is public, who can find you by phone number, and permissions on the mail or browser app.
Copy the finished form into your Communication Portfolio as m2_l41_privacy_audit_<your-initials>.
Talk this through with the person beside you, or sit with it quietly.
Which setting surprised you most when you checked it (or when you last saw it), and what does that tell you about how the platform wants to be used?
If you want a longer thought, put two sentences in your Reflective Journal later: one leak you closed today, and one you still need to face.
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