In poker, in pitching and in business, “tells” or revealing what are doing and thinking is generally a bad idea. And in highly competitive industries, a VERY BAD idea.

In today’s social media soaked world it’s not hard at all the tell more than you want, and you might never know it. So I’ll say it now and probably several more times — check and change your security preferences in EVERY program and app you use.

Get Off the Carousel

Just leave your electronics at home, i hear some say. I have to admit it, I’m obsessed with my electronic gadgets — principally my lap top, iPhone, and iPad. I go nowhere without them and i’m never out of connection (except when ATT whiffs, like today). So leaving my idevices at home or the office is just not a possibility. It’s time to play smarter.

Many fear geo tagging because they say “thieves will know when I’m not at home.” Think about it, bad guys just hang around and see when you leave your home every day of the week, so why do they need some techno gadget to rob your home?

I’m not talking to the rich types who can afford personal security consultants, I’m talking to corporate managers at all levels. Normal, everyday company workers in any and all areas of business or practice. But the higher the leadership level, the more important this warning becomes.

Where You Are and What You’re Doing

Telling where you are might just reveal that you’re visiting a top account, or pitching new business, or chasing someone else’s customer. Worse yet, it might reveal that you’re talking with a competitor (merger, acquisition) or with a potential partner. Telling what you’re doing — waiting in an airport, in a taxi, eating or waiting to meet, reveals even more about your intentions. Now that Google is indexing Facebook and Twitter, you may be exposing your whereabouts and actions to a far broader audience than before.

Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with telling all this if you want. Just understand what you’re revealing. The message is simple, don’t blindly assume that your devices and social media networks are keeping your private information private. Check and make sure they are silent, and only say what you want the world to know.

Devices and Apps

Just for grins i went through the preferences for the apps on my iPad alone and found 14 different places where I was revealing my geo location to the world. Most never asked me for permission. Now add the web versions of everything from social media sites to the copy editor I’m using right now and it’s likely you are revealing your location far more than you know, or might like.

When most people think of geo tagging, or automatically revealing where they are physically, they think of location-oriented services like FourSquare, Gowalla, or scvnger. And now that Facebook has added “Places,” and Twitter asks if you want to allow geo tagging to your tweets, you can add these two social network giants to the prime list of culprits as well.

But the root is even deeper than just social media, it lies in your mobile device that tells someone about you that you may not know.

It Really is a Small World

The digital world has gotten much, much smaller in recent years. And the outlook is for more powerful and better devices to keep us in touch and make us accessible 24/7, no matter where we are or what we’re doing.

Hiding from this wave of the future is, in my opinion, futile. Learn to master the devices and machines that surround us every day. It’s not really that difficult, it just takes time and patience.

May all the good news you read be true.

steve lee
Chief Pathfinder