That is the question..
I came across this blog post which says that the Irish Tax Office used information found on the internet (Facebook, Linkedin etc.) to conduct a tax audit on it’s author Evert Bopp. The story was picked up by other bloggers and by the Irish and International press.
About 2 years ago, I noticed in the stat counter for an idle Blogger blog I had that one of the visitors was a referral from a Google search on my name and the IP address of the visitor was the Irish Revenue Office. At the time I thought there was a good possibility the revenue office was auditing me online, but subsequently I thought that maybe it was an old friend googling me from their office. Now it seems clear that they were indeed checking up on me.
I’m new to blogging and lately I have been mulling over what exactly I should and shouldn’t post. I have nothing to hide (it must be said), but nearly every time I have an idea for a post I instinctively stop myself and try to analyse whether there would be anything at all in the post that could work against me professionally. I usually end up binning the post as the steam is taken out of it, which is a shame.
I want this blog to be on a personal level where I feel free to write in my own style and on topics I find interesting, but to do that I have to figure out where my line is on stuff that should not be posted publicly. I haven’t even used a curse word yet, as I haven’t figured out if employers or clients would look on it negatively. I’m pretty sure that 99.99% of anything I want to write will be fine, but I still need to figure that out for certain. I need to feel it. Otherwise I’ll end up paralysing my posts with over analysis.
If course it’s better to start out cautiously and find your feet prudently. I’m an employee after all and hopefully it’s going to stay that way for the foreseeable future. I have to take into account employer’s opinion of me, but I’d like to quickly develop an instinct for what information should remain private and what style is beyond the bounds of blog decorum..
If it makes you feel better, I swear constantly - on my blog, at speaking gigs and panels, etc. I take work from real people and I communicate frankly with them, so for me, it’s worked out well because what you see is what you hire, too.