Have you considered how much of your personal life is stored online? From social media profiles to banking information, we entrust a lot to the digital world. But with the constant accumulation of digital files, one UNC expert says it’s time to start taking digital security seriously to ensure you have easy access to your important information.
Melanie Feinberg is an associate professor at the School of Information and Library Science at UNC. Her area of expertise is in organization of information, and her work focuses on learning how to read and write databases to complement engineering and mining.
Photo credits via UNC School of Information and Library Science.
“These days, organization of information often has to do with data,” Feinberg said. “So I also describe myself as someone who studies the design and implementation of datasets.”
Fienberg said data cleaning should be an ongoing practice since it’s a critical step in combating the risk of losing or misplacing files.
“Be intentional about what are the things that you actually want to keep,” Feinberg said. “So for instance, in my email, I rigorously unsubscribe to everything that I don’t actually want and I keep my inbox super clean — it’s a to-do list. When I’m done with stuff, I either delete it, or if I decide I want to keep it, then I figure out how I’m going to care for it.”
Feinberg added people should check places on their computers or phone which may contain too much data. She said an overload of data can lead to devices slowing down and has the potential to make it more difficult for people to find files they may need.
“That might be your various email inboxes, it might be in your photos, it might be your desktop,” Feinberg said. “My mantra is, ‘When in doubt, throw it out.’ That might be a little bit extreme for some people, but if you don’t recognize what it is anymore, just get rid of it.”
Feinberg warned of the risks of using the seemingly limitless space of Cloud services. Many people often rely on these platforms to store photos, videos, music files and documents — leaving them in a bind if they can’t access their accounts.
“When you put your stuff in the control of somebody else, then you risk losing that stuff. If that organization changes its terms of service, all of a sudden, you no longer have access to it,” Feinberg said.
Feinberg said one way to organize data is to put different types of files in groups that make sense to the individual.
“I’m a professor — one thing I do is teach classes, and I use the same naming conventions and the same folder organization for all of my classes,” Feinberg said. “That makes it a lot easier to get stuff in order, even if I get a little bit out of control.”
In addition to the importance of not relying on third party sources, Feinberg stressed the importance of keeping track of the places you store your data.
“Sometimes it can be a little bit difficult to remember where all of your digital stuff is because we have so many different devices and so many different kinds of services that we use, so try and keep an inventory of that as well,” Feinberg said.
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