Students deserve some privacy, too!

Even students deserve some privacy!

It’s becoming all too common to see lurid headlines about some celebrity or sports figure inadvertently blurting out private information to the wrong audience, through one of the more public social networking sites.

And these days most discerning employers and recruitment agencies routinely run search engine checks on potential candidates.

Woe betide the applicant whose late night rant against a previous employer or graphic pictures from the office party, appear briefly in front of the potential new employer.

That’s just before the CV hits the shredder..

Social networking sites such as Bebo and Facebook provide fantastic ways for people to stay in touch, especially across distance and time zones. But as the Bebo generation grows up, they are starting to turn to more private, less traceable ways to exist online without having to bare their souls permanently in public.

Your Nutshell provides just such a website; there are four elements to the site, which have relevance to just about anyone, but some of which may be of particular interest to students moving or travelling away from home.

Your Year in a Nutshell is a kind of online diary or record of events. It doesn’t have to be filled in daily – users set their own headings and type in whatever they wish. They can upload pictures, video, sound and scanned documents to illustrate their entries, with captions; and if the member wishes to share some of the files – maybe notes for an essay, or showing a friend those pictures from that same wild party! – he or she can do this in total privacy by email. The invitee is given access to just the individual files the member has specified, for as long as they have pre-set on a virtual calendar.

So no accidental sharing with half of London!

It’s a safe, secure, password-protected way to share pictures and reviews of whatever the member is up to, if they want anyone else to see them; or to archive for private enjoyment if not.

Another more serious element of the website, Your Money in a Nutshell, is also useful to students managing their money. Pages lead the user through every type of asset, liability, income and expenditure, to list contact details and policy or account numbers and amounts paid in or out, from student numbers to bank accounts to insurances with reminders to renew.

And once filled in, this automatically creates an interactive budget forecast showing the next three or twelve months’ financial predictions; absolutely vital in controlling the student loan while simultaneously surviving the credit crunch.

If the user then wants to add future one-off expenses or a change in income – say, payment of fees or a new grant starting later in the year – they can add this to the budget with a start date and this will automatically affect the budget sheet in the relevant places.

Along with a living Will and the opportunity to answer hundreds of questions – like being interviewed about your own life – to build a kind of Life Book, the website forms a snapshot of the member’s life, past, present and future, in a nutshell, illustrated throughout with uploaded media; and forming a permanent, personal archive that the member can access from anywhere in the world by use of passwords.

And, best of all, members enjoy the security of knowing that whatever the late night rant, whatever the hilarious diary entry, whatever the tearful typed admission about missing home a bit, nobody else will ever see any of the files unless they’re invited to do so; but it’ll be in total confidence if they are.

After all, what with all the socialising and mass living in shared residences, students deserve some privacy, too!

Information:

About Your Nutshell: the company was formed in 2007 by three friends based in Gloucestershire. The full story can be viewed at http://www.yournutshell.com/about.

The general concept of the site can be understood from the home page at http://www.yournutshell.com, there are examples of how members use their own pages and short videos also available through a link on that page.

However, membership is required to upload files and to view the full functionality of the site. Please feel free to register free of charge: when prompted for a promotional code during registration, use YOURNUTSHELLPRIV.

For further information please contact:
Rob Thomas
rob.Thomas@yournutshell.com
0845 272 2382.