legal corner
PROTECTING YOUR
W
PERSONAL INFORMATION
by Jason T. Hirst
e all have some information that we’d like to keep private, and in our digital age it’s becoming more and more
difficult to do. Whether it’s our debts, our investments,
our cell phone number, or our home address, people that want
to discover them can often do so with just a few minutes and a
computer. And this isn’t just limited to hackers – anyone that
can enter a search in Google can usually find out more information about us than we feel comfortable with.
Dentists, even more than most other professions, have particular challenges in this arena. Dentists must maintain a license to
practice dentistry; they are business owners, employers, and
they are exposed to personal liability; they directly serve the
public, and they advertise with their personal name. And
because you serve the public, you want as much exposure as
possible and to have your name come up in searches. All of
these factors make it so that personal information – whether
you like