ABOUT ME

Hi there. My name is Terry Prett and I have lived in the South Croydon area since 2000.



It's now over a quarter of a century since I first worked in IT. I began by working on databases and then moved into web based programming. Here I started to come across the computer safety issues I'll be talking about in the Web Safety Guru training sessions: security, passwords and viruses for example.

After a spell in the travel sector, I moved into loyalty marketing. Loyalty marketing involves the collection and storing of customer information with the intention of building up of detailed profile of each customer. This will include their name, address, age, sex, likes and preferences. Once a company has collected this information, it can sell targetted products to customers.

Later I moved into affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing involves tracking the websites people visit, the links they click and the products they buy online. Imagine what you can learn about people if you can combine this information with the profile data for that customer. As a result I have become very concerned about the amount of personal information people give away online and this is one of the key issues I will be talking about.

All the knowledge in the world is no good if you cannot communicate it. The IT sector has a reputation (sometimes deserved) for being full of people who talk gobbledegook that only other techies can understand. In my professional career, I have placed great emphasis on interacting well with people from outside the IT department. I've also been a mentor, teaching younger programmers new techniques and how to follow procedures.

With my Web Safety Guru tuition you'll be getting time with someone who's friendly, patient and understanding. I enjoy helping people and teaching them new things. I understand the need to talk in plain English wherever possible and appreciate why some technology might seem a little frustrating or intimidating to many people.

When I'm not working with computers, I enjoy watching live sport (well, I used to) and taking part in quizzes. Here I am on the ITV quiz show The Chase playing for rather a lot of money.