Social media had humble beginnings as a way to connect and share news with friends and family. Now, it’s a hub of information, entertainment and even commerce. Various platforms have become so popular over the last decade or two that almost 5 billion people use some form of social media, according to Smart Insights. That’s more than half the world’s population!
With so many users on those sites, there’s often no telling which strangers are just friendly folk and which have malicious ulterior motives. We’re taking a look at the reasons you need to protect your data on social media and ways to do it.
Why is privacy on social media important?
Every time you post, send a message or scroll, you risk hackers and criminals obtaining access to your personal information and using it for malevolent reasons. These include but aren’t limited to:
- Identity theft: According to TechTarget, scammers can use details like social security and phone numbers, physical locations and email addresses to imitate their victims for personal gain. This can leave people in serious debt or legal trouble and damage their reputations.
- Doxxing: Some cyber criminals disseminate people’s personal details as a form of bullying and harassment, which can have severe psychological effects and may endanger a victim.
- Credit card fraud: As Twin Star Credit Union explains, phishers might pose as a person the victim knows or a celebrity and publish posts or send messages that contain links that, once clicked, harvest credit card details.
- Malware: Like most software, social media sites are vulnerable to being infected with malware such as computer viruses. Hackers infect a person’s account and spread the code to other accounts to which the original one is connected.
How to stay safe on social media
While this all seems terrifying (and rightfully so), you can take a number of steps to safeguard yourself when using social media, like:
- Set your profile to private: Most social media apps allow you to adjust your privacy settings. You can set up your profile in such a way that people have to request to connect with you or disable that feature entirely, meaning only you can send requests. You can also hide how much of your profile is shown to people who aren’t friends or followers.
- Using strong passwords: Ensure all your passwords contain at least eight characters, with a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, special characters and numbers. Don’t use the same password for each profile. It’s also advisable not to link accounts.
- Limit the information you share: Include as little identifying information in your posts and profiles as possible. Refrain from publishing your phone number, date of birth or physical address anywhere. Some people even use fake surnames or made-up handles for further protection.
- Turn off geolocation: Go into your device’s settings and turn off location services for each social media app. If you want to tag the place you’ve been as part of your post (say, a restaurant’s name), wait to do so until after you’ve left, per Rainn’s recommendation.
- Don’t connect with strangers: It may be tempting to reach out to people you don’t know, but this can be a recipe for disaster. Only accept follow or friend requests from people you’re familiar with. If you’re unsure about an account’s legitimacy, you can message them or mutual friends privately to confirm that the profile really belongs to them.
- Set your profile to private: Most social media apps allow you to adjust your privacy settings. You can set up your profile in such a way that people have to request to connect with you or disable that feature entirely, meaning only you can send requests. You can also hide how much of your profile is shown to people who aren’t friends or followers.
In the age of information, personal data is worth its proverbial weight in gold. Total Defense is here to help keep you and your business safe online.
