How one can Keep Your Personal Information Protected on Social Media

Almost every day, it seems the news is reporting on criminal incidents involving social media, reminiscent of account hacking and stalking. Protecting yourself from threats like these requires taking a disciplined approach to the way you share information online. Listed here are 4 suggestions for keeping your personal information secure while using social media sites.

Make it Hard to Hack Your Account

Keeping your personal information away from prying eyes starts with securing your social media accounts. Even taking basic steps—reminiscent of using a robust unique password for every site you utilize, enabling two-factor authentication, and logging into sites only using trusted devices—can fend off most attacks.

You possibly can further protect your accounts, though, by avoiding using third-party apps and services to access and manage them. For instance, many social media sites allow you to log in using your Google account. Nevertheless, in case your Google account gets hacked, the invader may also have access to your socials via the connection.

Though it might be a bit inconvenient, it’s higher to maintain your accounts walled off from one another to attenuate the consequences of cyber breaches and leaks.

Don’t Answer Meme Questions

You’ve likely seen a meme where you determine what candy bar suits your personality by picking your birth month and day from a listing. Although these memes could be fun to take part in, the fact is that they are social engineering tricks to get you to reveal personal information. By answering this meme, as an example, a hacker will learn the day and month you were born, which is a standard security answer.

Social media gimmicks like these cause you to unintentionally give individuals with nefarious intentions the ammunition they should hurt you. Before you jump on the bandwagon and have interaction in memes like this, consider the knowledge it’s asking for and whether that’s something you really need others to know.

Banner 3

Avoid Posting Photos with Identifying Information

Photos allow you to capture and share vital moments in your life, but they often contain a lot of identifying information. As an example, someone can tell what school your kid goes to by the shirt they’re wearing within the team photo. Posting pictures of your party exposes whenever you were born, what’s in your property, and who your folks are.

It’s okay to share images, but anonymize them as much as possible. Be mindful of your background and avoid taking pictures with things, reminiscent of landmarks or street signs, that may reveal stuff you don’t want known. Use photo editing tools to obscure details you’d fairly remain private, and take away EXIF embedded metadata (e.g. geolocation, phone type) from pictures before posting them online.

Select Your Friends and Followers Properly

While it’s possible you’ll love your folks and family, unfortunately, they will often be the source of data leaks. Not everyone values privacy or understands how dangerous sharing certain things online could be, so you have to be selective about who has access to the stuff you post to your social media accounts.

Thoroughly vetting friend requests before approving them can go a good distance towards ensuring you simply have people in your network who respect you adequate to maintain your personal details private.

Use the following tips and other tools to take control of your social media presence, so you’ll be able to have a good time online safely and securely.