Social networking sites are simply luring people to reveal a lot of information in order to stay relevant. But at what cost? People are often oblivious to the fact that once a piece of personal information is put online, you can never know for sure who it will go to. Sometimes it can be a risky trait, and you should be aware of the things you can do to prevent any potential security threats.
Digital fraudsters are using more sophisticated methods to gather information about the Internet users, and mostly for their own financial benefit. You should be aware of these never-ending threats in the virtual world and never disclose the following pieces of information online!
1. Let Your Private Home Stay Private!
Never reveal your home address because you are probably unknowingly sharing it with potential robbers. The minute you post a photo from your fabulous vacation abroad, you have made your home an easy target for burglars. This kind of information should be non-existent on your social media profiles. Go to your profile page, click on Update Info and under Contact and Basic info section completely remove your home address information.
Other potential way of unintentionally sharing your home address is through hosted events. When you create an event and set it to Public, the address you shared will be visible to your friends or whoever they invite. The best tip is to remove the address from the event and to ask people to directly message you if they do not know where you live.
2. Don’t Over-Exaggerate with Updating Your Relationship Status!
The best advice is to probably keep it to yourself and not reveal your relationship status to everyone online. If you change it way too often, people might be creeped out and perceive you as an unstable person. If you go back-and-forth and change your status from “single” to “engaged” or from “engaged” to “complicated”, with the same person, just think about the amount of respect you and your other half will lose. It can also be a good material for stalkers who lurk online.
Avoid all that, and just inform your closest friends first hand if you are single or not.
3. Leave Your Work Where It Belongs!
You should separate your personal and business life. Facebook profile is not something you should bring to work or vice versa. Do not reveal your job title or the company you work for, since it may be a suitable way for hackers to gather all the necessary information for breaking into your company. Aside from hacking threats, you might not want all those co-workers checking out your regular Facebook activities, like bathing suit pictures, party nights, and all those moments you crave for during your work week. Also, you should try being selective in adding co-workers to your network since you may not stay very long in that company or may advance a lot in a short period of time. Consider the pros and cons and then decide.
4. “I Have a Life” Check-In Statuses
Seriously, everyone knows that you are alive and well and that you have daily activities like everyone else. You go out, you go to the swimming pool, and you go to dinner parties, shopping, traveling, etc. We know! We all do it! So, there is no need for constantly overloading the news feed with all your updates. It can be an early stage of OCD, and it should be avoided at all cost. Try enjoying your time instead of manically planning on checking in at a particular place or waiting for strong Wi-Fi signal to post updates.
This issue can also be connected with some of the previous ones. Imagine a situation where you’re publicly single, openly showing your home address on Facebook and constantly checking in at various locations during the day. It a straight ahead sign for all potential burglars when to find your cozy home empty and unguarded.
5. Do Not Openly Brag About Your Material Possessions
Again a security issue occurring when people obsessively take a picture of everything they own or buy. A fantastic home, expensive decorations, along with fine taste jewelry you simply have to brag about. Well, to tell you the truth, even though your self-esteem has reached the sky, you are a potential target! Do not reveal more than necessary because you never know who those photos are going to reach. You should learn to control the audience for your pictures by sharing them with specific, trusted contacts, or you should just keep photos of material possessions private.
Jovan Krstic is author at LeraBlog. The author’s views are entirely his/her own and may not reflect the views and opinions of LeraBlog staff.
He is dedicated to make creative and useful articles in order to present his opinion to the world in the best possible way. Like to write about business, online marketing, start-up and managing. As a marketing manager, work on a few web shops and portals of lawyers and entrepreneurs. Also, he is general secretary of CID Unesco Niš, organization that is working on development of dancing and maintaining culture of motion.
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