The world is a global village and the social media is the reason behind it. The people from all across the globe stay connected with each other, share their moments with their friends, share their life experiences, their sadness, happiness, and even what they do in their life on daily basis. They stay connected and lead a life in a digital world along with their actual life in the real world. Besides sharing the life events, many organizations rely on the social media in order to keep their employers updated.
Many educational institutions also reach out to their students and spread notices via social media. Therefore, apart from entertainment, social media is also used for important business purposes. In order to keep the important data safe on social media, we also need to follow some rules.
Why is that so important to care about your data?
In US alone, more than 12 million people became victims of identity theft (someone pretending to be someone else on social media). Most of the famous people face identity theft more than the less famous people because the hackers either want to defame them or earn some benefit by using their name.
Many social media platforms ask for some basic information about yourself when you create the account. The information includes things like your nickname, your date of birth, your school, your university, your religious interests, etc. However, you are asked to fill out this information but it is not mandatory to do so.
How to protect yourself in social media sites?
You can treat this information as optional and there is no obligation in filling it out. You can leave it empty too and keep your personal information personal because the people who know you in real life also know all of this information about you and you do not need to publish it online for your own privacy. However, if you really want to fill out this information, keep it generic. For example, instead of giving all of your city and state information in the residence section, you can only mention your state, and then it will be difficult for the hackers to figure out who you really are.
Explore the Privacy Options
Many social media platforms have a very strict privacy policy and you need to know everything about it if you want to keep your data protected on the internet. For example, Facebook and Twitter give you an option to limit the people who will be viewing your posts or tweets. You have to wisely choose who you want to view your photos or videos. You need to be aware of all the privacy options and when and where to use them.
Another example of this is the profile picture guard offered by Facebook which does not allow anyone to download your profile picture. In spite of all of these privacy options, many people complain that their private photos on Facebook were publicly accessible via Google images search. Therefore, if your photos are that private, don’t post them.
In the old ages of Social media, people were trustworthy, hacking was not that common and people did not use anyone’s information for their benefit. They use to befriend even strangers on social media and carelessly post whatever they want. Nowadays, hacking is very common and it is an era when you can never completely trust anyone. This is why you should never add strangers on social media. Only add the people you actually know not the people you may know, because the more the strangers, the more threat to your privacy and vice versa.
Few more things for your attention
Everyone likes to share their life events on social media, but there are certain things which a person should never post online. For example, one should never post his/her social security number or driver’s license because that would be a serious threat, not only to your data but also to your life. Another example is posting your exact location online. However, it seems fun to share that you are fifty miles away from your home but you can never trust anyone. You can never be aware of who is happy to see your happiness and who envies you and wants to destroy you. So, sharing your location on social media is a big NO.
If you are using a public computer to use social media, do not forget to log out and always use strong passwords to keep the hackers away from your personal data. You are the only person responsible for your privacy online and only you can protect yourself from hackers and intruders. Your data is important and no one has the right to use it against you or for his/her own benefit. However, social media keeps you connected, but just like you take care of your physical assets, your digital assets are equally important and you should protect them as well by keeping your eyes open and following all the basic privacy rules.
Here is How to set up Facebook Privacy Settings & Secure Your Account.
