What You Need to Know About Your Privacy on Social Media

 

With everyone spending so much time on social media these days it’s more important than ever to protect your privacy. What you post on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn can significantly impact your life for better or worse.

 

You can take advantage of all the benefits of social media if you are aware of the possible risks and exercise caution when you post. Let’s look at the top five privacy concerns related to social media:

1. Vulnerability to account hacking and impersonation
   More and more criminals are targeting social networks to carry out cybercrimes or cyberattacks. Once they have gained access to your account(s) they can impersonate you and take advantage of your friends and followers to get them to download malware, an intrusive software that is designed to damage and destroy computers and computer systems or divulge personal information. Cybercriminals can also use the vast information in your social profile to commit identity theft.
2. Potential stalking and harassment
   Your social media accounts provide would be stalkers with detailed information about what you do and where you go. So, the more you share on social media, the more you expose yourself to physical and cyberattacks.
3. Requests to turnover your passwords
   Employers sometimes ask applicants and new hires to provide access to their social media accounts as part of the candidate screening process or to ensure that they are not sharing confidential information or trade secrets. Currently approximately half the states have passed laws that prohibit this practice. Unfortunately, those in the other half risk having their privacy invaded by employers and potential employers.
   
   
4. Walking the fine line between effective advertising and invasion of privacy
   Advertisers spend millions of dollars on social media ads and want to accurately target users. Social media companies are faced with a conflict between serving their paying advertisers and social media users. Advertisers want to gather more information for target marketing which can sometimes border on invasion of privacy.   
   
   
5. The privacy concerns of location-based services and apps
   The potential for privacy and security threats increases as more people access social media platforms from their mobile devices. Most smartphones automatically collect location data, and social media apps use this data.  Unfortunately, this information allows thieves or stalkers to target victims due to geo-location data that is automatically shared by their social media apps. The good news is that mobile devices also allow users to adjust the location-based services settings for each app such as only turning on the location-based services when the app is use.

Here are a few tips to protect your privacy on social media.

• Create strong passwords for your accounts. Never use the same password for multiple accounts. Websites such as Google provide suggestions and tips on how to create strong passwords.
• Don’t access your social media accounts on public devices, and if you must, remember to log off when you are finished.
• Disable geolocation data for your social media accounts.
• Be wary of clicking on links from friends on social media unless you are certain of them, you never know if they’ve been hacked.
• Use two-factor authentication or password-reset checks for all your accounts.
• And keep your personal information to a minimum even on your private social profiles.