Social networking has exploded in popularity, encouraging hundreds of millions of people worldwide to share personal information about themselves, including their plans, photographs, and social affiliations. Tragically, this and other information can be easily uncovered and used against you by criminals, cyber or otherwise. Your full name, profile picture, gender, and networks are automatically disclosed to the Facebook universe. However, there are personal details you can avoid disclosing on Facebook. This can help protect you and your loved ones from severe violations to privacy, and threats to your physical and financial safety. Carefully consider what private information you are comfortable making very, very public.
DO NOT reveal your complete birth date. Do not panic if your friends and family wish you a “Happy Birthday.” But providing the year, or even the location, of your birth can give criminals vital clues to accessing your financial identity, including bank and credit card accounts. Moreover, the complete date and place of your birth could be used to predict most of the numbers in your Social Security number. With just a few meaningful bits of information, an identity thief can even apply for a loan in your name.
DO NOT disclose vacation plans. At the very least, be vague about the date of any trip. Simply checking profiles for detailed vacation plans is an easy way for criminals to know exactly when you are not going to be home. In fact, Facebook users are at an increased risk of having their homes broken into. Instead, simply post photographs of your vacation online after your return.
DO NOT disclose when you are not going to be home, period. There are many obvious dangers involved in informing people when your home will be unoccupied, even if only for a short duration of time. Make certain that your children are not intentionally or unintentionally revealing information regarding hours adults will be away from home or at work, or any other general comings and goings.
DO NOT disclose your home address. Surprisingly, many people list their home address somewhere on their Facebook page. Clearly, no stranger should know where you live. This information could be utilized for financial crime, crime against your physical person, or robbery.
DO NOT describe participation in illegal or distasteful behaviors. Beyond the damage this information could do to your career or friendships, the fact of the matter is that insurers can now review applicants’ and customers’ Facebook pages to figure out the degree of risk inherent in insuring them, or whether they are insurable at all. Additionally, information contained on your Facebook page is now a permanent public record, and can legally be used against you by police or in a court of law.
DO NOT state opinions or information about yourself that could be used against you. Remember to think before you post! Do not post a status update that you may regret. As a general rule, do not post anything that you would not feel comfortable discussing with your typical coworker. Confessing that you hate your job, or that you called in sick to work yesterday because you were actually hung over, can be detrimental to your livelihood. At the very least, this information could undermine your professional standing. Facebook pages are often used as part of the background check process for employers, universities, clubs, and more. Further, remove comments posted by others that may become troublesome.
DO NOT use a weak password. Avoid simple names or any words found in a dictionary, even if numbers are placed onto the end. Always use more than eight characters, mixing upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. You may also consider inserting numbers or symbols into the middle of a word to further ensure the security of your profile.
DO NOT disclose your email address. Consider setting up a free email specifically for your social networking exploits, rather than using your real work or home email address. Unbeknownst to many, a marketer could take a list of thousands of email addresses, upload them through a dummy account, and then see all the profiles created using those email addresses. The marketer can then turn that information into a set of detailed marketing profiles, and oftentimes these profiles are then sold to others.
DO NOT disclose your phone number. Obviously, your friends and family should already have your phone number. If they do not have your phone number for some reason, there are many other ways to obtain it without also giving it to criminals via your Facebook page.
DO NOT RSVP to events via Facebook. Decline all online invitations. Simply tell the host in person whether you will or will not attend. You do not want to give criminals the chance to figure out your detailed daily itinerary.
DO NOT list your employment history, including your current job. Disclosing work information can be very valuable to someone trying to engineer an attack against you through Facebook.
DO NOT create a detailed personal statement. When you, or your child, create detailed personal statements, you give criminals and other predators all the information they need to create a profile of their target. The more a predator knows, the easier it is for that person to connect with you in public life. This includes knowledge of your various likes and dislikes, political views, religious affiliations, and hobbies. Additionally, some personal information could hurt you professionally, as many of your opinions may put you into direct conflict with business associates and others. Moreover, every little detail of your personal information can provide significant help to identity thieves.
DO NOT tag your pictures. You do not want strangers to know your friends’ names and what they look like, even if they can see numerous faces in your photographs. When labeling photos, do not include specifics about the place and time of the event, but rather use bland descriptions like “Summer 2009.” Also, restrict your picture settings so that only friends can see your posted photographs. And under no circumstances should you tag your child’s, or any child’s, name in a photograph.
DO NOT access Facebook while using a public wireless connection. Internet connections like these, perhaps located in a coffee shop or a hotel, are often not secure, and other users could potentially monitor your internet usage from only a few feet away.
DO NOT accept messages from those you do not know or trust. This could leave you vulnerable to socially engineered scams and phishing. Disable all messages from people you do not know personally.
Remember, even if you maintain a fairly impersonal Facebook page, be certain to utilize all available privacy settings in order to block strangers from easy access to your information. Set your profile so that only friends can see it. Make yourself unsearchable and change your friendship settings to private. Be certain to opt out of all Facebook Search results. Also, set up a limited profile for the people whom you do not know all that well. Despite appearing to contain only a few details about a person, any Facebook profile can be used to ascertain significant personal information. And no matter how many privacy settings you utilize, always assume that savvy internet users will be able to access your information.
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This has been a guest post by Dana Bashor.
About Dana Bashor:
Dana Bashor has absolutely no formal writing credentials whatsoever, but that doesn’t stop her from writing on topics that catch her attention such as planet antares space topics and social media news. Dana Bashor loves to write and contribute to the World Wide Web. Catch up with Dana Bashor on her blog or connect with Dana Bashor on her twitter page.
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