Social networking is rapidly becoming one of the most popular methods of communication and interaction in North America but many don't realize the amount of personal information they're giving away by keeping an active blog, facebook or twitter account. Social networking sights make a profit by offering targeted advertisging to companies based on your personal information and college and university students are 27% more likely to have their identity stolen largely due to the vast personal information they unknowingly give away online. Status updates tell a criminal or prediator exactly where you'll be, how you're feeling, your personal habits and hobbies. Advertisers, criminals and friends alike gain invaluable insight into your life by what you share online.
* Never, ever give out your social security or driver’s license numbers
* Consider unique user names & passwords for each profile
* Vary your passwords and change them regularly
* Don’t give out your username & password to 3rd parties (even if it helps you connect to others and build your network
* Avoid listing the following information publicly: date of birth, hometown, home address, year of high school or college graduation, primary email address
* Assuming you plan to be active in social media, minimize the use of personal information on your profiles that may be used for password verification or phishing attacks
* Only invite people to your network that you know or have met vs. friends of friends and strangers
* For password security verification questions, us a password for all answers (rather than the answer to the specific question)
* When age-shifting to protect your real birthday, keep the date close, otherwise, you may expose yourself to age discrimination
* Watch where you post and what you say, as it can be used against you later.
* Google yourself regularly and monitor your credit
Be smart and avoid making yourself a target.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It's crazy how quickly the social networking community has grown over the past few years. Sure, it's great that people can communicate so easily across great distances, but you're right that people need to be careful about what information they display publicly.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting new trend with prospective employers is to check out your Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace page before they request an interview and see what type of person you really are based on wall posts and picture albums. People should determine what information they want to keep private and what they are willing to share publicly before placing any of their info online.
-M
This is a great way for people to steal your identiy, apply for loans and ruin your credit! Keep it simple and security on high and you should be ok.
ReplyDeleteNever allow people access you dont know, whats the point in having 400 friends when you really only talk to 5 of them?
Social networking technologies are like a double edged sword...there are many dangers as you pointed out, such as identity theft however they have become such a large part of popular culture practices that many who do not keep up with these technologies are left "out of the loop". These networking technologies have an ability to connect people and cross borders of communication! (but of course, safety is an issue)
ReplyDelete-AC