24-06-2021 09:40

Five tips that will help you stay safe in social media

Have you ever stopped to think about what kind of information you share online? Information that is shared not only with your friends but also potentially with their friends and maybe even people totally unknown to you. Are you picky about accepting friend requests or do you say yes to basically anyone who approaches you?

It’s easy for us to share our lives with the world today. It only takes a few clicks! Social media networking has changed the way we interact with friends and associates. It is now possible for us to share events and pictures of our lives with multiple recipients in only a few seconds. 

With hundreds of millions of users online, unfortunately these tools don’t only attract friends and family. People with more sinister agendas are also interested in the personal information you share.

To put it bluntly, by sharing information about you and your life, you offer potential criminals the opportunity to gather very useful information about you. That is why one of the most important things you can do to protect yourself, is to stop sharing too much information. 

Keep in mind that while the information you are sharing may seem perfectly harmless and innocent to you, it may be a small piece in the bigger study of you, that criminals make before executing a scam.

Five tips that will help you stay safe in social media:

Be cautious and selective when accepting new requests. Do you really know if the profile of the requester is real and not a fake one? 

Manage your privacy settings. Make sure you only share information with people in your network. Also, check the settings regularly in case there are any changes.

Don’t give out personal information. Be suspicious of anyone who asks you for your personal information online. Never share your Social Security number, or other information that may be used to identify you.

Change your passwords frequently. Choose a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. Make sure you change your passwords regularly and use different passwords for each account.

Close old accounts that you don’t use anymore. Don’t risk leaving personal data in an old account. Close the accounts that you don’t use and delete as much personal information from them as possible.

Social networking is meant to be fun so don’t let criminals spoil it for you. Stay safe online!

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