5 Social Media Activity Mistakes That Cause Privacy Concerns

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5 Social Media Activity Mistakes That Cause Privacy Concerns

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Social media is everywhere around us, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. And whether you like the idea of these services or not is irrelevant at this point. What’s important is that you adapt to the situation as quickly as possible and take some time to study the implications of your online activities. Few people pay attention to that until it’s too late, and by the time they realize how deep their problems are, there’s little they can do.

Oversharing

Perhaps the number one problem related to all social media use is the fact that people share too much on a constant basis. You might even fall into this category yourself without realizing it. Many people will scoff at this suggestion and say that they only use Facebook for memes and looking at pictures of their friends. However, the reality is that even those simple-looking activities can reveal more about your personality than you might realize.

To a determined attacker, anything you do on social media is a valuable piece of the puzzle that they can use to build an impressive profile of you, given enough time. Be careful with what you’re sharing with others. The next time you’re about to post that status or picture, consider it from the perspective of an imaginary stalker trying to find out everything they can about you.

Carelessly Adding Contacts

Social media is commonly used for phishing these days, the activity of pretending to be someone else. Everyone can be targeted by it at one point or another. And it’s not just single, lonely guys as most media would like you to believe.

Imagine you’ve publicly listed yourself as being in a relationship. Believe it or not, this makes you a more attractive target to someone looking to blackmail you after luring you into texting them private details about your relationship, such as problems you might be having with your partner. Be careful with what you’re sharing and with whom, as this can have serious long-term implications.

Signing Up on New Networks All the Time

Some people can’t get enough of social media, and they’re always on the lookout for the next big platform to check out. Be careful with this kind of activity though. Do you really need more than Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter together with some other more niche services? The market is quite saturated, and there’s no good reason for a new network to pop up.

In most cases, these services might try to find out details about your life that you wouldn’t be comfortable sharing otherwise. It’s not rare to see a new social network show up only to disappear a few months later, having gathered a lot of details on its users. Use a mobile VPN to protect you from having your information stolen in these cases.

Sharing Work Details

Many workplaces these days pay special attention to inappropriate social media behavior. And that’s understandable considering the issues that have cropped up in this area in the last couple of decades. From exposing confidential company information, to openly bashing colleagues and superiors in publicly visible posts – you’d be amazed how far some people go when posting about their work online. And how little thought they sometimes put into the repercussions.

If you value your job, you’d best leave it out of social media altogether. Don’t even list your place of work and position unless you have a good reason to. You never know when you might become the target of a nasty stalker who decides to take their “fun” to your workplace.

Careful with Texting, Too

Some don’t realize that just because they aren’t posting something publicly, it doesn’t mean it can’t be seen by a third party one day in the future. As long as you’re using a service like Facebook Messenger or Snapchat to text someone, everything you write goes through their servers and is stored there indefinitely. It doesn’t matter what the app might have to say about its security; any claims about fancy encryption are irrelevant when the company is in full control of the backend. This is where using a mobile VPN also comes in handy.

Social media is still transforming the world, and this transformation will likely go on for a long time before the dust starts to settle. It’s important to be vigilant and proactive when it comes to the security of your information, as you never know how your current activities might impact you in the future.

The post 5 Social Media Activity Mistakes That Cause Privacy Concerns appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

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November 14, 2018 at 12:30PM