Social Media – what would we do without it? We rely on it everyday to entertain us, to speak to our friends, to get inspiration for our next meal. However, due to our oversharing culture, many of us approach social media with wreckless abandon, the consequences of the casual and careless manner in which we manage our social profiles far less a priority than updating our Insta in real time.
Many of us leave the metaphorical door wide open to identity theft and invasion of privacy and potential threats from a seemingly innocent share tend to be overlooked, especially at this time of year. Indeed, sharing your summer holiday on social media may potentially make your home a target of burglars as many use social media to find out if someone’s house is empty.
However, with just a few simple precautions you can do more to be ahead, in control and safe. With this in mind, here are 6 IDEAL ways to still enjoy sharing on social media, but staying safe and private:
WAIT TILL TO POST THOSE TRAVEL PICS
Wait till you get home to post your travel pictures.Those who really need to share their photos should at least wait till they are back home, and their home is not empty anymore.
SET TO PRIVATE
Make sure social media settings are private.One of the most important things before sharing is to make sure that the settings are set on private sharing with friends or a select group of friends, and your photos are not visible to everyone.
DON’T POST ANYTHING YOU’LL REGRET
Realize that everything you post online will stay online. Tweets or photos that one posts as a college student will still be there when they are a company director down the road. Therefore, online privacy might have a different value to the same person after some years. To stay protected, don’t post anything now that you might regret later.
NEVER GET PERSONAL
Never share personal data on Facebook. Do not enter your address or phone number on Facebook where it can be visible to anyone. Do not create status updates sharing vulnerable information.
DON’T OVERSHARE
Don’t overshare feelings, not only data. It’s more advisable to share personal feelings in close and friendly circles than publicly.
PROTECT YOUR LOCATION
Protect your location.Keep your whereabouts privateby using a VPN. A VPN is a Virtual Private Network that hides your IP address and your location. By connecting to another country’s server, you can set your location to virtually any place in the world.
UNDERSTAND THE DANGERS OF FREE PUBLIC WI-FI
Cafes, shops, and even school cafeterias offer unsecured Wi-Fi networks. Users need to be especially cautious when connecting to these networks – as they can easily be monitored. Hackers can easily position themselves as a Wi-Fi hotspot or use special software to steal data from unprotected networks. One of the best ways to safely use public Wi-Fi is by installing a VPN.
