Privacy is a ever reliant topic within the online ecosystem. You have companies marketing how private & secure their products are compared to their competitors. And you have scandalous news headlines highlighting breaches privacy. And huge regulatory fines in the millions being shelled out all sorts of companies and organizations.
And Social Media Platforms have been placed on the forefront on the battle ground for privacy, security, and even well-beings of others. Now this Leaves questions arising through many peoples mind such as “how do I keep myself private?”, “I’m not tech savvy how do I keep up”, “Is there really anything I can do”. And the answer to those questions are, YES, Yes you can.
Well how? lets find out, In this article we are going to explore some ways you how you the reader who may not be a bastion of knowledge of all things privacy & security. Can learn some of the risks associated with Social Media Privacy. We will also discuss some of the possible solutions and best practices to protect ourselves and our personal information on Social Media.
Should Really Post that?!?:
Practically everyone has some form of Social Media. From your next door neighbor to a guy living in rural Wyoming. We all have something to say and share and sometimes shout. But as we are continuously sharing sometimes we don’t stop to think as say, should I really post that? Does the world(internet) really need to know that?
So lets answer this questions with a real world example. So lets find a social media post lets see what information can be dissected from it:
Example:
Here we have proud dad posting about their child’s very first home. Which is very exciting and any parent would be jumping with joy at this achievement.
But let point out a few thing, as you can see I blurred quite a few things in the post. In the completely unblurred version in plain view we have a House Number, Street Address, Names, and a Location/region;
Now me a random person on the internet was able to scan these pieces of information in less than a 30 seconds off a single post. And I didn't have to do some sort of full background investigation using all sorts of tools to find this information. The information was simply “given” too me on a platter.
Now would you be comfortable with me a stranger knowing where you child and there spouse lives? the answer to that question is NO. So its always critical to ask yourself before you post especially if your profile is public and open to the internet. What is my Social Media post is actually telling the world? If you wouldn’t tell a stranger you should probably not post it publicly.
What is posted on the internet stays on the internet — somebody
For more information at length on this topic please check out my previous article: Dangers of Oversharing 👈
What your profile says about you!:
Our social media profiles are often the first introduction to friends, Family, colleague, and strangers alike to our social media lives. You have measure what you are actually comfortable with displaying to the wild wild west which is the internet via your profile(s).
As sometime we forget anybody and anyone can stumble on to our online profiles. And do what ever they want with the information we willingly/unknowingly gave out.
So in continuation of examples, let take a look at a Random Facebook profile I found, and lets see what information we can see at the surface level(profile):
Wow, that is a lot of arrows and a lot of information. So recap what we found: Full name, Work place, Work Title, Education Background, Spouse, Current/Past locations, & Family members. And believe or not there even more identifying information on full display beyond but this but its out of scope for this section.
Now, if you are like this person would you think this information is acceptable to be on your public Social Media Profile? Yes, no, maybe? If you are looking through the lens of privacy the answer would be no. So if I was this person I would set my Facebook profile to private for just for my friends and family alike. And If it “has to” public I would be sure to remove all of the pieces of information wouldn’t want a stranger(internet) knowing about myself and my family.
Private vs Public(Compartmentalize):
merriam-webster — Compartmentalize: To separate into isolated compartments or categories.
Using the same social media profile for your personal/professional life makes it very easy to find you online and uncover your personal tastes and preferences. This can have many unpleasant effects, from unwanted attention with your employer, to spoiling potential business opportunities, and even potential bad actor’s using that information to use against you such as with doxxing/harassments all as a result of your online activity/digital foot print.
So it’s always best to separate or compartmentalized all of your online life by using different emails and handles for different aspects of your life. whether it be for work, your business, or just simply your personal life.
By doing these things it will allow you to have a greater sense of privacy and as well as security. As it prevents you from putting all of your eggs(your information) in one basket.
Note: But of course you don’t have to compartmentalized everything, keeping track of this can be confusing and tiresome at times. But you have measure what you can comfortably handle in your pursuit of privacy.
Third-party apps(with account access):
Sometimes you’re given the choice to use your Social Media credentials to log in to other, third-party apps(such as “Log in with Facebook”). While this may be convenient, you could unwittingly allow other apps to access more of your personal information than necessary. Such as with your name, date of birth, contact list, etc, etc.
So it important to take a look into what these 3rd party app/services actually have access to when we connect them to our social media profiles if you choose to do so. Or flat out don’t use them at all.
Privacy settings:
Many Social media Platforms come with security and privacy focused settings to “improve” your sense of privacy while using social media. and these setting span from Allowing you to set your page to private, limiting who can comment and see your photos/posts, and many other visibility settings. So here are some guides(official & unofficial) you can check out that go into more details to what options there are for many of the popular social media sites of the market:
Terms of service and 3rd parties:
Upon signing up for a social media site, most users willingly give their name, date of birth, email address, and even gender. Some social media sites don’t stop at that. They go on to collect other the types of things such as what have liked, shared, or have commented on. And you may ask why, they are collecting this information? answer to the that question is to sell your data to advertisers and 3rd parties alike to keep up with the “free” business model where your data is the product.
One way be sure to know if a social media platform is selling your information is to always read the terms of service (TOS) before signing up. But lets be honest who really reads the fine print, I definitely don’t and your probably lying if you say you do. So unless you use some type of decentralized Social Media your information is being sold in some way.
Additionally, You must be aware that the terms of service (TOS) of these platforms can change at any time, without prior notice or consent from the users. These changes can affect how the platforms collect, use, store, and share the users’ data, which can have serious implications for their privacy and security. For example, in 2021, WhatsApp updated its TOS to require users to share their data with Facebook, its parent company, or else lose access to the app. Which sparked a backlash from many users who were concerned about how Facebook would use their data for targeted advertising or potential profiling and surveillance.
So if you are going for absolute social media privacy. You might not want to sigh up at all but that a hard choice make when pretty much everyone and every thing is connected in someway through social media directly or indirectly. So always stay vigilant to possible chances your favorite Social Media platform so if changes arise which can impact your privacy you can make a decision to continue to use them or not.
In closing, Social media platforms have become an integral part of our lives, but they also pose significant risks to our privacy and security. Users should be aware of the potential dangers of sharing personal information online, and take steps to protect themselves from hackers, scammers, and other malicious actors. Some of the measures we explored in this article, that you can take with you include Compartmentalization, adjusting privacy settings, and limiting third-party access your data. Additionally, we explored that we should be mindful of what we post online, and avoid sharing sensitive or confidential information that could potentially harm or others. By following these tips, you can enjoy the benefits of social media without fully compromising your privacy & security completely.
