Are we properly protecting our social profiles?

Pixabay image

By

Orla Forrest

Social media is omnipresent in today’s world. When was the last time you went for a night out and you didn’t see people posing for selfies to be broadcast on their Snapchat or Instagram story? Likewise, how often do you find out that someone you know has gone on a holiday because they posted a Facebook check-in from the airport of departure?

This might seem like innocent activities, but every snippet of information you add to a social media post makes you more vulnerable to cybercrime. Also, while you might think that you’re only posting to a select few people, it’s likely that anything you post is viewable to the wider world, as not many social media users bother to check the privacy status of their posts. Cue the surprise when they return home from an unforgettable week in Venice to see that their home has been ransacked, all because an opportunistic burglar knew from social media that the house was unoccupied.

While the underhanded manner in which social media sites like Facebook organise their privacy settings is reprehensible, users should not be so naïve as to willingly give out every morsel of information about their lives on such platforms. Take a look at the infographic below from Irish Telecom which provides a very useful privacy guide to six popular social platforms. They don’t value your privacy, so make sure that you do.

Orla Forrest

Orla Forrest is a Business Development Executive for Irish Telecom (http://www.irishtelecom.com/managed-internet.php). She likes to write content related to technology and telecommunications and she is very committed to advocating safe use of the Internet so that people don’t leave themselves exposed to cybercrime.