By now you probably know (or I hope you know for that
matter) that the internet can be a very open and impersonal place. From credit
card fraud and identity theft to simple hacking of social media, people are becoming
more and more aware of the dangers of sharing even the most trivial information
online. So today I thought I would talk about the various forms of social media
that we use every day and compare their privacy and account settings so that
you can too can be an informed user.
We all do it every time we download a new app or new software.
We click the little box that says “I agree to the terms and conditions” or
something of that nature. But there’s a reason that’s one of the most common
lies among Americans. No one wants to sit there and read through all of those
terms and agreements. Most people don’t think anything about it. Then a couple
days later, you wonder why all of your Facebook ads match the same things you just
Googled an hour ago.
Yes, companies do this all the time. They share your information
with marketing analysts who use the site for their own products, and sometimes,
that persistent hacker breaks through causing you to wish you had looked at
those terms a little more carefully. It’s actually a large problem in the law
business and there are many debates over whether or not those terms and conditions
are valid if they are placed in a lengthy document or their privacy policy is
hard to find. Let’s take a look at a few examples.
These are screenshots I took of some of the privacy policies
from various social media accounts. While none of these things are too alarming,
you can see that even “trusted” websites warn you that people might not always
have the best intentions with the information you post and that nothing posted
is truly ever secure.
Facebook
Snapchat
Twitter
As you can see at the end, Twitter has a warning that
reminds users to mind what they post and that just because your account is
private, it does not mean that your friends accounts are.
Another thing we often times forget is updating our privacy
settings. This is important, especially for social media that we use daily.
Twitter in my opinion has one of the best privacy and account settings pages
because it is not only laid out nicely, but you can also set up analytics to
see how many people are viewing your tweets and the kind of activity your
account is drawing.
Analytics are not only helpful from a marketing standpoint
but from a user standpoint as well. If we are aware of the activity and kinds
of notice our social media accounts are attracting, we can understand better
how important it is to make sure our accounts are as secure as possible.
Although I don’t feel that Facebook necessarily does a bad
job with privacy and safety, the company has gotten into trouble many times for
privacy and security settings that are questionable. Many people overlook their
security page and forget to update their security preferences frequently as
Facebook updates its website.
While this post is not meant to scare you into going off the
grid, I do want everyone to be aware of how powerful our social media presence
can be. Updating your account settings and security preferences only takes a
couple of minutes but it could make a hacker’s job much harder if done
correctly.
And while we are here, let’s touch base on hackers for a second.
Below is a picture of cyber-attacks happening around the world (yes, there is a
site to see that and you can read an article about it here).
No I don’t expect China or Russia to all of a sudden attack
your personal computer, but as you can see, hackers are not just people sitting
in their homes somewhere near you who got bored and wanted your credit card
information. It goes much deeper than that. They can steal your entire identity
and they don’t even need your computer to do it. More and more hackers are
gaining information by getting on people’s social media profiles and finding
out information such as your favorite color, pet’s names, or other information usually
used as security questions. Then with this information, it only takes a couple of
clicks to break into your personal accounts and see everything from your bank
statements to your emails. So remember the next time you choose a password or
security questions that if it’s something someone could make a connection to on
any of your profiles, it probably needs changed.
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