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Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit are the most popular social media sites today with a combined user base of billions of people. Your public social media profiles are the easiest ways scammers and hackers collect your personal detail and slowly build a profile of who you are. You may not realize it, but any personal information you share online could be used against you by scammers.
Whether you know it or not, putting your personal information online endangers you, your co-workers, neighbors and family. They can be targeted by scammers, hackers, and home robbers. Be very careful about where and with whom you share the below information.
Any documents that identify you are not for public consumption. This is the kind of information that helps scammers/hackers steal your identity or target you with a tailor-made scam.
Social engineering tactics use your name, date of birth and location to create a profile of who you are even if there is no photo of you. This information is useful to identity thieves and scammers to know who they are dealing with and how to swindle you.
Your credit card number, bank account information and available balance shouldn’t be shared recklessly. The payments you make can reveal to scammers your financial information. Keep that to yourself.
Your login usernames and passwords are just that, yours. They are not public information and shouldn’t be shared even with friends and family. Additionally, PINs and One Time Passwords (OTPs) are never to be shared with others under any circumstance. Doing so can give strangers access to your accounts and even enable them to withdraw or transfer money from your bank accounts.
Your address and phone number should be strongly guarded when you are online. Scammers can misuse your information for their many aliases to scam people while their details point to you.
Active location data is the one you post or share by yourself, indicating where you are or wish to go. Passive location data is collected by your apps in the background as long as you allow that setting/or turn location ON.
Avoid using the social apps as much as possible. Instead, use your browser to access the socials. Or, change the app settings/permissions to prevent location data from being collected and sent.
The streets and means you use to get to work and back home shouldn’t be aired on social media. This way, anyone who may want to track you down doesn’t just get that information easily and for free. The same goes for clubs and places that you hangout often like coffee shops.
Let your work issues with fellow employees and your boss be restricted to channels like work emails and calls. Do not go posting them on the socials whether in good or bad light.
Avoid criticizing your current workplace or any other place you worked. It is unprofessional behavior that tarnishes your work colleagues’ reputation and can ruin your employment prospects with other companies.
Whenever you leave a closed-door meeting in which information exchanged is not for the public, it is just a clever move to keep it to yourself. Avoid boasting online about how privileged you are to know what is kept from the public. You make yourself a target for anyone needing that information.
A chilling story on the news about a couple who pranked their kids, recorded the video, then uploaded it on YouTube is our cautionary tale here. The parent got carried away in their prank and ended up losing custody of 2 children.
A common fad today is making TikTok videos. Some people make videos of themselves drinking and driving, which is a traffic offence in almost every country in the world. It is also funny that some employees who called in sick post photos of themselves partying that same day on social media. As soon as your employer finds this out, you may be out of a job!
You may want to keep from bragging online about the exotic holiday destinations you plan to visit. This is because you let everyone who knows where you live that you will not be at home. Burglars have an easy time cleaning out your place when they have this information.
Be careful on public Wi-Fi in cafes and libraries. Avoid doing your credit card purchases, wire transfers and other financial transactions on public internet spaces. These may have vulnerabilities that expose your data to hackers.
Whenever you sell or give away your computer, phone or tablet, make sure you remove any data that can be used against you like your emails, phone personal contacts, work and banking information and documents.
When transacting money from any of your devices, make sure you are only transacting with people or organizations that you trust.
