ARE YOU SHARING TOO MUCH ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

Are you sharing too much on social media sites? Sharing your daily escapades and opinions on social media sites is an easy way to keep friends, family and acquaintances abreast of what’s going on in your life, however you could unintentionally be giving away too much of your personal data – information that attackers and other nefarious third parties could use maliciously, or to steal your identity.

Sharing too much on social media not only leaves you vulnerable to attackers, it can also potentially hinder your chances of landing your dream job. Yes really. HR professionals are increasingly scouring social media accounts to find out about the real you, and often decide whether or not to offer you a position based on your profile.

And it doesn’t end there!

Police officers in Fresno, California, are using surveillance software called “Beware” to calculate people’s ‘threat score’, which analyzes a plethora of data, including arrest reports, deep web searches, and a person’s social media postings!

The surveillance software is being utilized by police officers (the first department in the US to test the software), to carry out surveillance on citizens to assess whether or not they are a danger to society.

Intrado – the makers of Beware, are keeping quiet on how exactly their software calculates someone’s threat score, which has raised privacy and security concerns. For example, a simple Facebook post or tweet could increase your ‘threat score’, but the intended seriousness, or sarcastic tone could be lost or misinterpreted by the software, due to the lack of transparency in the way that it works. Beware surveillance software could, according to civil rights lawyer Rob Nabarro, who spoke to The Washington Post “trigger a heavier response by officers.”

Are you sharing too much on social media?

You may have a Facebook account, perhaps a Twitter or an Instagram. Perhaps you have all three, maybe even more. Sharing selfies, images of your food, your positive (and negative) thoughts, opinions and of course memes and GIFs is fun and makes us feel more connected, but are you are sharing too much on social media?

If you think that your family, friends and colleagues are the only interested parties in your daily musings, then you would be wrong. There’s another group of individuals who are only too happy, and perhaps even more interested in knowing about you than your friends – hackers!

According to the “Social media & online privacy” conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2013, teens are sharing more data about themselves on social media sites than ever before.

The Social media & online privacy study reveals that:

• 71% post their school name, up from 49% in 2006
• 71% post the city or town where they live, up from 61% in 2006
• 82% post their birth date
• 20% post their cell phone number, up from 2% in 2006
• 53% post their email address, up from 29% in 2006

Sharing valuable personal data such as your birth date, where you live and your telephone number could leave you wide open to attackers.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation state that: “The more information you post, the more vulnerable you may become. Even when using high security settings, friends or websites may inadvertently leak your information.”

Fortunately, there are ways that you can limit the amount of personal data you share on social media sites.

1. Don’t share your phone number on social media sites
2. Don’t share your home address on social media sites
3. Resist the urge to ‘check in’ on social media sites such as Facebook and Foursquare
4. Only share your personal data on social media sites with people you know – check out Facebook privacy watcher which will help you to know exactly who can see your posts

You may keep your privacy settings set to the strictest levels and limit the amount of personal data you share on social media sites. But what about your friends, family and acquaintances? Any personal data they share about you on their social media accounts could leave you vulnerable to attackers!

If you believe your social media account or other online account has been hacked, check our tips on how to recover from a hacked account.

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