Awhile back I was startled when I found one of my grandkid's full birthdate, and place of birth on his profile page. I immediately emailed, to warn him of potential dangers lurking. (1) It's probably ok, to provide the month and day you were born. However, providing the year you were born gives identity thieves a piece of key information for stealing your financial life. Couple that with the knowledge of your place of birth, and sometimes identity thieves can predict some of the numbers in your Social Security number, if not most or all. (3) If you want to talk or brag about your vacation or trips, wait until you return home. Telling the world that you're going to be gone for 2 weeks cruising the Bahamas, or wherever, is telling thieves, "Come rob me." (4) Passwords are another area that needs serious consideration. If you use the same password for just about every on-line activity you perform, you are at risk. If you are using your mother's maiden name, or other predictable criteria, you're making it easy for crooks to guess your passwords. (5) And, suggesting that passwords have 8 characters including a capital, doesn't mean you should choose, "sneezy - sleepy - dopey - doc - happy - bashful - grumpy - and sacramento" either. Only we blondes are allowed to do that:-) (6) One of the more important things to consider is what you decide to put out in cyberland, has the potential of being looked at by future or current employers, school admissions people, and other entities that may not think it is funny, that you love to party down and get drunk every weekend, or recreationally smoke the "funny stuff." If you use a few good sense precautions, you ought to remain reasonably safe, while exploiting the wonderful possibilities available through social networking. The key is to remain cautious and to use care.
|
Mryl - If ONLY my (old enough to know better) daughter would listen to me when I tell her this!!
Hi Myrl...Sharp eye, Good for you to let you Grandson know about potential dangers in Facebook and other Social Media...Congratulations on a great feature.
I provide significantly less information online than I used to. Most of my personal life is left completely offline. Most of my posts are business related.
Great reminders Mryl, and so many people totally ignore #3 until it's too late. I frequently change my password to Facebook to avoid any hackers but you just never know... Facebook is attached to EVERYTHING these days and one "like" over there can end up where you don't want it.
I bookedmarked your post! These are great reminders and I am going to place your post on my facebook page.
Thanks!!
Hi Myrl ~ these are wonderful tips to share with everyone who is using social media. Using a few good sense precautions is crucial to remaining safe while on-line. Sadly, many many folks do not know what good sense means!!
An excellent post. If one follows these guidesline, then they should be relative safe when using social media!
Myrl- we need to paste this near all of our computers! I've warned my friends about putting the year they were born for the very reason you mentioned. It's so unfortunate that we now live in a world where we have to take these precautions.
I have not gotten into anything much more than AR and linkedin.
I can hardly keep up with this.
Hi Myrl, I'm amazed at the things some people put on Facebook. I recently was looking at the page of someone who is promoting himself as a luxury home agent and trying to create a certain image. Then I clicked on his personal page and his girlfriend's personal page and saw the "real" person. Was not impressed.
Myrl:
Such good information, especially for kids. They don't realize all the information they provide to just anyone. I keep telling my daughter to watch what she posts.
Myrl, I'm not as social as many here on AR when it comes to those special sites, Guess I'm not doing to badly after all
Myrl, It's something I always keep in mind when traveling. No Facebook status updates about being somewhere other than home until I'm back to my own front porch :)
Myrl, I am amazed at how indiscrete people are on Facebook. Not just the kids, either!
Great Tips! I would add to regularly check your privacy settings. Facebook has a nasty habit of changing those without your knowledge.
Myrl - We have a brave, new world available to all of us these days, and we need to navigate carefully.
The information available on the internet is amazing. There are many things that should be kept confidential and many people disclose too much information!
Very good advice for those that use social media. Many are very careless with the information they provide to the world.
All - I am a little behind in responding to all of your wonderful comments, but I want you to know I have read each and every one of them, and I am appreciative of your thoughts.
I worry most about kids, who use social media, without proper precaution. They can easilyl enjoy the social media experience, if a few steps are taken using safety.
Comments (43)Subscribe to CommentsComment