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There has been a bit of attention recently on the growing number of people using social networks. Social media in all its forms lies at the heart of the current boom in internet usage and its reach into our day-to-day lives. In turn, our virtual identities are becoming closer and closer to our everyday identities – and many sites, such as Facebook, encourage little distinction between the two. What is disturbing about this however, is that many users seem to have no real concern or knowledge about ensuring that their social media accounts are secure and safe from exploitation.
This kind of technology and way of communicating with one another is definitely here to stay in one form or another, and the more information we put onto the internet about ourselves the more likely the chance that it could be used for unethical reasons.
In some instances, there is not much you can do about breaches of security on remote servers of companies that you have accounts with; however, there are certainly a few simple precautions that one can take to minimise the chances that you personally will be the victim of an unethical individual exploiting your security weaknesses. So below you will find a list of ten things you should be doing to help protect you and your social media accounts.
Is your virtual identity protected?
1. Be careful of links and offers sent to you, even if by a friend
This first tip is an extension of the precautions you will have been using for your email. However, the difference now is that almost every malicious link that you will be sent through social networks will come from somebody that you know – the reason being that they themselves have been compromised and used to launch further attacks. Think before you click, and it really does help to run some kind of active web-link protection from companies such as AVG or Ad-Aware.
2. Check your account privacy settings
This one really comes down to personal preference, however there are many people I know who are unaware that with certain settings everybody in their network can see their Facebook profile (for example). When you are talking about networks such as ‘London’ or ‘France’ you can begin to see how this might become an issue. Do you really want to allow millions of people to have access to your daily movements and life?
Personally, no matter how much of an exhibitionist you are, I do not believe there is any valid reason to allow complete strangers to access your profile – unless that profile was created specifically with that purpose in mind (such as on LinkedIn or Twitter). If you are going to have a publicly accessible profile, limit your personal information and create new email accounts specifically for that profile.
The point is, not many people even check their privacy settings to see if they are happy with them. You could have been broadcasting for months to anybody who wanted to take a peek…check your settings, now.
3. Not all social network sites are created equal
There is now a massive explosion of different social network sites, and you might be tempted to join many of them for various reasons. But do you really know who is running these sites? On many of the smaller sites with only a few thousand members, this could quite easily be one individual or a small unknown group.
How secure is the site from hackers? Be careful with the information that you place on smaller social media sites, because unfortunately their smaller size means that they are not held as accountable for ethical breaches when using your information; or they may not be as good at securing your information. Your details could quite easily be sold onto mass-marketing companies, or even worse the site itself could have very lax security and your profile information and passwords could easily be stolen from it.
4. Read the Terms and Conditions, think of the consequences of your actions
This two-pronged tip isn’t so much a security issue as it is a personal one, but make sure you read the terms and conditions of any site that you join carefully. Facebook saw quite a backlash when it became apparent that those using the site gave up many rights to images and other information uploaded onto it.
Think before you upload anything, and then ask yourself: would I be happy for someone to see this twenty years from now? Those pictures of you passed out in the nightclub bathroom? Probably not a good idea. More importantly, those pictures of your friend passed out? Might be funny, but have you thought through the long-term ramifications of doing so? Your friend can untag the images, but that doesn’t stop them being there. Even if you delete the image after uploading it, on most sites it will be archived permanently. Don’t just look out for yourself, look out for your friends too and don’t use social networks to humiliate people.