Social Media Safety 101

Ironic how social networks have allowed antisocial elements such as crooks and cybercriminals to thrive.

Two years back, an online scam involving Facebook and the United States military cheated several unsuspecting women of their money. Not only were reputations of many tarnished in the audacious scheme, there were a few tragic endings as well. Recently, there have been several instances of fake accounts being created in the names of celebrities and actors asking people for donations.

Social media might have emerged as one of the most powerful tools helping us connect with friends, family, acquaintances and even strangers across the globe and share content with them. However, there is a darker side to that collaboration and the six degrees of separation virtual connect that we need to be mindful of. According to a report by RSA Security, social media fraud has increased by 43% in 2018.

What goes around comes around

Remember that whatever one shares on social media gets circulated on the Internet with or without our knowledge. Take the case of Facebook for instance. When we click on our profile page, everything might look fine on the surface but can one be absolutely certain that hackers or cybercriminals are not keeping an eye on our profiles? It has happened to so many others. What stops you from being the next victim?

Most people don’t really bother about social media breaches like the recent Facebook leak for instance. They are more concerned when it comes to information relating to their personal finance, bank records and the like. But have you considered the fact that when you are shopping from a social media platform, your credit card details might get saved and exposed to hackers. Most social media platforms offer browsers that are embedded so they won’t have to leave the app to check a link. These in-app browsers can expose users to malware. Cybercriminals can get information from social media accounts and use it for malicious purposes.

Read the fine print

The next time you sign up for a social media account, make sure you read the fine print – namely their privacy policies and terms and conditions – very carefully. For instance, one of Instagram’s terms of use states: “Instagram does not claim ownership of any content that you post on or through the service. Instead, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the content that you post on or through the service.”

When we agree to such terms, social media companies don’t get to own the content we post. Instead we agree to let them use our content and often share with third-party apps. When our personal information is stored, they are able to track us and the IP address. Even if you delete the account, your information will be stored by them. Facebook takes 90 days to permanently delete data from the backend. Facebook’s data policy states that “We store data for as long as it is necessary to provide products and services to you and others.”

Instagram doesn’t even allow us to delete our account, instead we can deactivate it and after deactivating it our data will not be available to us but the information will exist within the service.

Make sure you are always careful when you set up a social media account just as you would be prudent with your financial information. Change your passwords frequently (have sensible, hard-to-decipher passwords), delete third-party apps and games from your account and monitor all activity carefully. Refrain from over-sharing so that you are not at the mercy of hackers or cybercriminals.

Remember, a little bit of caution will go a long way!

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