Over time people slowly filter out into the internet via various social media accounts a vast amount of information about themselves. The recent Cambridge Analytic/Facebook Scandal highlights that care needs to be taken with what personal information you make available to the world.
Social media can provide some good benefits to society, including ways to keep in touch over long distances, building communities, and social communication.
However it's often really about a provider collecting data in order to use that data as target audiences for marketing. In most cases this is legitimate, however there are scammers who like nothing better than to collect that data, for their own questionable purposes.
Here's some key things to consider with your social media accounts.
1. Location tools
If you access social media sites from an Android or iOS phone, consider disabling location services so the app cannot pick up your location at any given time.
2. Your birthday
Birthdays can be used to verify you are who you say you are sometimes. You'd be surprised how much confidential information hackers can access using something like your birthday.
3. Your phone number
Give your phone number to individuals at your discretion but do not publish it for all social media users to see or you could end up the target of scammers and stalkers.
4. Photographs of your young children
It has been estimated that around 50 per cent of photos of children on paedophile sites have been taken from parents' social media sites.
5. Your home location
Hopefully you have not been doing this but some people do actually tag themselves at home on Facebook, giving away the exact location of where they live.
6. Boarding pass photos
A post bragging about your holiday is going to annoy your friends who are stuck at work. If you include a photo of your boarding pass, you're also giving away a lot more information than you think: the barcode on the boarding pass is unique to you and can lead to the information you gave the airline.
7. Information about where your children go to school
Do not risk a potential sex offender finding out where your child goes to school
8. When and where you are going on a holiday
If you get burgled while you are on holiday, your insurance company could even decline your claim if you've posted on social media about your holiday plans.
9. Your address
People sometimes innocently add their address to Facebook when planning private events such as birthday parties in their own homes. Refrain from including your address in these events and, instead, message each guest individually, and privately, with the exact location.
10. Credit card details
Never. Ever. Ever.
courtesy NZ Herald