Are You Keeping Your Social Media Safe?
Social media has taken over the world. From Facebook to Snapchat, people can talk to each other from across the world about any topic they desire. Thanks to the digital age, it has impacted people’s lives greatly, whether it’s for the better or worse. One problem that has spread since social media began is privacy. Privacy is a huge deal, and when it comes to online privacy, it becomes serious business.
Everyone has searched for someone else on Google to try to find some interesting stuff, at least once in their lives. From articles in a newspaper to Facebook profiles and pictures of them online, it’s almost hard not to find a friend, co-worker or anyone else you are curious about. If I were curious and wanted to look someone up on the Internet, the only thing I want to know is if they are dangerous (have been arrested, have done illegal activities, etc.) and what they look like. I don’t really care when it comes to “investigating” people.
The invasion of somebody’s privacy tends to be a big deal. However, if someone is “investigating” you online and you have no idea that they are doing it behind your back, I don’t see it as a problem. It’s like saying that if I Google Kate Upton and look at pictures or try to find information on her, then it’s considered invasion of Upton’s privacy. She’s a celebrity, so of course there is going to be tons of information on her, including pictures of when she’s out in public.
Millions of people are going to be searching for her online. Does she know about this? Sure, and sometimes she may not. It doesn’t matter, because it’s not an invasion of her privacy. People can Google at any given time and place. Yes, it’s creepy as hell to sit online and “investigate” someone, but it’s not privacy invasion.
However, if you’re a scumbag who has the intent of hacking through people’s accounts and personal devices to upload to the Internet for everyone to see — like the iCloud hacks — you need to reevaluate your life. You have nothing better than to hack into people’s devices and sift through private information and pictures, just to screw over that person’s image? Get out of your mom’s basement and go outside and do something productive in life.
Anyway, back to being Googled. If say an employer, police officer, reporter or a potential date would decide to research me online, they wouldn’t find anything crazy. A lot of what they’ll find is just high school information, a few pictures, my protected Facebook profile and a couple of projects I have done for class at college.
So, I guess the only bad thing about that would be that they have no idea what I’m like personally or what I look like since high school. The only way they would find out some more things about me would be if they attempted to add me on Facebook, Twitter, etc., which are privatized for my benefit.
Even though I may seem like I don’t totally care about social media privacy, I still think that it’s important for me to keep up with the changing world and keep all my accounts up-to-date so they stay safe and away from some tool who wants to steal my info.
When uploading images or posts to the Internet, you always want to make sure you know what you are getting yourself into before you do it. To me, things that I post to my Facebook profile or Instagram are considered private because only people who are on my friends list will be able to see it. It’s hidden to the public and fake accounts who are trying to steal some info. At the same time, however, once you put stuff onto the Web, it will never go away, no matter how many times you delete it. It can eventually be found and posted somewhere else, if you are not careful with what you do about it.
One of the huge things I stay away from is logging into my social media accounts on public devices. I think that anyone who does this is kind of stupid. I don’t think you need to be uploading a damn post or pictures of your vacation when you are just visiting the public library. Like seriously?
Someone could easily hack into the public device that you are on or the one you just got off to steal info and ruin your image. Just use your own personal devices to do social media. If you truly need to use a public device for it, make sure you exit out of everything, don’t save any passwords on the device and log out completely of the device.
Another major thing to remember to keep secret is passwords. Only give that information to yourself and perhaps your parents, if you feel the need. Why would you be giving it out to friends or the Internet when a random website asks to save it or use it to complete a process? This is just common sense to me. Make sure you pick a password that is easy for you to remember, but clever enough that no one can just guess it. That five-letter word with a capital letter and a number is the key to keeping your social media under your control.
If you want to stay hidden from strangers on social media, set your stuff to private. On Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, if you set your account to private, no one will be able to really get a bunch of info about you. I set my social media profiles on private to only friends. If someone wants to add me, they have to send me a friend request; otherwise they can’t see all my content; all they see is my profile picture and possibly some friends.
The last thing you should know about is fake links. They are popular on Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube. There will be clickbait stories talking about “You will NOT believe what she just did at the mall…” or “See these celebrities in a whole new light after they did…”. Fake accounts are made by stupid nerds and criminals who are hoping that even dumber people will click on the fake links, so they have the chance to steal information and plant malware and viruses on their devices and accounts. If a link doesn’t show the whole title or displays a headline that is too good to be true, stay the hell away from it.
I extremely enjoy having the ability to use social media whenever and wherever I want. It helps me communicate with my friends and family, allows me to post my opinions and thoughts and lets me upload my pictures and projects so all my followers can experience it. Although social media isn’t a necessity to live a full and productive life, it absolutely helps me out and many other people throughout the world. To protect this kind of entertainment for all, please: check your social media privacy.
