Social networking privacy and security settings

There are so many positive outcomes of social networking sites. You can connect with so many different people at any time and any where. Though, people do not realize how important it is to know and understand their privacy and security settings on their networking sites.

As soon as I get a new social media account one of the first things it asks me to do is read and accept the “Terms of service” or “privacy policy” page. Though lets be honest, very few people actually attempt to read the small print on those pages. It just tends to take to long and we think that it is useless information. If you actually take the time to read it, you will find it to be very valuable information. The social networks privacy policy will explain how the social network will collect and use information about people who visit the site.

 

Some important key points to keep in mind when reviewing the privacy policy is to start at the end of the document. A lot of the most important can be found at the end of the page. Also note the location and language of the privacy policy. Can you easily understand what it is saying and is it easily accessible? It is of the utmost importance to protect yourself on social media sites. It is recommended that you don’t give away your age, date of birth or place of birth as that can be useful to identity thieves or data mining companies.

According to the article I read, common sense and skepticism are some of the strongest tools you can have to protect yourself. Though I will admit for many people, common sense is not very common. Not only do you want to protect yourself from people who are willing to steal your identity but you want to make sure the information that you put on social media sites is appropriate. Now-a-days companies are constantly checking social media sites for potential employees to see if they can find any red flags. This goes back to privacy settings, make sure that if you don’t want people you don’t know to see your Facebook page that you have certain privacy settings on.

The facebook link below has some very valuable information, especially under the “manage settings for how you connect” tab. Facebook is a powerhouse social media platform and it’s so important to be smart when using it. You will never regret spending the time learning how to increase your privacy and security.

 https://www.privacyrights.org/social-networking-privacy-how-be-safe-secure-and-social

https://www.facebook.com/help/325807937506242/