Mitigating Risk on Social Platforms
The use of social networks is soaring as we look for ways to keep human connections alive, providing even more opportunities for scammers to take advantage of you and potential security risks.
When not handled correctly, social media use opens you and your family up to significant privacy risks. Failure to take proactive precautions can lead to cyberattacks, cyberbullying, job loss, and more.
Some of the regulations you could be subject to include:
- Follow best practices for sharing personal information
- Educate yourself on common social media scams
- Set privacy controls correctly
- Protect your reputation, think before you share
By taking simple steps to protect yourself and your family, you can enjoy social media safely. From helping you set up proper controls to monitoring your family’s profiles for problematic posts, IDShield can help you navigate potential privacy pitfalls and protect your identity.
IDShield Protection
Features Include
- Dark web surveillance
- Unlimited consulting with fraud experts
- 24/7 access for emergency support
- Monthly credit score tracker
- Support with credit report disputes
- Scan your social media for unwanted images and posts
- Watch your financial accounts for unwanted activity
Take Control of Your Social Media Footprint
Social media is an integral part of our daily routine, helping us connect and build relationships. With over 2.77 billion social media users, almost everyone relies on the myriad of social platforms from Facebook to Snapchat to Instagram to communicate with their loved ones.
The use of social networks is soaring as we look for ways to keep human connections alive, providing even more opportunities for scammers to take advantage of. While we check out the latest funny meme, TikTok video, or news from our family and friends, we need to keep our personal information protected.
Too many people are oblivious to the privacy pitfalls and fail to take steps to protect their data, setting them up as easy targets to be profiled by advertisers, opening them up to a potential cyberattack, or, even worse, having their identity hijacked.
Don’t Accept Every Request to Connect
Rather than gleefully clicking on every request from a new follower or third-party application, always take time to verify each invite. With friend requests, check and block fake accounts or people you don’t know well. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are full of fake profiles, and those accounts can be a cybercriminal, a suspicious organization, or just a stranger who wants to monitor your activities. If you see any concerning behavior, you should report and block the account. Adopt the mantra that it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
The same goes for third-party apps. Be very careful before accepting requests to link apps to any of your social accounts and make sure to regularly audit which are connected to protect yourself from data-harvesting software. There are multiple examples of this happening from surveillance concerns with WhatsApp to TikTok, which appears to be a messaging app that the New York Times identified as a mass surveillance tool!
Think Before You Share
Check your social media profiles and make sure that you are not sharing personal information, including your address, phone number, date of birth, and social security number. Your close friends and family should know these as needed. Also, those quirky polls that ask for random information are often not so innocent and are a way to get you to disclose personal data. So don’t make trackable information available to everyone, including cybercriminals. Again, less is more when it comes to your personal information on social channels.
Protecting Your Family’s Reputation on Social Media
Don’t forget to make sure your children’s social media activity is not exposing your data. For kids, privacy is a learned behavior, so you need to make sure they are vigilant. With screen time limits removed in response to our new normal and social usage soaring for kids of all ages, this is increasingly important. Taking an active role can help prevent unwanted access to your data or home network coupled with ensuring that a social profile doesn’t come back to haunt your child later in life.
Social media has opened up numerous ways for us to entertain ourselves and keep up with our friends and family. By taking some proactive steps, we can all reap the benefits without lasting damage to our online reputation and identity. At IDShield, we can help you navigate the potential pitfalls and take back control of who can see what you share, watch, browse, or comment on across social media.
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