Protect Your Privacy – ACT NOW
- X/Twitter – When last did you check the “privacy and safety” section of your Twitter settings?
- Facebook – Do you use Facebook friends lists so that not all of your posts are set to public?
- Snapchat – Is your find friends feature switched on and using your phone number?
- Pinterest – Have you thought about how you have set up your personalization toggle?
How well are you protecting your privacy when you use social media? There are many concerns about this topic. There is even a section in Wikipedia dedicated to the topic. It states “users are often the targets as well as the source of information in social networking. Users leave digital imprints during browsing of social networking sites or services”. Many of us think that we are never going to get caught giving away personal data. However, it still happens frequently.
- Can people still interact with you in a Facebook app even if you have blocked them?
- 3rd party developers build and operate apps on Facebook.
- Facebook endeavours to make sure that all outside developers are following their Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.
- When did you last review your Facebook app privacy settings?
Social Profiling
What can people do with your public data?
“I am OK if I only have some data public on one social media account and others spread on my other accounts. I am protected by not having all my details public in one profile. This is a form of protection right?”
No, this is not a form of protection.
It is quite easy to piece together your accounts and develop a “profile” even if you vary your name and profile pictures on your social media accounts. Who you work for might indicate who your colleagues and friends are. If they have public friend lists these could lead to discovering what your Facebook profile is. This can happen if you have used different profile pictures and slightly different names.
Social profiling is actually very easy to do if you are determined and have the time and tools. Social profiling is the process of constructing a virtual picture of someone by collecting public data about that person and analysing data from that person. People are not aware of how this can be done by stitching together information from various sources.
I understand my company privacy boundaries as the director of social media for Philips lighting and as a listening expert. Over many years I have worked with privacy and legal colleagues to help launch privacy guidelines and implement them in social media marketing activities. I have access to very powerful social listening tools and have the experience that enables me to piece together a very detailed picture of someone within 10 minutes if I wanted to do so. My key takeaway here; be very careful to protect your online privacy by being consistent across your social media accounts when it comes to what information you share publicly. Make sure you regularly review what apps you have connected to your profiles.
[Tweet “When did you last review your Facebook app privacy settings?”]
Social Media Infographic – Protect Your Privacy
“Most adults, and indeed many children, now spend several hours a day browsing a variety of social media sites, including Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. Many users become so engrossed in their use of these platforms that they will freely offer information when asked, not knowing or even caring if it is visible to the entire world. Then, when a privacy issue arises at a later stage, there is outrage and amazement, even though a few simple checks and the application of common sense at the outset could have protected their social profiles adequately to avoid such hassle”.
– Irishtelecom.com
[Tweet “Pinterest Privacy – Have you thought about how you have set up your personalization toggle?”]
Have a careful look at this infographic and then go and check what settings you have made on those platforms. My thanks to http://www.irishtelecom.com/managed-internet.php for the infographic.
DO IT NOW….
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