Safety is a big issue that is occurring in social networking
sites. With the increase in technology, hacking is becoming a bigger issue.
Social networking sites also make it easier for predators to find their prey.
Do you know if your social networking site is safe? Have you taken the proper
steps to make sure that it is safe? These are a few questions that you should
ask yourself. The last thing that anyone wants to happen is to be the victim of
a crime because their social networking sites are not properly secured.
Here are a few precautionary steps to take to make sure that
you are not a victim of someone hacking your networking site.
Facebook:
- · Make a private profile. Don’t allow everybody to have access to viewing your account. You don’t want the weird stalkers to know all about your life!
- · Limit who can find you! Make sure to block search engines the ability to link to your profile as well as deciding who exactly you want to be able to find you.
- · Turn on your Timeline Review. This allows you the opportunity to have to approve comments and pictures that people are posting on your wall. This is extremely helpful because you don’t know what people are going to post and this allows you the option to decide if you want it to post.
Twitter:
- · Make your profile private. Having a private profile doesn’t allow people to have access to your tweets, they have to ask for permission to be able to follow you, and once they do follow you they cannot retweet you.
- · Turn off your location! Make sure that when you are tweeting that your location is not attached. This allows for people to always have access to your whereabouts, which makes them easier targets to become a victim.
- · Don’t connect your Twitter account with your Facebook account. Not only is it annoying to have Twitter hashtags on Facebook but it also gives out your information from your Twitter.
Instagram:
- · Make your profile/pictures private!
- · It is also important to look at which apps have access to your Instagram account. Unless you are using those apps to help you create cards, websites, magnets, etc. then you should make sure that you do not allow them to access your account.
- · Make sure that when you upload a picture to Instagram that it doesn’t automatically share it on your other social networking sites.
In order to be able to protect yourself to the fullest, you
should check your privacy settings on whatever social networking site you are a
member of!
I have not been the victim of any hacking on my facebook page, but I have known a few people who have been attacked by local hackers. According to Ann Marie van den Hurk, who specializes in small business, "62 percent are acutally unaware of how thier accounts became compromised". To me, it seems like a majority of people are unaware that thier facebook pages are becoming hacked. Only untill they are acutally looking at thier profile, are they able to notice things like post they have never posted, or comments they have never said. I believe in order to protect your facebook page, you must limit the amount of information you are allowing random people (besides your freinds) to see. It's better to be a little to protective than to let hackers into your facebook page.
ReplyDeleteSources:http://www.kentucky.com/2012/07/30/2276572/how-to-keep-hackers-hands-off.html
Andrew Smith
These are all great precautions to maximize security. I think that many people are uninformed of these risks that make them vulnerable on social networking sites. I especially think that the "location" feature of these sites has pushed it to the limit! Whyyy would you want everyone to know ALL of your whereabouts? One thing I will say as far as private accounts on Twitter is that, in a way, it takes some of the fun out of tweeting. Twitter is a way to communicate thoughts & feelings to a worldwide audience (whoever cares to read those thoughts!). The security of having a private account is great, however not being able to retweet a thought that you agree with can be a little frustrating (as a timeline scroller!). At the same time, your thoughts can still be retweeted with a mere "copy and paste," which people do anyway. You're still not completely protected. I honestly think that if you want this type of privacy with just your own social network, Twitter is probably not for you.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the security tips. Hopefully a lot of people will read your post. I think a significant number of people who use these sites are not aware that they may be making themselves more vulnerable to certain risks. They simply post pictures, check in at places, and post status updates all without considering that someone up to no good could have access to this information. I have to agree with Aesha about the "location" feature. I don't want people to know where I am all the time. It's kind of creepy. There are so many more risks that come with people having access to your whereabouts.
ReplyDeleteThese are very helpful tips. Another huge security issue I have noticed is the ease of being able to create a profile that represents another person. I actually recently talked with a customer at my work that was dealing with an individual that created a facebook profile which displayed pictures of herself. The hacker in this case was posting comments with intentions of making others angry. This potentially put the girl's life in danger because, when she would go out in public, there were people out there that were angry with her even though she had nothing to do with the fraudulent page. I know this is a different method of hacking, but it does signify the need for better security features in social networking sites.
ReplyDeleteThis information is useful. It seems like common sense, but I think many people forget about these things and, like most things, do not think it will happen to them. I have had a friend that has had her facebook and twitter account hacked. She lost everything on her facebook including all her friends and photos. Although it was not the end of the world, she was very disappointed and frustrated. After her experience I will surely use these tips to keep my account safe and secure
ReplyDeleteKrzysztof Kwasniewicz
These are all very good tips to know. I wish when you first signed up for the different social networks, you would be able to have a crash course or small info session at the beginning to show you how to take these precautions. I haven't been a victim to having my facebooked hacked, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. I think if some people would take a little bit more responsibility in what they put on facebook or to make sure they take these precautions, then maybe there would be fewer accounts hacked.
ReplyDelete-Lauren Gorowski
This is a very good post because people just don’t think any harm can come to them from being a part of a social network. At the same time many people spend hours a day documenting every single steep they take throughout the day not even once asking them self who is seeing what they post. If you are lucky it’s just your friends but could also be someone that is going to take advantage of the information.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post because it shows steps to keep your information on social networks safe. In reading this post I found out a lot more about things I can do to keep my information protected. I always try to take any steps to keep it protected but was actually shocked to find out that I had never heard of a few of these steps. Mainly the last bullet on Facebook was the biggest surprise to me. Being able to control what other people put on your timeline is extremely helpful. For example, what if your friend post a picture of you on your wall trying to be funny but it has things in the picture you don't want other people to see. In this case it would be great to have that ability to allow that picture to be on your timeline or not. Overall the post is extremely helpful and very informative.
ReplyDeleteChandler Love