5 Things You Should Never Post on Facebook
About.com | Internat Security
For the sake of the safety of you and your family, there is some information that you should never post on Facebook.
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Facebook has become the Google of social networks. If you're not
updating your status right now, chances are that you are uploading
photos or taking some sort of odd quiz. We post tons of intimate details
about our lives that we normally wouldn't share with anyone. We think
that as long as we make sure our privacy settings are set correctly that
we are safe and snug within our circle of friends.
The problem is that we never know who's really looking at our
information. Our friend's account could have been hacked when they
installed some rogue application, or their creepy uncle might be using
their account because they forgot to log out. For the sake of the safety
of you and your family, there is some information that you should never
post on Facebook. Here are 5 things you should consider removing or not
posting to Facebook and/or other social networks.
1. You or Your Family's Full Birth Dates
We all love getting “happy birthdays” from our friends on our
Facebook wall. It makes us feel all warm inside knowing that people
remembered and cared enough to write us a short note on our special day.
The problem is when you list your birthday you are providing identity
thieves with one of the 3 or 4 pieces of personal information that is
needed to steal your identity. It’s best to not list the date at all,
but if you must, at least leave out the year. Your real friends should
know this info anyway.
2. Your Relationship Status
3. Your Current Location
There are a lot of people who love the location tagging feature on
Facebook that allows them to let people know where they are 24/7. The
problem is that you have just told everyone that you're on vacation (and
not at your house). If you add how long your trip is then thieves know
exactly how much time they have to rob you. My advice is not to provide
your location at all. You can always upload your vacation pictures when
you get home or text your friends to let them know how jealous they
should be that you're sipping an umbrella drink while they toil away at
work.
4. The Fact That You Are Home Alone
It is extremely important that parents make sure their children never
put the fact that they are home alone in their status. Again, you
wouldn’t walk into a room of strangers and tell them you are going to be
all alone at your house so don’t do it on Facebook either.
We may think that only our friends have access to our status, but we
really have no idea who is reading it. Your friend may have had their
account hacked or someone could be reading over their shoulder at the
library. The best rule of thumb is not to put anything in your profile
or status that you wouldn’t want a stranger to know. You may have the
most stringent privacy settings possible, but if your friend’s account
gets compromised than those settings go out the window.
5. Pictures of Your Kids Tagged With Their Names
We love our kids. We would do anything to keep them safe, but most
people post hundreds of tagged pictures and videos of their kids to
Facebook without even giving it a second thought. We even go so far as
to replace our profile pictures with that of our children.
Probably 9 out of 10 parents posted their child’s full name, and
exact date and time of birth while they were still in the hospital after
delivery. We post pictures of our kids and tag them and their friends,
siblings, and other relatives. This kind of information could be used by
predators to lure your child. They could use your child’s name and the
names of their relatives and friends to build trust and convince them
that they are not really a stranger because they know detailed
information that allows them to build a rapport with your child.
If you must post pictures of your children then you should at least
remove personally identifying information such as their full names and
birth dates. Untag them in pictures. Your real friends know their names
anyway.
I would be a hypocrite if I said that I have completely removed all
tagged pictures of my kids on facebook. It is a daunting task given the
amount of pictures that we take as proud parents, but I have started on
it and I'll do a little bit each day until it's finished.
Lastly, think twice before you tag pictures of the children of
friends and relatives. They might not want you tagging their kids for
the reasons mentioned above. You can send them a link to the pictures
and they can tag themselves in place of their children if they want to.
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