Social media has been entwined with our daily lives with
online networking that has experienced a complete upheaval. Social media is a
great platform for us to connect with family and friends especially when we’re
separated by vast distance from them.
However, Privacy has been an increasingly rare commodity
nowadays since most of our personal information like email address, phone number and social security number, location is exposed to many out there.
Social media opens up major privacy concerns because we unknowingly tap our
reach to broader audiences. Online identification is a big privacy issue that
can prove to be a problem for us to avoid cyberstalking and bullying.
Here are various ways you can trample towards protecting your
privacy online and take control over what other’s can see.
Be choosy
about sharing your personal social details
One finds it easier to get their hands on somebody else’s
life when you fill up more and more information about yourself on social media.
People who need to know your phone number, e-mail ID and location they already
have it and there is no such compulsion to share everything about your contact
details on the social profile because social media is a huge platform where any unknown person can misuse such information if it is laying there open to
everyone.
Hide
Activity Status and Read Receipts
Many social apps your friends have the ability to view
whether you’re active or offline. This information also comes with a feature
where they can see when you were last active. The user, however, has an option to
turn off sharing the activity status. Another thing social media adheres to is
the messaging options that show when your message got delivered and when the
person reads the message. If you do not want anyone to know when you saw the
message, it is wise enough to turn off the read receipt option.
Lock your
privacy and always save and log out
Logging into the account requires one to pass through the setup passcode of your hardware. The password enables access to all your social media
apps that are already logged in. This increases the risk of exposing private
information to others who open your device without you knowing or what if it
gets stolen? It is advisable to create a unique and strong password to unlock
your device and always remember to log out from your social media app if you
want to protect your shared information.
Use two-factor
authentication
One can lock their social media apps like Facebook, Dropbox,
Apple ID and Microsoft with two-factor authentication where you have to enter a
special code that you receive through a text in your phone to login. This will
keep others from accessing your information and one can put up with this if
they’re concerned of their privacy.
Keep your
networking private
Social networking sites like Facebook come with a feature of
setting up advanced privacy options of choosing whom you want to share your
posts, timeline images, friend list and activity status with.
Do not
allow any app to find access to your gallery or files
Social networking apps always open a pop-up notification for you to choose whether you want the app to gain access to your files and images. It is very important to pause for a while, read such notification and opt wisely based upon your choice. One should know that apps having access to your gallery and files might not be safe enough for sensitive information hence choose wisely!
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