Social Media Day: Don't fall victim to these norms

While Social media began with a source of entertainment and a fun way to connect with people, it has now become an addiction to the users who even succumb to doing the most illogical things just to grab attention. Unknowingly, personal information gets shared or oversharing certain aspects of social media can be risky. Despite the protection, hackers have managed to steal $172 billion from 978 million consumers in 20 countries in the past year, as per the global 2017 Norton Cyber Security Insights Report.

As users celebrate June 30 as ‘Social Media Day’, there are a few aspects that need to be made aware of to avoid being cyber-bullied, stalked, trolled or even become a victim of identity theft.

Importance of privacy -

Even though all social media sites provide the option to limit post-viewing to specific audiences, no one really utilises it properly. Choose the best privacy setting according to the social media platform and bear in mind that not all privacy settings are similar. While Facebook and Twitter give you customised settings for the people to view specific posts, certain photos despite being private are still learned to get indexed publicly in Google Image Search. So, be careful of what you share on these platforms.

’Number’ of friends -

The trend of having the largest number of connections brought in a lot of competition among the users. However, the more connections you have, it is harder to control the information you post. Don’t make connections for the sake of the number and add people you possibly have never met in real life. Also, utilise the block feature whenever the requirement arises.

Personal information -

Personal information from your public profiles – date of birth, education, interests –can be misused in various ways. Accounts with security questions can be accessed with certain information from your social media profile. Hence, keep your profile private and refrain from posting every aspect of your life online.

Log off -

Keeping your account logged in all the time to avoid typing the login details every time is something, everyone tends to do. Avoid it, particularly if you are using a public computer. Make sure to log out of private devices from time to time as it protects you from others snooping into your social media account and misusing it.

No to common passwords -

It’s hard to keep track of passwords for all the various accounts which is the reason, people choose common passwords to remember it easily. However, it is essential, that one doesn’t use the same password for all the social media sites as it becomes easy for the hackers to access your accounts - as having access to one leads to gaining access to all.