social media privacyWell, it hasn't been bothering much. But I think it is not the same case everywhere. Its been for days I've been reading the same thing online. Yes, personal privacy issues on world wide web. Online privacy seems to be a major concern for netizens today. Well, it was a matter for concern earlier too. But I think it a much bigger issue today. Especially, with the social media sites where personal privacy is being downplayed like anything. I don't know how but. Talk about the one and only king of social networking, Facebook. Being the biggest social network on web at present, facebook has been heavily criticized off late for loopholes in its security settings because of which personal privacy remains a big issue anytime. The same goes with Twitter and other similar social networks.

The recent addition of features like geo location may have got many takers but what I have been reading online, it can add to the woes of social media freaks. For those who use this feature, little do they realize how threatening it can be in reality. Just letting one know about your whereabouts, are you willing to settle with this ? Just imagine yourself tweeting this "Away from home and will be back in nite after 10" Not to mention, you have your geo location feature "ON". Now, I am not sure but when you return to home, you are left with just only to see everything gone. Yes, it is hard to imagine but to be very honest, many have paid price for the same. Believe it or not, but the geocriminals of the future will simply monitor tweeting location patterns. Most of your tweets will be likely to be sent from in, or close to, your home. When you’re tweeting from out of area they’ll swoop in and swipe your stuff. So, this is just one example to showcase how a loophole in your privacy setting could result in a nightmare...think on it seriously !!

There can be many more threats depending upon the level of customization which is being provided with the existing and new feature additions. So, please be careful here. One more thing that you must know is that everything is getting visible today. Credit to the these social networks mostly, you are leaving yourself exposed a lot.

Take the example of linkedin, a popular social networking for working professionals and alike. Let's say you are searching for a person named ABC on internet. You are not aware of the person whereabouts. Once you are done with the search, you get to know about the person from his linkedin information. Now, this is yet another drawback when it comes to online privacy. You can find a person’s LinkedIn profile with a generic Google search. This should be restricted to the LinkedIn environment, but it’s not. You can then find their Facebook page, get to know all their family, and compile a pretty extensive list about that person. Tell me, are you ready for all these ?

Plus one more thing that happens with most of us today. We get lots and lots of friend requests these days. Isn't it ? Well, it could have been ok if we know most of them but it is really not the same today. We are adding anyone and everyone. Exceptions do prevail. People are also getting bombarded with corporate Fanpages, Groups, and other means of luring you to their sites, brands, and social following. This is the erosion of your true social circle. You have basically joined a public forum rather than a social network.

Yes, it all is happening in reality. We all are becoming used to it nowadays. To sum up, social media is encouraging -
  • lack of privacy between personal and business level
  • Unlimited information sharing even if its unnecessary
  • People to answer privacy questions thus leading to financial insecurities later
  • Unidentified people to attack or hack your computer system and let third party to steal your personal information
These are the most obvious threats from the social media networking today. Better late than never, one needs to be aware of the same rather than being blind and paying price later.

So, what could be done from your side if there were anyways to remain safe and protected from these known threats. One thing is for sure that it is you who can protect you. These social media networks will keep on coming with features and tweaks. The question to be answered is - How can we keep ourselves protected ?

Below are some of the ways which you must follow to tweak your social media privacy :
  • Make sure that you never share your personal information. This may look like anti-social networking but you must avoid posting too much personal information related to yourself. Don’t post your Birthday, or your address, your mother’s middle name, or any really personal data.

  • Never let your profile be truly public. Restrict your information to those who have requested you to let them access your personal data.

  • Never trust strangers no matter how courteous they appear to be. Limit who you accept to chat or friend requests as well as even those you communicate with. This is obviously even more important for children.

  • Liar, Liar everywhere. Yes, social media is rapidly becoming a place for liars. There has been many cases where fake profiles have been created and innocent people have been made victims. So, never trust any profile. Vet each and everything carefully first.

  • Make use of the inbuilt privacy settings. Yes, most of us fail to do this. It is so very important that you check every setting related to your privacy. One easy example is in Facebook where you can create groups that you can place friends in; you don’t have to let your business contacts see what your friends are posting.

  • Passwords..your entry key to these social networks. Make sure that your password is strong enough and easy to remember for you. Also, make it a habit to change it periodically. Plus, avoid using personal information such as your wife’s name or child’s name while creating these passwords.

  • Make use of firewall and any other reliable antivirus product to check infiltration of malicious code or programs to your system. Keep your protection software up-to-date as well and run the patch management software on your machine, this is especially important for you the Windows users.

  • If you have children below 13 in your home and if they are spending too much of their time online then it becomes your responsibility to let them know the dangers of social networking. Parental filters and other privacy enhancing software must be installed on their systems.

  • Your email could lead you to all sorts of problems. Avoid sharing it everywhere. Restrcit all those who can view your email on your profile page.
Well, the above tips are certainly going to be helpful for those who have a thing or two to bother about these social networks. Personally, I haven't faced any threat yet. But I do realize the inevitable dangers of these social networks as I've been a reading a lot on all these things. Its high time that we all realize these threats and take every possible measure from our side to stay safe and protected. Social Media is nothing to be feared of. It is a place to be cherished but not at the cost of one's privacy !