The perils of social media
Many people forget that social media is public. No matter how tight your privacy settings, once you’ve uploaded a photo or piece of text onto the internet, it’s almost impossible to completely remove it.
Whether it’s Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ or Pinterest, even if you just share with friends, there’s usually nothing to stop them sharing it wider.
Of course, for most of us, that causes no problems. Frankly, my life isn’t interesting enough to worry about. However, there are issues about identity theft, where a criminal collects information about you and then ‘becomes’ you to steal - open bank accounts or run up debts.
There’s urban myths galore – share too much about your holiday and you’ll be burgled, for instance. I know of one person who lost their job because of comments made on Facebook.
Social media is a great tool for your personal and business life, but always think before hitting ‘send’, ‘post’ or ‘tweet’. Rule of thumb – is this something you’d want to appear in your local paper or be shown to your grandma?
Whether it’s Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ or Pinterest, even if you just share with friends, there’s usually nothing to stop them sharing it wider.
Of course, for most of us, that causes no problems. Frankly, my life isn’t interesting enough to worry about. However, there are issues about identity theft, where a criminal collects information about you and then ‘becomes’ you to steal - open bank accounts or run up debts.
There’s urban myths galore – share too much about your holiday and you’ll be burgled, for instance. I know of one person who lost their job because of comments made on Facebook.
Social media is a great tool for your personal and business life, but always think before hitting ‘send’, ‘post’ or ‘tweet’. Rule of thumb – is this something you’d want to appear in your local paper or be shown to your grandma?
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