With social media becoming a major part of how society communicates, there’s no better time to discuss how to stay safe while you’re using these significant mediums. Whether you enjoy social media or are against it, there’s no denying that you need to take responsibility to use it. This includes prioritizing your own security.
The Risks of Social Media
Social media has replaced other types of media for some individuals. They no longer read the news or blogs, and they don’t need instant messaging or entertainment, either. Social media does it all.
It should come as no surprise that some people spend serious amounts of time on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, and other social networks. You can use these platforms to communicate, share, and create content, but it naturally comes at a price:
- Privacy issues and identity theft
- Cyberbullying
- Online and offline harassment
- Exposure to inappropriate content and misinformation
- Overuse and addiction
- Mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, loneliness, and low self-esteem.
With today’s generations growing up deep in the throes of social media, it’s difficult to imagine life without it. It’s such a prevalent force that everyone should know how to protect themselves while using social media—even if you only use it sparingly.
Protect Your Identity and Data While On Social Media
It’s remarkably easy for hackers to pose as you on social media and attempt to scam your friends, family, and colleagues. Business owners have a lot more to worry about, as their personal pages are often tied to business pages that could also put their operations and reputation in jeopardy.
Thankfully, you can do a lot to protect your social media accounts from this fate.
Implement Unique Passwords
You should never use the same password for multiple accounts. Doing so puts multiple profiles at risk. Hackers will find one password on the Internet and test it out on various platforms to see if they can get lucky with it.
Utilize MFA
If hackers do get your password, you want to make it hard for them to use it. This is where multi-factor authentication comes in. You can add a secondary credential, like a text or call to your mobile device, or an authenticator app, so that breaking into your account is twice as hard and twice as much work.
Review Security Settings
Your security settings should be one of your first stops when improving your account security. We’ll break it down for you based on the platform in question:
Facebook and Instagram: Log in and go here:
https://www.facebook.com/privacy/guide/security/
Then click the blue “Review your security settings” button.
Twitter/X: Log in and tap your profile picture, then Settings & Support, then tap Settings and privacy. Under Your account, make sure you have an active and up-to-date email address and phone number assigned to the account. Go back to Settings and privacy and tap Security and account access and review all of the options on that screen to ensure your account is secure and nothing you aren’t aware of has access to your account.
Google/Gmail/YouTube: Log in and go here:
https://myaccount.google.com/
Follow the prompts to Take a Privacy Checkup.
Then, go here: https://myaccount.google.com/security-checkup
Review everything and ensure that 2-Step Verification is set up, and that accounts and services you aren’t aware of are not connected to your account (under Your third-party connections).
TikTok: From the app, tap the Profile icon on the bottom right, then swipe down to get to some settings, and click the Gear icon on the top right. That will take you to the Settings and privacy screen. Then tap Security & permissions and review all of the settings.
Other online accounts will also give you these options, so check your blogging platforms, video websites, gaming communities, and so on for them. We recommend that you periodically review your account settings to ensure nothing fishy is going on.
Review Privacy Settings
Security settings are those that keep others out of your account, whereas privacy settings will help you control what you share and who can see it. For this, we have one big rule to consider that should be a decent catch-all:
Don’t share stuff online that you wouldn’t want your grandmother, your boss, or a complete stranger to see.
You have pretty decent control over your privacy settings on various platforms, but most of them break down to the simple rule above. Don’t share anything that you don’t want the entire Internet to see. Simple enough, right?
How to Manage Your Privacy Settings on Most Social Media Sites
Facebook/Instagram: Log into Facebook and go here:
https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=privacy
Facebook also has a step-by-step privacy checkup option here:
https://www.facebook.com/privacy/checkup/
Twitter/X: X doesn’t offer a lot in the way of privacy, and with constant shifts in what type of information is public and what isn’t, things will likely change as time goes on. If you want to lock down all of your tweets so only people you follow can see them, log in and tap your profile picture, then Settings & Support, then tap Settings and privacy, then Privacy and safety. Finally, tap on Audience and tagging. You can toggle Protect your posts, which will make it so only current followers and people you approve of in the future can see all of your posts, including past posts.
TikTok: From the app, tap the Profile icon on the bottom right, then swipe down to get to some settings, and click the Gear icon on the top right. That will take you to the Settings and privacy screen. Then tap Privacy. From here you can determine what type of content and activity gets shared to others on the platform.
Keep Your Location to Yourself
You shouldn’t share information about your location on social media, including information about your address, the outside of your home, your mail, and any other documents that might have your address on them.
You should also avoid sharing information about not being home, as this could allow scammers, thieves, and criminals to strike when you’re not around to stop them.
There’s So Much More to Account Security
Social media is tricky to navigate, but it’s not difficult. Just be methodical about how you share information and engage with content. In the future, we’ll share more information on how to avoid scams, protect your family, and other important topics in this realm.
