Security Audit: Social Media
Social Media can be a very useful tool for catching up with friends and family; people who interest us, and for staying up to date with events. To protect yourself from the scams, it's worth doing a check up of your security and privacy settings.
These settings allow you to limit who sees your information; who sends you messages, and which adverts you will see.
Advertising
Social media and free internet tools (Google etc) make their money through advertising. They use the data they have about you (age; gender etc) to decide which adverts to show you - this is targetted advertising. However, you can turn off these settings, which won't prevent you from seeing adverts, but will ensure that your data is not used for advertising. Look for the advertising sections of the Settings on each site to manage this.
General principles
It is tempting to fill in all the personal information requested when you sign up for a website. If a hacker finds this information, they can use it to buy stuff in your name, take out credit cards and accounts etc. Some ways to protect this data are:
- Ensure your password is secure. Our previous blog gives you a simple way to do this.
- Be wary about how much you share and who can see it.
- Use different types of social media for different functions - ie one for friends and family, another for work and career.
- Unless there is a legal requirement to give your age, give a false date of birth.
- Ensure your address is hidden from people you don't know.
- Hide your email address, or create an email address for social media and things you do online.
- If you do buy anything online, try to keep a separate bank account with a low balance, and or use Paypal to keep your banking info secure.
- Turn off the Geolocation settings - these allow people to see where you are. They can be useful for maps and direction, but be cautious about having them on all the time.
- Check before you post so that you don't post or spread scams and false information. Snopes is really good for this.
- Ensure that you report anything that is offensive, inappropriate or bullying.
- Use 2-step verification to protect your accounts - this is where a code is sent to your phone or email to allow you to log in.
- For more detailed guidelines on each platform, see this page: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/social-media-how-to-use-it-safely
- Check your notification settings to ensure you receive only the notifications you want to see.
To view your settings in Facebook, click on your image in the top right hand corner, and then select Settings & Privacy.
You will see the Privacy Checkup that allows you to go through your settings, step by step to ensure your account is secure.
If you prefer to go through each setting yourself, then select Settings under 'Settings & Privacy' and go through each setting one at a time.
Twitter's security settings can be found above the tweet button on the left under Settings & Support.
Posts on Twitter are by default visible to anyone, but you can be completely anonymous on Twitter, and you can limit posts to only those who follow you. You can also block people from sending you direct messages.
LinkedIn tends to be used more as a way of linking for work purposes. The security settings are found below your image, under Settings & Privacy. Much of the information on LinkedIn is automatically available in your profile, so you may want to consider carefully what you enter.
Under Data Privacy, you have options to restrict who can see and use your information.
If you use Youtube; Instagram; Snapchat or Ticktock, you can find tailored advice here.
We hope this helps you stay safe online.