According to one study, 22% of Internet users say that they’ve had online accounts hacked.
If you want to make sure that your accounts aren’t the ones hacked, you need to protect personal information.
But how do you do that while still enjoying having a social media account? Keep reading to learn about identity theft protection.
Adjust Privacy Settings
To start with, you should adjust your privacy settings for all of your social media accounts. You should always make sure that a lot of your own personal information is visible to you or your friends. It should never be public.
If you don’t tighten your privacy settings, then you give strangers access to your information that they can use to steal your identity. With all the information accessible, they don’t even have to hack into your accounts.
Normally, each site will give you the option to limit who sees every post that goes on your page. Familiarize yourself with all of these settings and learn how to use them.
For example, Facebook and Twitter let you post information to different custom lists of people who can view your posts.
However, a good rule of thumb is that if you don’t want something to be public, you shouldn’t post it.
Don’t Fill in The Optional Fields
On Facebook, you’ll get to fill in a section that’s all about you. You can fill in your birthday, where you went to high school or college, and where you work.
You can even list where you live or where you were born. These are also often common security questions, which can make it easy for someone to steal your identity.
Shut Down Old Accounts
The best way to protect your data and information is to delete your accounts. Many people are going through their accounts and deleting anything that they’re not using. Yes, that means you should delete your 2005 MySpace account.
However, deleting the app off your phone won’t be enough to delete the data. You should be deleting your account as well.
You should try and limit the number of accounts you use because the more you have, the more your data gets spread around the Internet.
Know All of Your Friends
It might be tempting to grow your list of friends and have a huge list of followers. However, you should always make sure that you know everyone who’s following you or is friends with you.
This way you know who has access to the information that you’re sharing.
You never know who is going to be behind the screen, even if their profile looks real. Many people will create fake profiles in order to learn more information about you.
If someone unknown sends you a friend request, there is a decline option. If you think they’re a spam account or are trying to steal your identity, you can also report them as well.
Always Log Out
When you’re done using your account, make sure that you log out of your social media.
While you should always be logging out of public devices, you might want to start this habit on your private devices as well.
This makes sure that no one can take over your profile and lock you out. They may even attack your friends, change your personal information, or even steal your passwords.
Set Up Good Passwords
In order to keep hackers out, you should have good passwords for all of your accounts.
Try using a password that uses punctuation marks, numbers, letters, and different symbols. Try not to use words or sequences. You also shouldn’t use personal information or dates that can easily be guessed.
Each account should also have its own password. If you’re having trouble managing all of them, you can use a password manager to remember them.
Never Post Locations
While it might be tempting to post that you’re in the Bahamas on vacation, make sure that you don’t post the location of your photos.
This can make it easy for people to figure out where you live and where you regularly go. This can make it easy for someone to stalk or rob you.
If you’re on vacation, it also tells people that you’re on vacation and that your home might be open and vulnerable.
If you do need to post the location, do it after you get home from the vacation or after you leave the gym.
Add Multi-factor Authentication
To keep your account secure, you should also enable multi-factor authentication. This will give your profile an extra level of security.
This way, even if someone is able to guess your password, they’ll still need access to your phone or email to log in. After they enter your password, they’ll have to get a code that’s sent to your phone or email before they can log in.
While this can get annoying and be time-consuming for you to log in, this is a great way to secure your account. Make sure you have this on every social media account.
If you do find that someone hacked into your account and stole your information, you should hire an identity theft lawyer.
Learn More About How to Protect Personal Information on Social Media
These are only a few things on how to protect personal information on social media, but there are many more factors to consider.
We know that dealing with a stolen identity can be stressful, but we’re here to help you get your identity theft back.
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