What can you do on social media?

You can connect to people. Hundreds and thousands of people around the world.
You can share your photos, post your thoughts, and see what everyone is up to.
We usually get excited about using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media
platforms. And we tend to share everything that's happening in our lives.
It’s pretty easy – and that’s the problem. Sometimes it’s a little too easy to share and post
information online.
Social media may seem like a harmless place. But once you log in, you have to watch out. It can
be a dangerous place.
Any online activity can affect your privacy, it can affect your safety, and your reputation.

Back in 2018, it was revealed that 50 million Facebook profiles were harvested for Cambridge
Analytica in major data breach. It was described that Donald Trump’s former adviser, Steve
Bannon, compiled user data to target American voters. And the figure soon changed to 87
million.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said "Yes, he broke the policy, he broke people’s
expectations, but also, people chose to share that data with him."

What can we learn from this?

Servers, where personal data is kept, are secure in many ways but can be
hacked. Many large companies faced cyber-attacks and the trend will continue
regardless of the Republic Act 10173, or the Data Privacy Act. No matter how
secure private data is, it can be stolen. Data protection is there, but it isn’t an
all-powerful measure capable of stopping everyone. 

So, when it comes to data privacy on social media, the prime responsibility is
on us, not some CEO of some social media platform, nor the platform itself.
What information are you sharing when you use social media?

The kinds of information that you may be sharing on a social network includes:

 Your profile. Most social networks allow users to create detailed online profiles and
connect with other users in some way. This may involve users sharing information
with other users, such as one’s gender, age, familial information, interests,
educational background and employment.
 Your status. Most social networks also allow users to post status updates in order to
communicate with other users quickly. Though there may be privacy settings to
restrict access to status updates, these networks are frequently designed to
broadcast information quickly and publicly.
 Your location.  Many social networks are designed to broadcast your real-time
location, either as public information or as an update viewable to authorized
contacts. This might allow users to “check in” to a local event or business, or share
one’s location with contacts within their network.
 Shared content. Many social networks encourage users to share content, such as
music, photographs, videos and links to other webpages.

All of this sharing reveals information about you, including contextual information you may
not even be aware of. By sharing this information online, you may be providing enough
information to allow advertisers to track you or hackers to take advantage of your online
identity.  Therefore, it is important to be aware of the information that you are providing and
to be conscious of the choices you can make to protect your privacy.

What threats to privacy are there on Social Media?

Data Mining
Everyone leaves a data trail behind on the internet.  In addition, companies
collect data on user behaviors: when, where, and how users interact with their
platform. All of this data is stored and leveraged by companies to better target
advertising to their users. 

Phishing Attempts
Phishing is one of the most common ways criminals attempt to gain access to
sensitive personal information. These messages trick people into sharing
sensitive data, including passwords, banking information, or credit card
details. Phishing attacks often pose as social media platforms. 
Malware Sharing
Malware (malicious software) is designed to gain access to computers and the
data they contain. Once malware has infiltrated a user’s computer, it can be
used to steal sensitive information (spyware), extort money (ransomware), or
profit from forced advertising (adware). Social media platforms are an ideal
delivery system for malware distributors. Once an account has been
compromised (often by obtaining passwords through a phishing attack),
cybercriminals can take over that account to distribute malware to all of the
user’s friends or contacts.

Botnet Attacks
Social media bots are automated accounts that create posts or automatically
follow new people whenever a certain term is mentioned. A large group of
bots can form a network known as a botnet. Bots and botnets are prevalent on
social media and are used to steal data, send spam, and launch distributed
denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that help cybercriminals gain access to
people’s devices and networks.

 
Data Scraping
It involves tracking people’s activities online and harvesting personal data and conversations from
social media, job websites and online forums. Usually, research companies are the harvesters, and
sell the compiled data to other companies. These, in turn, use these details to design targeted ad
campaigns for their products. 

What issues do we have to watch out for?

Account hacking and impersonation

Increasingly, spammers, hackers, and other online criminals are targeting social networks. A compromised social
media account makes for an appealing target: if they can get into your Facebook or Twitter account, they can
impersonate you.

Identity theft
Cybercriminals use social media for identity theft. Our private social profiles contain a wealth of personal information,
which can be leveraged to open credit card accounts in your name or otherwise abuse your digital identity.

Stalking and harassment

Not all social media privacy threats come from strangers. Sometimes, people in your life turn out to be less than
friendly. Online stalking and cyberbullying have become very well-known threats, and social media makes them very
easy to perpetrate.

The privacy downside of location-based services

As social media continues to take advantage of mobile devices and location-based services, the potential for privacy
and security threats increases. In fact, most people’s smartphones automatically collect location data continuously,
and social media apps are some of the heaviest users of this data. There are more than a few examples of people
being targeted by thieves or stalkers due to geo-location data automatically shared by their social media apps. After
all, what more could a burglar ask for than to know when you’re on vacation, far away from your home?

Now that we’ve learned how social media lacks privacy, how can we be safe and secure?

1. Read and Understand the Privacy Terms.

Most people skip over the privacy policy when joining a social network. However, users can
learn a lot of useful information by reviewing a privacy policy before signing up for service. A
social network’s privacy policy will explain how the social network will collect and use
information about people who visit the site. You wouldn’t just hand out your bank account
information, so why would you give away your privacy rights on social networking sites? Pay
particular attention to what information you are agreeing to share when you sign up for a social
media account. You may find that some of the terms are in the best interest of the platform, but
may not be the best for your privacy.

2. Use a strong password different from the passwords you use to access other sites.
People use multiple social accounts for various purposes. Nevertheless, if your password is weak, your account’s
security gets compromised. Also, if you are using the same password for different accounts, all your accounts can
get hacked by hackers.
Make sure to use a unique and strong password for every social account. Your password must include numbers,
words, upper and lowercase letters, and special characters. The stronger password you use, harder for a hacker to
crack your password. Change your password at least once a month. Try to keep different passwords for different
social media accounts. If you are having a problem to manage your passwords, you can use password managers.
3. Add two-factor authentication for every social account
If you are using two-factor authentication on your social accounts, it will add an extra layer of security to them. When
someone logs into your account from new location, device or browser; you will be sent a password that needs to be
entered for logging into your social account. This means that every time you log in, you’ll also need to enter a unique
code sent on your phone by the social media website. Many people think it's time-consuming, but if you are seriously
concerned about your privacy, you need to apply two-factor authentication on your each and every social account.
4. Setup security answers and update your privacy settings
All social media platforms give you the option to limit your audience. But many people are unaware of its importance.
It is necessary for every user to explore, try and overview those settings. You can also set up security questions on
your accounts. Instead of setting common questions like “What is your mother’s name?” or “Where are you from?”,
use questions that are hard for everyone to think about.

5. Consider creating a new email address to use only with our social media profile(s).

6. Be careful of what you share

Avoid sharing personal information online because your information, including your email address, phone number,
and social security number, is worth a lot of money to hackers and data mining companies.

Provide the minimum amount of personal information necessary, or that you feel
comfortable providing.
Take a look at your social media profiles and try to keep them barren—the people who need to know your birth date,
email address and phone number already have them.

7. Use a VPN
If you want to keep your conversations, messages, and calls secure; you can use an encryption tool which is called
VPN. A VPN helps you to keep your communication encrypted and secure. All your information will be passed
through a secure tunnel between the websites and your VPN services provider.

8. Keep system up to date with antivirus

To secure mobile devices, use antivirus apps to secure your online activity and important data.

9. Verify friend requests and block fake accounts

Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are full of fake profiles. Those fake accounts can be a hacker, a suspicious
organization or even a frenemy who wants to monitor your activities.

You don’t have any obligation to accept a “friend or follow”

request of anyone on social media, particularly those you do not
know. Be careful when accepting friends or following friends or
contacts with a keen consideration of why you are using the
site.
Don’t accept any friend request without verification. If someone is disturbing you, it's good to report and block such
profiles.

10. Turn Off Your Location

While adjusting your privacy settings, never forget to turn off
your gadget’s location sharing. Turning off your location
prevents your Facebook, email and Phone Lookup.

11. Regularly check your mailbox to check suspicious login attempts

Keep a habit of checking your emails regularly. Many people ignore emails from Facebook, Twitter or other social
accounts. They might think that it's a notification from their friends, but it could be login attempt by a hacker, and your
social platform wants to inform you about it.
If you got a suspicious email or login attempt to your account, change your password as soon as possible.

12. Don’t save your passwords on your browser

If your system gets compromised, hackers can easily read your saved passwords from the browser in just a few
clicks.

13. Be careful about posting

photos online
Before you post any photos, think twice. Posting photos on
social media has been identified as one of the risky social
networking activities. For instance, a simple, harmless picture of
your child without a name may already be revealing too much
information. Advertising your whereabouts through pictures
could make you, your loved ones, or your home a tempting
target for cybercriminals.

14. Avoid Clickbait

No social media will take responsibility for third-party apps.
When prompted to ‘comment below to see magic’ or ‘check
which celebrity you share a birthday with,’ avoid clicking these
random baits. Avoid clicking on social media links, even the
ones sent to you by a friend.  Don’t fill any silly Facebook quiz. They
are third-party apps that try to capture and misuse your private
information.

15.Avoid logging into public computers or using friends’ phones

to log in to your social media accounts.

16. Log off from your social media account when you no longer need to be connected.
- The last important and good practice is, always log off to your system when you are done with it.

Your online data is

Using social media can be fun and entertaining. However, it comes with a responsibility.
as important as your passport, your ID card, or your medical record. Don’t
hand out social networks your privacy on a plate. When information gets posted
online, it is no longer private, and may end up falling into wrong hands. Protect your
personal information. You don’t have to delete your social media accounts, you
don’t have to stop tweeting, or posting on Instagram. But the next time you log
in, be smart!