4. Using Social Media—Safely and Privately
In this chapter, you discover how to minimize the risks of using social media.
How safe is social media? If you use social media, is your personal information at risk? Can you be harmed using social media?
The reality is that social media is as safe, or as risky, as anything on the Internet. If you use social media intelligently and responsibly, you can minimize whatever risks exist.
Is It Safe to Use Social Media?
There are potential hazards involved in virtually every online activity, from reading emails to web browsing. Such hazards also exist with the use of social media, such as Facebook.
What kinds of hazards are we talking about? There are both major and minor ones, including the following:
• Viruses and other malware. Like any website, posts on a social networking site can contain links to viruses, spyware, and other forms of malicious software (malware), on either your computer or mobile device. If you click or tap on a bad link, often disguised as a link to an interesting website or app, you can infect your device with this type of malicious software.
Malware
A virus is a malicious software program that can cause damage to an infected computer, smartphone, or tablet. Spyware is a similar but different software program that obtains information from your device without your knowledge or consent. Both viruses and spyware are forms of malicious software—malware for short.
• Spam. Users who publicly post their email addresses on Facebook and other social media can find themselves the target of unwanted junk email, or spam. Spammers harvest email addresses from social networking sites and add these addresses to their email mailing lists for sending spam messages.
• Identity theft. Posting personal information publicly on Facebook and similar social media can result in identity theft. Identity thieves use this public information to assume a user’s identity on the social network or on other websites; to apply for credit cards and loans in the user’s name; to legitimize undocumented foreign workers; and to gain access to the user’s banking and credit card accounts.
Identity Theft
Identity theft is a form of fraud in which one person pretends to be someone else, typically by stealing personal information, such as a bank number, credit card number, or Social Security number. The intent of identity theft is often to steal money or obtain other benefits.
• Cyberbullying. It’s unfortunate, but many people employ social media to bully people they dislike. This is particularly common among school-age users, but can happen to people of any age. Some online bullies post threatening messages on their victims’ profile pages; other go to the extreme of creating fake profile pages for their victims, full of embarrassing fictitious information. Cyberbullying is particularly troublesome, as it can be completely anonymous but have the same debilitating effects as physical bullying.
• Online stalking. Online stalkers like to follow their victims from one website or social network to another. If granted friend status, these online bullies—often pretending to be someone that they’re not—will try to become close to you, whether for their own personal enjoyment or to cause you discomfort, embarrassment, or actual harm.
• Physical stalking or harassment. Some online predators take their stalking into the physical world. This is facilitated when you post personal information—including phone numbers and home addresses—on Facebook and other social networking sites. This information helps predators physically contact their victims, which can result in harassment or even physical violence.
• Robbery. Have you ever posted on Facebook about going out for dinner on a given evening, or about getting ready to take a long vacation? When you do so, you’re telling potential robbers when your home will be empty—and that your belongings are ripe for the taking.
Scary stuff, all of it.
That said, social media is only as hazardous—or as safe—as you make it. If you post a plethora of personal information, you’ll be less safe than if you are more discreet. If you avoid posting personal details about your life, you’ll be safer from potential attackers or identity thieves than if you post liberally about your activities.
How do you avoid these potential dangers? Well, the only sure way to be completely safe is to delete all your profiles and cease using Facebook and other social media. Short of that, however, you can network in relative safety by being smart about what you post and what you respond to on the site.
Smarter Social Networking
I can provide you lots of advice on how to keep safe on social media. (And I will, I promise!) But all the tips I can supply boil down to this: You have to use your head. Safe social networking is smart social networking. While various social media have various privacy and security tools you can employ, nothing will keep you safer than thinking before you click. The riskiest behavior comes from not considering all the consequences of what you might do. The safest users are those that don’t do dumb things. So don’t do dumb things.
Repeat: Don’t do dumb things.
Now, to the more detailed recommendations—all of which involve smarter social networking.
Think Before You Click or Tap
You’ll see lots of posts in your news feeds with clickable links—to other websites, to online articles, to photos and videos on other sites, you name it. Not every link is what it seems to be, however.
Just as with email, many disreputable types like to “phish” for information by posting links that look to be one thing but are actually something quite different. A link might purport to take you to an interesting news story, but in fact drop you on a page full of annoying advertisements. Or it might look like an official Facebook or Twitter link, but instead lead to a phony (but official-looking) web page that tries to get you to enter your username and password, while tricking you into revealing your personal information.
The reality is, there are a lot of links in social media that are something less than what they seem. Most of these deceptive links (sometimes called clickbait) merely lead to advertising-laden pages (so-called click farms, because the owner gets paid whenever someone clicks on an ad). But others are more dangerous in the way they phish for personal information.
So take care before you click or tap any link you find in your social network news feed. That’s true even if the link is in a post from a trusted friend; even trusted friends can be deceived. And after you click, be ready to hit the back button if what you see isn’t what you expect.
Think Before You Post
Just as you need to be smart about what you click in friends’ posts, you also need to be smart about what you post. As discussed in Chapter 3, “What to Share—and What Not to Share—on Social Media,” the more personal information you share, the more you put yourself at risk for identity theft, online harassing, and real-world burglary and assault. Do not post, however innocently or inadvertently, your street address, phone number, email address, Social Security number, or the like.
For that matter, don’t post anything that bad guys could use to guess your password to this or other accounts. That means don’t post your pet’s name, your mother’s maiden name, your favorite high school teacher, your favorite color, and the like. Don’t make it quite so easy for would-be hackers.
Don’t Accept Every Friend Request
Social media encourage social interaction, so when you first sign up for a social network, you’ll likely be bombarded by friend requests from people you barely remember. You don’t have to say “yes” to all these requests; just because someone wants to be your friend doesn’t mean you have to let them. Be choosy.
There’s another reason not to blindly accept every friend request you receive. Some identify thieves like to create fake profiles in the hopes that people (like you!) will absent-mindedly accept them. Once in your friends list, these scammers have access to everything you post—which, if you aren’t that smart about posting, can include private information the scammer can use to gain access to this or other online accounts.
And even if they’re not crooks and thieves, don’t assume that your online friends are your real friends. I have Facebook “friends” who I barely remember from high school. There are things I’d share with my real friends that I’d never in my life imagine sharing with these Facebook friends-in-name-only. Remember, a real friend is one you can email or call on the phone, not someone who may (or may not) read the stuff you post on Facebook.
Unfriend People Who Aren’t Friendly
Just because you add someone to a social media friends list doesn’t mean that person has to stay in your list. If you find someone is posting offensive messages, hijacking the comments on your messages, or just annoying you with too many cat pictures, you can “unfriend” that person. (Unfriending is the act of removing someone from a friends list.) In fact, it makes sense to cull your friends lists from time to time, to separate the wheat from the chaff. You want your news feeds to include interesting posts from people you care about, not be full of junk that doesn’t matter to you.
Keep Your Contacts Private
Many social networking sites seek to help you add people to your friends list, by volunteering to sift through your email or phone contacts lists for people who are also on that social network. If you let a social network scan your address book or contacts list, the site might use this information to send advertisements (or advertisements disguised as “your friend likes” messages) to these friends. Not only are these fake endorsement messages annoying, they might be sent to people who are in your lists but who you don’t actually communicate with on a daily basis.
It’s best to keep your lists separate. Don’t give social networks access to your phone or email contacts. It’s not good policy.
Don’t Download Third-Party Applications
Some social media, such as Facebook, enable third parties to install applications that extend the functionality of their sites. The problem is that many of these third-party apps gain access to and use your personal information (including the names in your friends list) in ways you might not approve of. Some rogue apps may even steal your personal information, including usernames and passwords.
If you want to minimize your risk, don’t install third-party apps for your social networks. If you do find an app you like, read the reviews and ask around to make sure the app is legitimate—and not overly intrusive.
Don’t Play Social Games
Along the same lines, some of the social games available on Facebook and other sites can be extremely intrusive in how they access and use your personal information and friends lists. You really don’t want the latest game you played to post your score (or requests for extras or support) to all your friends’ news feeds, do you? While social games can be fun to play, they can also be the most annoying things you do online.
The ultimate solution is to not install or play any social games, period. (Good luck with that.) Short of this Draconian measure, you should examine the private policies and settings for any social game you want to play, and configure the settings in the least obtrusive way possible—or, if you have no other choice, avoid the game completely. It isn’t worth sacrificing your (and your friends’) privacy for a little gaming fun.
Configure Your Privacy and Security Settings
Speaking of privacy, most social media allow you to configure your personal privacy and security settings. This enables you to determine who sees what you post and how the site uses your personal information. You need to learn about and configure the privacy and security settings for the social networks you use.
Facebook Privacy
Facebook is the Internet’s largest social network. Learn more about Facebook’s privacy and security settings in Chapter 9, “Configuring Facebook’s Privacy Settings.”
Use Strong Passwords
When you create an account with a given social network, you create a username (sometimes your email address) and password. As with all online accounts, you want to make your password as secure as possible, to make it more difficult for bad guys to gain access to your account. Follow these tips to create more secure passwords:
• Longer passwords are more secure. An eight-character password is more secure than a six-character one.
• Combine capital and lowercase letters.
• Use a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters.
• Don’t use easily guessable words, such as your last name, pet’s name, your birthdate, and such.
• The best passwords appear to be totally random combinations of characters. (These are also the hardest passwords to remember, but still...)
Use Different Passwords for Each Account
If you have a Facebook account, Twitter account, and Pinterest account, create different passwords for each of them. If you use the same password for all accounts, anybody breaking into one of your accounts can gain access to all of them. (Similarly, don’t use your Facebook account to log into other social media accounts; keep each account separate!)
Install Anti-Malware Tools on Your Device
Since viruses and spyware can be spread via social media, it’s a good idea to install anti-malware tools on your computer or mobile device. And, while anti-malware protection is a good back stop, you also want to avoid clicking on links in posts that may surreptitiously install malware on your system.
Trust Your Instincts
If you stumble across something suspicious in your news feed, trust your instincts and don’t click that link or enter additional information. Don’t get suckered into scams that request money or information or anything else. Social media are no more or less dangerous than the other social interactions you have in the outside world; there are bad guys out there, but you can avoid them by using your head. As I said earlier—don’t be dumb!
Keeping Your Private Information Private
As you’ve learned, many of the potential hazards of social media revolve around personal information posted publicly. Since most social networks encourage you to enter some degree of private information about yourself (to facilitate more social interactions), it’s possible that some or all of this information won’t remain private.
Of first concern is the contact information you’re required or just encouraged to enter, as well as any personal information you have in your profile for a given site. This can include your email address, street address, phone number, and so forth.
Fortunately, most social networks give you the option of hiding most of this information. Facebook, in particular, includes privacy settings that let you determine who can see what information—everyone (public), people on your friends list, or just yourself. You should use the site’s privacy tools, discussed in Chapter 9, to hide as much personal information as possible from as many people as possible. And, of course, if such information is optional, you don’t have to provide it in the first place.
The other private information that may become public is anything you might post as part of your regular status updates—what you did last night, who you’re hanging out with, what you think of your family members or colleagues. These posts are typically public by default, which means that anyone can read them. As with your contact and profile information, however, you can employ the site’s post-specific privacy settings to limit who can see the information in any given post. In this fashion, you can avoid full public disclosure of your private life if you so desire.
Again, be smart about how you configure your privacy settings and about what you post. The tools are yours to use—it’s your responsibility to use them smartly.
>>>Go Further: How Facebook uses your Personal Information
When we talk about social media security and privacy, it’s good to look at Facebook, the Internet’s largest social network. What Facebook does, others often mimic.
Unfortunately, the news isn’t all good. That’s because the personal information you provide to Facebook can be used by Facebook in a number of different ways—not all of which are to your benefit.
For example, Facebook can use your profile information—age, gender, education, and so forth—to display targeted third-party advertisements on your home page. Facebook might also track the other websites you visit and serve you ads based on the contents of those sites. These targeted ads might be marginally more appealing than generic advertisements, but are still, at least to some, a violation of your privacy; Facebook uses your own likes and dislikes for the company’s benefit, to sell advertising.
Similarly, your profile information can be used for targeted invitations of various sorts. For example, Facebook might determine your interests from your profile data and invite you to play a particular game, use a certain application, join a given group, or add someone as a friend. These might be helpful invitations, but they still rely on the use of your private information.
It’s also possible that Facebook will sell your personal information to interested third parties. (Facebook’s privacy policy says it won’t sell your information, but these things change—and not every social network is as restrictive as Facebook is.) Once Facebook (or another social network) sells the data to a particular company, you typically receive one or more email messages advertising that company’s wares. This isn’t spam, but it’s still an annoying use or abuse of your private information.
Here’s the rub: All of these uses of your private information are perfectly legal, and you probably agreed to them—assuming you read the fine print when you signed up for your account, of course. This points out the necessity of reading Facebook’s terms of service before you sign up—and not participating if you don’t like what you read.
Beyond these legal invasions of your privacy, there are many ways your personal information can be used illegally. These illegal invasions of your privacy can result in everything from spam to identity theft; you can guard against them by limiting the amount of personal information you publicly post on the social network site.