The use of social networking sites at work and home via a number of devices like smartphones, tablets and PC seems to have evolved in a phenomenal pace. The fact of the matter is, the social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google +, etc. have become the part and parcel of the users’ lives. People are seen posting a number of information about them and communicate with others around the world via chat rooms, forums, internet groups, blogs and emails. The sites give you numerous opportunities to make new friends and expand your social networks but at the same time these could expose you to different embarrassing situations. The anti social elements like hackers, con artists, identity thieves and predators wreck havoc by extracting vital information from your social networking accounts. To play safe over your social networks, it is important to abide by certain security tips, which are given as under:

Securing with a strong password

Having a strong password but easy to remember can help you in cracking or hacking your social networking accounts. Avoid using your name or date of birth or any simple things related to your life since these are simple to try by the anti social elements over the web. Also, make sure you change your passwords frequently once in every 2-3 months. Always create unique passwords for different social networking sites. This will prevent in hacking different accounts with ease by the hackers or crackers.

Secure all your financial and sensitive data

Never post or give away your social security numbers, phone numbers, address, credit card numbers or bank accounts or any other personal information over these platforms. If you post these sensitive details over your social media platforms, these are simply to extract by the cyber criminals and hackers.

Customize your privacy options

The social networking sites often give its users an option of having better control in terms or privacy. Relying on the default settings provided by the social networking sites are not a wise thing, instead check the privacy settings and configure it at high level of privacy and security. You need to limit people and groups who can access different aspects of your personal information. For instance, Facebook has the broadest privacy options giving you better control on your privacy. It can even deter your friends, networks and groups to check even your basic information, pictures, posts and friends. Even in your searches you could gain a good control over your privacy factor. Keep on checking the privacy and security updates or settings coming over the popular social sites.

Be wary about meeting new people

Avoid connecting to people whom you don’t know personally. Do not accept friend request from people unless you are aware about the risks since it is difficult to judge people from their pictures or any other information. If you ignore talking to strangers even in public, there is no point inviting or accepting a friend request from strangers over your social networking sites. Every time you get a friend request from anyone whom you do not know then consider that you are dealing with a spammer. Avoid engaging to this person since even by responding to the person could allow him or her to access your personal info over your profiles. Hence better avoid such people completely.

Be careful about the apps

You could find a number of applications over different social networking sites especially over Facebook. These include games, dining, music, books, location apps, film apps, etc. that could be too tempting to try over your social networking sites. Many of these applications are developed by third party people and companies, which are external to the social networking sites. Hence there is no such assurance to a fact that these apps are simply giving you the fun and enjoyment and not extracting your data. Though some data harvesting is carried out for legitimate research and marketing purposes, however, some of these are simply done for innocent intentions. Yet you are supposed to be cautious while downloading or installing these apps unless you have checked its review at some legitimate source.

Avoid being click happy

The social networking sites are often full of flashy graphics, buttons, links and moving texts, which could be too tempting to click them. There could be some threatening malware or virus inside these innocuous kinds of ads. Hence better avoid clicking over these lucrative appearing links or ads as they could lead to any virus or malware attacks.

Final word

Social networking could be called as the biggest thing to hit the web since it incepted. The number of people involved in these platforms is staggering. Hence it’s quite obvious to see these sites inheriting dangers challenging your security and privacy over these platforms. At such junctures, the best way to secure over these sites is by following the above tips.

About The Author: Claudia is a writer/blogger. She loves writing, travelling and reading books. She contributes to Scott Dylan

 

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