Like Erica in the movie “The Social Network” says “The Internet‘s not written in pencil, Mark, it’s written in ink.” She meant that whatever is written on Internet is permanent and cannot be removed easily. Social Media makes it fast and easy to share just about anything.
Not only can you post this information yourself, many other sites can ask for permission to share it on your behalf. It can become viral and no one can actually track the original source and block it. In today’s digital age, it’s more important than ever to protect your safety and privacy online. Below I have mentioned 7 important things you should NEVER share online, and make sure
1. Videos of Other People’s Children
Videos of kids are fun, adorable, and occasionally downright hilarious. While you can post videos and pictures of your children at your discretion, you should always use care with other people’s kids. This applies to both your own home videos and videos that you see in your feed. Just because a parent posted a family video for her friends and family, doesn’t mean that she wants you to repost it for a bunch of strangers. Always ask the parent for explicit permission.
2. Spam Posts About Social Media Policies
It’s very unlikely that you’re going to find out about a new and important Social Media policy via a spam-like post. These warnings are usually totally unfounded, such as the rumor that circulated stating Facebook would become a paid site. Your posts are also an insufficient way to protect your rights. One post claimed that putting it on your wall would protect your rights on Facebook. Always check these posts’ validity before sharing.
3. Work-Related Complaints
Complaining about work on a Social Media site is a bad idea all the way around. The laws about what employers can and can’t fire you over are still fuzzy, so it’s best to play it safe. Posting about blatantly inappropriate activity like calling in sick when you’re well or having a workplace affair could definitely leave you unemployed.
4. Vacation Details
Posting the exact dates of your vacation is as good as advertising that your home is empty and unprotected. Share the details of your getaway when you’re back.
5. Your Birth Date and Birthplace
Criminals can find your social security number with just your name, date of birth, and birthplace. If you must share your birthday, keep the year private. Best of all, let your friends prove their true loyalty by remembering your birthday without email reminders.
6. Pictures You Wouldn’t Want Your Boss or Parents to See
If you’d be mortified for your dad to see you in that bikini, or you wouldn’t want your boss to have a visual representation of how many Jell-O shooters you can handle, keep these photos off of social media sites. You never know where a computer-savvy enemy may be lurking, ready to copy and share.
7. Your Location at Any Time
Posting your location is risky business, and many smartphone or tablet pc apps want to do it. Foursquare, Instagram, and even your Facebook and Twitter apps have options for posting your exact location in real-time. This lets predators know where you are and what hot spots you frequent. It also lets potential burglars know when your home is empty and vulnerable. Even if you think that you have the best laptop with latest security features, when it comes to online sharing, the security of your family and you is in your hands.
There are privacy safeguards on social media sites for your protection. By all means use these, but also be careful of what you share, keeping in mind that you never know what someone else may choose to pass along.
Really an informative one, have to implement these things especially finding which friends are loyal by the birth day dates.
Thanks for the post.
Very informative for fool public.
My point of view – Things like Personal Photos, Videos, Emails,Bank Account details such as Credit Card information should never shared and post online
Hello Schatman,
You posted very important topic for teenage guys who always addicted for social sites like FB, Twitter which is not good everytime. I think, this things I never consider in my life. I will remind this topic while updating any post on social site.
Great point you have listed by the above post. These are the really basic things, which one shouldn’t share online. Worth reading.
Thank you, Chiranjeev. Glad you agree.
hi Shaun Chatman,
excellent article, absolutely agree with your #1,
So many times I find my personal pictures re-posted and even uploaded by some of the so-called friends without my permission. We all know what happens next – I complain and the user gets banned.
Imagine this happening to a marketer with so many fan pages etc. getting blocked and entire facebook marketing going down the drain.
Good to see you raised this issue, hope people will be more responsible in the future when dealing with facebook and the rest of the social media.
Cheers!
Hi Uttaron,
Glad you liked the story. I definitely agree with you. A few safety precautions, or a common sense approach to everything online, will save everyone a lot of trouble in the future. It is a dreaded scenario for any marketer to realize all those years of hard work will go down the drain because of a single, careless mistake. Thank you for your insights!
You didn’t mentioned girfriend’s photo!
Ya all mentioned things are right. We should take care during social networking so that it does not effect our private life.
Hi schatman,
great post, This is really seriously great post to lean about social media. Actually I do follow tips related to this post. I don’t share my some personal details on social media networks like my birth day & vacation details etc. Anyone can catch & come close in life by just sharing this. so I don’t prefer to share.
Thank you for reading it and for your insights, Christina. What you are saying is 100% true. There is no need to share anything other than what is necessary.
These are some of the common mistakes we do online. Staying secure it very essential and cover us from imposing online threats. Thanks for the heads up.
Thank you, Vishnu; I am glad you feel the same.
Smart man Schatman excellent post.
What do you think about these clowns putting sings in their yard that says “gun free home”
Thanks, Darrnell. I just fell off my chair at the question, but if this is not going to lead to a gun control debate, then I must say that is pretty dumb 🙂
This is definitely for girls who share cute babies pics and all their personal details online.
Very true, and every new netizen should follow them, So many of my friends who don;t have at least minimum knowledge about social apps got some troubles.
Thank you, Sai. Glad you agree.
These are very useful info for the people like me who is always share information without knowing the vulnerability.
Thank you, Samer; better safe than sorry!
You are absolutely right, Jan. Kids and teenagers, two vulnerable segments that need to be protected through education and involvement of parents
It is really a very good reminder for us especially to kids. We should really always be careful everytime even on internet. So please think twice before sharing any personal thing online.
Specially girls should read this post if they want to safe online :/
True, Deepanker, and I think parents, especially of young and vulnerable girls and boys, have a huge role to play here.
Hi Shaun! Nice article! I will try to not to share the above things. But you forgot to add one thing, it’s blog’s traffic stats and earnings 😉 BTW, thanks again for the article! Cheers! 🙂
Thank you, Hari, but I am not sure what you mean by blog stats and traffic here. Glad you enjoyed it!
All these points are very important before a month i don’t believe on these things that we shouldn’t share these kind of information but when my yahoo account hacked then i realize that i was wrong. All these shared points are very important but i like these points “Your Birth Date and Birthplace”, “Pictures You Wouldn’t Want Your Boss or Parents to See” and “Your Location at Any Time”. I think my account hacked with the help of my birth date and birthplace, there were a lot of important emails. Now i am very careful about it and create a lot of securities on my account.
Jessica, thank you for sharing your experience. This will help readers realize why we ABSOLUTELY SHOULD NOT SHARE personal details online. Thank you!
True, Tanmoy, it IS in our hands. Rakesh, everybody learns the hard way, buy when once learned, one should not forget the mistakes made.
Nice article ! Cyber security lies in your hand just keep it safe!
I do have the same feelings man but newbies commit this types of mistakes and later on complain.
Hey Shaun You are right that people sometimes unknowingly share a lot of things they shouldn’t.Very Nice article to keep in mind while sharing on the internet.Keep up the good work
Thank you for reading, Joel. All the best in your efforts!
Many People especially girls share their private photos on social sites and after that some cheap people use them on their adult or abusing pages or sites which sometime cause very serious problem to an individual so I think you have written really an amazing informative post and the thing to take care is not just reading this post but also apply this in practical life..
Shivani, that is the thing I hate most. Girls,especially in their teens, are the most vulnerable.
One of the main reasons behind the internet abuse and attacks is carelessness of individuals. You have summed up every possible point to be aware of online privacy and concerns. This was really informative and is worth sharing!
You are absolutely right, Karthik. Thanks for the kind words.
Hi Karthik,
You are absolutely right, and it is up to each one of us to protect our privacy. Thanks for reading the post and for your kind words.
True. Most of the people hit the share button without even thinking once about the consequences of the material they are sharing.