Social media plays a majar important role in our day to day life. Websites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are the most common social networks used to connect all over the world. Over 2.77 billion social media users today, social media websites make a best platform for identity thefts. With huge database of users private information, the responsibility of social media networks to keep personal information secure.
Last week, news circulated regarding the most commonly used social media “Facebook” that stored information of “hundreds of millions” of account passwords and left them unencrypted also the passwords were seen in plain text and viewable to thousands of employees. If companies like Facebook have these issues, we can not rely on other platforms.
Millions of users fall victim to information breaches and identity theft. If you fall victim, it may cost you loss of personal data and information along with lots of stress. It happens when you let your guard down and depend so much on these social media platforms for your security. Online safety is not easy to do, but few ways can help you stay safe and secure on social media platforms.
Here are 10 ways to keep your personal information protected while still enjoying the benefits of social media:
1. Use a strong password and use a password manager
People use multiple social accounts for various purposes. Nevertheless, if your password is weak, your account’s security gets weak and insecure. Also, if you are using the same password on all of your accounts then all your accounts are at on risk.
Make sure to use a unique and super strong password for you every social account. Your password must have and should include numbers, words, upper and lowercase letters, and special characters. The more strong password you use its better for your security. You should change your password at least once in a month. Always try to keep different passwords for different accounts. If you are having a problem to manage your passwords, you can use password managers.
2. Add two-factor authentication for every social account for additional security
If you are using two-factor authentication on your accounts, it will add an additional security to them. When someone log in your account from new location, device or browser; you will be sent a one time pass (otp), 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 know as otp sent on your phone by the social media website. Many people think it's time taking, but if you are concerned about your security, you need to apply two-factor authentication for additional security on your all social accounts.
3. Setup security answers and update your privacy settings
All social media platforms gives you the option for privacy. But many people are unaware of its importance. Every user should explore, try and use those settings. You can also set up some security questions on your account. Instead of setting questions like “What is your mother’s name?” or “From where you are?”, set questions that are hard to think about.
4. Be careful what you share on your account
Avoid sharing personal information because your information, like your email address, phone number, and security number, is worth a lot of money to data mining companies.
Take a good look at your profile and try to keep them clean the people who need to know your birth date, email address and phone number should already have them.
5. Use a VPN Network
If you want to keep your 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 go through a secure tunnel between the websites and your VPN service provider.
If you are concerned about your privacy, you might think; how do VPNs protect my data ? As mentioned here “Even though all the data going to and from the customer to the VPN is encrypted, all the data being sent through the outgoing VPN server is subject to the regular rules of the wild internet.”
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