Facebook Inc’s unofficial mission is to make the ‘world more open and connected’, says the company’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. Still, there are limits to how open one should be on the social networking site and while you may take pleasure in sharing status updates and photos, some nuggets of information should just never be shared.
Someone is definitely watching your moves on Facebook. In particular, stalkers, employers, journalists, criminal investigators and insurance companies have been notorious for scanning through Facebook profiles for bios or accounts of the series of events that make up an individual’s life.
While it is comforting to let Facebook well-wishers to know your birthday, think twice before posting your exact birthday. Revealing your exact birthday is like dishing out your financial security to thieves. Indeed, studies have showed that scammers can reconstruct passwords or PINs by using birthdays and place of birth.
Making your home address public also allows people to know where your live. This could have negative repercussions. Similarly, refrain from posting status updates that reveal when you will be away from home. Also, avoid publicizing your vacation dates. For instance, there have been reports where assassins have used Facebook to target users who said they were at home or attending certain events.
Incriminating, illicit, racy or raunchy photos could cost you your job since even deleted photos could haunt your years later. Facebook serves stored or deleted photos for unspecified length of time. It is also possible that someone who accessed a photo and saved the direct “URL from content delivery partner” may still have access to the photo.
Also, watch where you post your cellphone number. Sharing your number even on Facebook Pages could be costly as it gives stalkers an added advantage in achieving their ends.
Equally troubling are incidences of Facebook account hackers known to put users at risk for identity theft or fraud. Identity thieves are also known to use child’s name in captions or photo tags. Mostly, scammers may use your child’s name and date of birth to reconstruct your passwords and PIN.
Despite security measures such as safeguarding private info with “Friends Only” setting, there is a likelihood that you ‘friended’ an individual whom you barely know or never met before.
