Is your Facebook a goldmine for criminals? Here's how to protect your profile
FACEBOOK has become a staple in many of our day to day lives, but is your Facebook profile a gift for cyber criminals?
Most of us make the easy mistake of including too much detail on our social media profiles, but there are some things which you really should not be flaunting on Facebook.
With rates of cyber crime on the rise, it’s more vital than ever that Facebook users know how to stay safe online, especially since social media can represent a goldmine for hackers, thieves and fraudsters.
Here are the 8 things you would be wise to delete from your Facebook profile, in order to crime-proof your page and protect your family.
1. Your birthday
Receiving all those ‘Happy birthday!’ wall posts on the big day may be nice, but it’s actually not a great idea to display your birthday anywhere on social media.
Whilst it may seem like a harmless detail, your birthday represents an important piece of information for identity thieves and fraudsters.
Along with your name and address, a hacker with your birth date could use the information they’ve seen on your profile to access your bank account or other personal details.
2. Where your children or young family members go to school
There should be nothing on your page about where your child is at any time, and it’s especially dangerous to share any information which could identify their school.
According to the NSPCC, police recorded the highest ever number of sexual offences against children in the past decade, meaning parents should be taking no risks when it comes to broadcasting anything about their children on social media.
Even proud pictures of your kids in their new school uniform could help predators identify where they spend most of the day whilst you’re at work.
Hackers and thieves can use any location information on your page to plot a break-in or steal your identity
3. Photos of your children or young family members
It’s not advisable to share pictures of your children on the internet, as you never know who might end up in possession of those pictures.
According to Victoria Nash, acting director of the Oxford Internet Institute, another issue is to do with your child’s consent.
She asks: “What type of information would children want to see about themselves online at a later date?”
4. Location Services
When using the mobile version of Facebook on Android or iPhones, posts can come tagged with your current location automatically.
This not only means that anyone who wants to harm you knows exactly where you are, but it can also alert burglars when you’re not at home – making your house the perfect target for a break-in.
Smart phones can automatically broadcast your location for all to see
5. Where and when you’re going away
You may be rightly excited about spending some time away from home, but you should never broadcast this on social media.
By sharing when you’re out of the house, burglars know when they can safely strike, and how long it’ll take you to get home and realise your house has been broken in to.
According to financial website This is Money, travellers who are burgled while they are on holiday may get their insurance claim rejected if they posted their holiday plans on their social media accounts.
6. Location Tags
When you tag yourself as ‘at home’, this can reveal your address to anyone who has access to your profile.
Giving away your address online is dangerous in so many ways – partly because identity thieves can use it to piece together your profile, and partly because absolutely anyone who wants to come knocking at your door now knows exactly where to find you.
Mobile apps can tag your location, meaning theives can find out when you're not at home
7. Your phone number
On a public page, revealing your phone number could prove to be a serious mistake.
Sharing your number with the world could lead to constant harassment if it ends up on a telemarketing database, or worse – if a stalker finds it.
8. Any credit card details
Hopefully, nobody out there thinks that this could ever be a good idea – you’re making things incredibly easy for thieves by sharing such sensitive information online.
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