Social media, Facebook and Twitter marketing have become important tools for business and individuals alike. Anyone who is serious about their career will be using these websites and social networks to increase the amount of people they reach, and to increase the amount of exposure they have in the market place. The internet has never been a safe place, and taking measures to protect ourselves will mean more than software security measures. If you have been affected by the easyjet data breach, Keller Lenkner an help you make a no-win, no-fee easyjet data breach compensation claim.
In this article, we look at ways your privacy is probably being breached, in one way or another, outside of the protections that Facebook is offering you. This article is not an attack on Facebook, or any other social media site, it is a look at how criminals and other individuals are using Facebook and other social media, with malicious intent.
Reputation Damage
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It doesn’t take much thought on how easy it can be for someone to damage your reputation online. If you have a single image of yourself on Facebook, for example, even a completely closed account to those who are not your friend, will still show a large enough image of your profile picture. That image can be screen dumped and used to impersonate you on other profiles, using your same name, and similarly named email accounts. Using tools such as Google Alerts should be common practice for everyone. If you don’t know what it is, get inside Gmail, and find out how to use it. For other security alerts, visit https://www.fortinet.com/products/email-security.
Identity Theft
Those in the business of identity theft are getting very cunning and sophisticated. We are not talking one or two hooligans attempting to abuse your credit card, we are talking about sophisticated and highly structured organisations, which are stealing massive amounts of money from superannuation funds and investments around the world each year. They spend the time to research and get to know their targets well. They gather information slowly and carefully. Are you sure all those in your network are really your ‘friends’?
Applications
How many applications have you allowed access to your Facebook account? There are many applications that do little but start collecting data on you, your friends, what you are saying and what you do online. The most common of these applications are the ones the promise tracking and evaluation of who has been visiting your site. There is not one single application that can do that, and they are all just applications that spy on you and your network. Do you know what and who is behind what is going on with that information? Do you know what is going on with all the information by games and other questionnaires on social media?
This article has barely scratched the surface on what is really going on without our knowledge through social media websites. You should employ tools to research and analyse those in your networks, monitor your online details, and that of others, and if you want to retain security, you should never enter your real birth date into any social media site, whether you keep it private or not. If you are serious about protecting your life, career or business online, you should speak to the professionals in SMM and SEO. They know how to monitor, manage and control online information better than anyone else.
About Brandon Leibowitz
