How to protect privacy on social media.

The internet has brought many positive things to our lives; however it also brought a new risk. Learn how to protect privacy on social media.

In this era where we live in a globalized world; the Internet has become one of our main tools for the development of our daily activities; it shows social life, work, entertainment and many more aspects of our lives. This is why we are daily updating our personal information on the Internet and although this may seem to us to help us perform some tasks more quickly and efficiently; it can also bring very serious consequences to our lives. So it is always better to be very careful with the information we upload both as social networks, and the Internet itself. Therefore, it is recommended to pay more attention to privacy on social media.

Privacy on social media

Social networks today, for many people are a kind of repertoire of their daily lives; it is now normal that we share many of our activities through this tool, from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, and among others; it is very common that many users share much of their personal information there; reaching the point that it is even normal that people use them as a kind of blog or record of their routines and activities.

And although not all people make the same use of social networks; recently the number of people who have acquired fame and popularity among these websites or Apps has been increasing; and it is thanks to this popularity that they have gained subscribers and fans who. In addition to generating fame; have also given them a fairly easy and profitable way to generate income. So in order to entertain the fans many of these artists; better known as “Influencers” decide to share much of their personal information including their routine

Furthermore; not only are celebrities sharing their information on networks; most are ordinary people who with or without consent give their personal data to large social networking companies; so that thanks to this, many data about us and our private lives are exposed.

Espionage and social media

Although it is true that many of these companies take advantage of the permissions that we ourselves grant when we register on the social network or install their application; in order to access our data and basically spy on us; this represents one of the greatest risk factors to our privacy today.

But on the other hand; the most powerful blow to our privacy is ourselves who give it to them, by sharing aspects of our daily life in such networks; which can be accessed almost by everyone, so one of the biggest risk factors is that by not knowing the quantity or quality of people who can see our publications; it may be that when we share our location through a publication or a photo; we are directly contributing to a crime being committed against us; such as rape or kidnapping.

Dangers on social media

As we know; social networks are spaces where we can interact and exchange information with almost anyone around the world, that is, thanks to this tool we can meet people who would never be within our reach and although this may seem a great advantage, it also represents a great risk to our health and privacy.

To learn how to protect privacy on social media; the first step is to identify what are the main threats to it and thus learn how to prevent them. So first we must know that in social networks we can find all kinds of risks that affect our lives, not only our privacy; but also security, physical and psychological health and many other aspects that can be affected by social networks.

Although mainly; many risks are derived from the intrusion in our privacy, there are others that given the characteristics of the type of social network; it is almost impossible to prevent, so we must always be attentive to identify them quickly in order to act efficiently.

In this sense, among the most prominent are

Online harassment: This is one of the risk factors that registers more cases; although it mainly occurs among children and adolescents, this is a situation that can happen to anyone; and that is that the harasser through fear or intimidation can lead people to a desperate situation.
Phishing: This is also one of the dangers of the most well-known networks; in which cyber-crooks trick people into obtaining information such as passwords, bank details and others.
Malware: These are known as a malicious program that although its first appearances on social networks date back to 2009; today it still continues to deceive many users by offering services such as seeing who visits their profile on Facebook, attracting many people.
Violation of our privacy: This is one of the problems that has caused the most commotion lately and that has generated the most controversy, since nowadays it is not only other people that we face to defend our privacy but also the social networks themselves.

Tips to protect our privacy on social media

Since we already know how our personal data is used and how our privacy can be violated even frequently, it is best that we learn how to protect privacy on social networks. In this sense, one of the best ways to do so may be:

Limiting shared personal information
Be careful with permits and applications that request data
Be careful with GPS
Always check the conditions of use of the apps and networks, since we can expose our data without even knowing it
Be careful who you meet on social networks
Always keep in mind that when using a social network on an unknown device you must log out
Knowing the correct use of privacy options in publications
Beware of the type of advertising that is considered deceptive and the use of rasomware.

In conclusion, there are many uses of social networks and although they have mainly brought good things to our lives, they have also exposed us to many risks and infringed on our privacy, so it is important that we know both the advantages and disadvantages of social networks and at the same time know how to avoid these risks.