Many of us share a
ton of personal information with others via our Facebook profiles and
timelines. Could any of this information be potentially harmful if it fell into
the
wrong hands? The answer is yes.
Let's look at
several pieces of personal data that you may want to consider removing from
your Facebook profile.
1. Your Birth Date
"Happy
Birthdays" are nice and all that, but listing this tidbit of information
helps would-be identity thieves gather one of the 3 to 4 pieces of the puzzle
they need to steal your identity. Is helping your friends remember when your
birthday is so they can leave an impersonal "happy birthday" on your
timeline worth having your identity stolen?
If you absolutely
can't stand not having your birthday out there for your friends to see, at
least remove the year to make things a little harder for ID thieves.
2. Your Home Address
You're taking a
pretty big risk by listing your home address on your Facebook profile.
If you "checked
in" somewhere while on vacation, thieves will know that you're not at home
and they'll also know exactly where to find your house since you listed it in
your profile.
Don't rely on
"friends only" permissions to keep your address safe from harm, as
one of your friends may have left their Facebook profile logged in at a shared
computer in a library or cyber cafe where any stranger could potentially view
your profile from his/her unsecured account. It's best to leave your address
completely out of your Facebook profile.
3. Your Real Phone
Number
Much like your home
address, your personal phone number could potentially reveal additional
information about your location. If you want your friends to be able to get a
hold of you via telephone, consider using a free Google Voice phonenumber as a go-between so that you can route incoming calls to
your "real" phone number without
giving that number out.
You can find out
detailed information on how to use a Google Voice number
to protect your identity by checking out our article: How to Use GoogleVoice as a Personal Privacy Firewall.
4. Your Relationship
Status
"It's
complicated", what does that even mean? Well, your stalker might think
that it means they have the green light to resume stalking you since you
changed your status from "in a relationship". It may also help creepy
folks using the scary Facebook Graph Search tool
to find you as a potential target for their affection.
Is this something
you would feel comfortable divulging to a complete stranger? If not, just leave
it out of your profile altogether.
5. Work-related
Information
You may be very
proud to be an employee of company XYZ,
but that company may not want its employees to put company-related info on
Facebook. Your innocent status post about how excited you are to be working on
an upcoming product or project might give your competitors an edge if they are
trolling social media searching
for competitive information.
If you have your
company information in your profile, then you may be seen as a representative
of that company, and your boss might not appreciate that association,
especially if you've posted an embarrassing drunken photo with you wearing a
shirt with your company's logo on it.
In addition to
leaving the above information out of your profile, you should periodically
review yourFacebook privacysettings to see if Facebook has changed any of your settings to
something more public than you are comfortable with. Check out our Facebook privacysection for more helpful information.
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