Online Privacy Concerns

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Today more and more people are online; in fact, the internet has become intricately woven into the very fabric of our lives. From online shopping to job applications there is very little that does not involve online access, which brings up some very valid concerns about online privacy.

Precautions

Most people know that protecting your information online is important, that is why you may have extremely long passwords that you change periodically and good firewalls and anti-viruses on your home computer. These are all great ways to protect your information and online privacy, but have you considered privacy concerns with online social media sites?

Related Post:Private Social Network

Facebook, MySpace and many other social media platforms have become quite popular as a way to connect with family members, meet new people and share. However, do you know who you are sharing with? Privacy tools have improved over the years, but the chance of complete strangers accessing your photos, home address and much more still exists.

Alternatives

How can you protect yourself online? Here are a few helpful tips:

• Change your passwords frequently
• Do not use easy to guess passwords such as popular catch phrases or personal info
• Check the privacy settings on social media sites on a regular basis (monthly, preferably)
• Never use more than basic information for online profiles
• Never log in to sensitive personal accounts over Wi-Fi or at a public location

If you are still concerned about online privacy but want to connect all your family members, the local soccer team or even your business colleagues there is another option, private social media. Today Priveyo provides all of the above with a safe and secure mobile app that is perfect for any organization. Share information, content, pictures and much more over your very own private social network and never again worry about who is seeing your posts or viewing your pictures.

Related Post:Can a Privacy App Contribute to Safer Social Network Usage

Final Thoughts

Online privacy is an issue everyone should be concerned about. Identity thieves and criminals of all types are notorious for using the internet to locate their next victim. Thankfully, when it comes to social media you now have another, more secure option readily available.

Related Post: Safe Social Networking: The Role of Apps

Tips for Improving Your Social Media Privacy

So many people fail understanding the importance of good social media privacy. Customization and tweaking the online privacy settings of a profile is the key to better and safer social media usage.
Here are several things you can do to easily increase your social media privacy.

Limit Profile Visibility

Regardless of the social network you are using, you should be limiting your profile visibility. All of the websites give you opportunities to determine which information is private and which can remain public.
It is very important to keep your address, your employment information and other personal facts private. Sharing such pieces of data with the entire world will increase the risk of becoming the victim of cyber stalking or crime.

Avoid Linking Different Social Media Profiles

You can use your Facebook profile to post updates on Twitter or Instagram. There are other possibilities for social network profile linking. Disable this option, if you are interested in maintaining your social media privacy.
You can limit update visibility on one of the social network but as your updates are automatically posted on another website, you will be giving people access to information that should be available solely to a particular group.

Turn Off Geo-Tagging

Social media privacy has been threatened seriously by geo-tagging possibilities. Many social networks allow you to add location to your photographs or to check in at a particular location.

If you are concerned about your online privacy, you should keep information about your location private. Go to your profile settings and disable geo-tagging for safer usage of the website.

Be Careful about Adding Social Networking Apps

Each social networking app that you install gives the developer access to some of your private information. Be extra-careful and pick apps developed solely by reputable companies.


There should also be possibilities for controlling the amount of information you are sharing with the application developer. Go through the list of your apps every now and then and remove any social networking app that you are no longer using. This way, you will be limiting the number of companies having access to your information and thus improving your social media privacy.

Main Reasons to Start Using a Private Social Network

Even if you use a good privacy social networking app, it is still possible to experience an online privacy breach as a result of standard social media usage. The private social network is a wonderful alternative. Here are some of the main reasons to consider joining a private social network.

Privacy

As the name implies, this kind of social network guarantees your privacy. You get to decide who becomes a member of the network and you have full control over the content that is being shared.
There are certain things you cannot post for everyone to see on Facebook, for example. Tweaking the settings to make sure you are sharing with a particular group of people can be a cumbersome task. As a result, many people experience online privacy problems.

The Ability to Customize Content Sharing

Content sharing customization is much simpler for private social network members. There are fewer commercial interests involved in such projects, which means that the members have a lot of control.
You will be sharing solely with the people that you invite to your network or with a particular group. The content is limited and not available for the whole world to see. Achieving the same effect with traditional social networks will demand a lot of work and research for choosing the right privacy social networking app.

Niche Interactions

Private social networks tend to be highly specialized. Members benefit from this feature because they are interacting with similar-minded individuals.

General social networks can make you lose a lot of time and effort going through the content that dozens of people have shared. You will have to use filters, in order to get to the posts that you are mostly interested in. The private network is developed for a particular group of people. All the members will share similar interests, which increases the effectiveness of the communication.

Control Over Ads and Content

The private social network will be free of provocative or irrelevant ads, as well as sponsored content.

Dealing with all of the marketing messages that traditional social media contain will be cumbersome and annoying. The private social network protects you from the attempts of companies to gain your attention. The environment is safer and more conductive to an interesting conversation. Adding better privacy to the mix determines the superiority of the private social network.

The Best Ways of Managing Your Social Media Footprint

Social media privacy is a legitimate concern but so many people forget about it. Is your social network behavior 100 percent safe? Can you show your profiles to potential employers without feeling embarrassed? Controlling your social media footprint will be determining for your safety. You better start tracking your digital footprint today!

What is a Social Media Footprint?
Social media footprint or digital footprint is all of the data that is left after your uploads and interactions with other people online. The digital footprint can severely compromise your social media privacy.

A social media footprint traditionally consists of:

• Uploaded photos
• Uploaded videos
• Public profile information
• Discussion group and community participation
• Blog posts and social network notes
• Social network profile information

The digital footprint can be either positive or negative, depending on the information that you upload and the manner in which you adjust social media privacy settings. Being in control is crucially important. There are certain things you should be doing in terms of decreasing the amount of publicly available information about yourself.

Google Yourself
To assess your online privacy, perform a simple Google search of your name. You will quickly gain access to the most prominent parts of the digital footprint.

See what the world is capable of finding out about you. If you come across embarrassing pieces of information from your college years, you will have some work to do.

Adjust Public Information Settings
For a start, adjust the public information settings in all of your social networking profiles. Figure out which bits of information you want to keep personal and which ones you are willing to share with the world. Installing a social networking app that manages your posts and updates is an easy and efficient method of controlling data sharing.

Go Through Your Friends List
Your list of friends is another cause of concern. Many people add social media “friends” without knowing these people in real life. Giving such individuals access to your personal information is really risky. They could be stalkers or they could use the information to harm you. Go through your friend list every now and then and remove the names of people who should not be there.

Remove Inappropriate Old Posts
Deleting all embarrassing old posts is going to be time-consuming but the step is essential for the creation of a positive digital footprint.

Many people start using social networks during their teenage years. At this time, social media privacy is far from the main priority. As you grow older, your online behavior will change. This is when you will have to start dealing with the mistakes you made in the past.

You should have full control over your digital footprint. Though editing is a cumbersome task, it can bring you numerous benefits. Think about the kind of image you want to create for yourself and begin building this kind of footprint today.