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Social media is a great tool for connection and conversation, but only when you are sharing information on your own terms. Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to the user, you may be providing info to others that puts your privacy at risk — even if the messages you post are ambiguous. Privacy Expert Caleb Chen from Private Internet Access spoke to SHEFinds.com about the one social media mistake you should avoid at all costs in order to protect your privacy.
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The risks of exposing your data and private info while using social media might turn you off so much that you wonder whether it’s even worth the hassle. But Chen reminds us that there is a lot of good in social media sites — as long as you also keep in mind that what you post can have real-life consequences, particularly when it comes to providing information about your location.
“If you post in real time while you are on a vacation in another country, if there are any burglars following your social media feed, they might be able to infer that your house is empty,” Chen says. “Similarly, if there are any stalkers following your social media feed, you could be the one tipping them off as to where they can stalk you. The thing is, most people try to keep burglars and stalkers from following them. If your social media profile is public, they might not even need to be your follower to get this information.”
Chen says some options to mitigate this kind of "IRL" risk from constantly advertising your location to the public are to only post after a vacation is over, to post on a delay, or even to purposefully mix up the order of events that you're posting. “Of course, leaving out the location is always an option, but just posting pictures on social media can often leak information about your location, too,” Chen says.
Sharing your location not only leaves you more vulnerable to the behaviors of other users; it provides the social media app with a way to profit off of you.
“Another type of risk that happens when you share your location on social media is that that information will be used to target ads towards you,” Chen says. “Depending on the social media platform and if you're using it through a mobile app and what privacy settings are enabled, the social media company might know your location (and pass it on to advertisers) even if you don't make a single post.”
To better protect your privacy, you can turn off location on each social media app that you use. But turning off location for photos and videos on your phone is also a great idea.
On iPhone you can do this by opening Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Camera > Tap “Never.”
If you have an Android, go to Settings > Personal > Location Access and turn off your location.
“There are lots of privacy considerations to keep in mind when posting on social media; however, a bit of common sense can make sure that you're doing so without putting yourself at unnecessary risk,” Chen says.
