Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Some Safe Social Networking Tips

By Alex D White


There has been an increase in the number of individuals making use of different social media websites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Instagram. However, with the increase in the popularity of these websites, there has also been an increase in online criminals. Some of these criminals include hackers, identity thieves, virus writers and spammers. Therefore, to ensure that unauthorized individuals cannot access your account, it is advisable to be aware of some safe social networking skills.

Before joining any social network website, it is critical to evaluate the site. The number of social network sites available are quite many; hence, you will have a variety when you want to join any. Ensure that you evaluate these sites critically to make sure that you know how the site works and if the site ensures privacy of the information of members. Do not be too quick to register into any site just because it is the new one in town.

It is critical that you are aware of the kind of information you may have posted about yourself. It is very easy for hackers to either access financial accounts or other accounts and simply click the "forgot password" link on your account. They may then break into your social network account and answer the security question based on the information that you have provided on your account. Therefore, it is advisable to come up with your own security questions and be careful about what you post.

It is also important to be cautious when clicking links you get in messages from friends in your social websites. A few of these links could have several viruses. Many people might also have the ability to view your personal information once you click these links.

It is also important for one to be careful when installing extras on their site. Several social media websites allow third party applications that can enable you to do more with your personal page. In some cases, criminals may use these applications to steal some of your personal information. It is always important to ensure that you exercise some safety precautions when using any other program that you are downloading from the web.

You are likely to get very many friends requests once you set up your account in different social media platforms. It is advisable that you actually know a person before you accept them as your friend. This is to avoid scenarios where people create accounts with fake profiles only to use some of your personal information once you accept them as your friend.

Email marketing works by a company sending marketing information to different emails. Some companies may scan your e-mail address book in order to send information to these emails. You should make use of different approaches to ensure that people cannot access your email-address book.

Never trust a message that comes from a particular person and end up sharing important information. Hackers can be able to access the accounts of your friends and send out messages that may not be actually from your friends. Therefore, critically examine every message before replying to such messages. Being aware of some of the safe social networking tips will ensure that you have an easier time using social network websites.




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