3 Dangerous Mistakes You Make On Social Media Every Day

We all use social media on a daily, some of us even hourly basis. We all post bits and pieces of our private lives publicly each day, but we rarely pay attention to all the possible dangers that lurk in the shadows of popular social networks.

Sure, you are not as famous as Kim Kardashian and you don’t have to worry about your $6.7 million worth jewelry getting stolen, but social networks can be rather dangerous for us average Joes too.

In that name, here are 3 most common mistakes we all make on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest…

1. Sharing Your Location Via Your Photos

You probably have a Facebook account and you almost certainly like to post photos depicting your eventful and interesting everyday life, but what you perhaps don’t know is that whenever you post a photo online, it’s secretly tagged with metadata.

Metadata includes information about when exactly and where exactly your picture was taken.

In order to prevent this, you need to erase the metadata before you post your photo online. Simply turn off the Add Location option, and you’re good to go.

2. Trusting All Public WiFi Networks

The thing is that connecting to a public WiFi network is always a huge risk. Even at some of the most famous coffee shops or bookstores, you need to be extra careful when joining a WiFi network.

Every time you connect to certain WiFi, you are sending sensitive information over a public digital environment and you never know who is “listening”.

Cybercriminals can now:

• set up fake networks that appear legit
• sneak their way into already-secure public networks (like Starbucks)
• glean your sensitive info without you even knowing it

In order to prevent these breaches, you can start using VPN (virtual private network) every time you are using public WiFi on your laptop.

3. Oversharing

Ok, we all know how good it feels to let everyone know each time you are doing something cool, or how hard it is not to rant online when you are pissed off at someone or something, but there are certain things you don’t really NEED to share with the public.

Oversharing is a huge issue today and by posting provocative selfies, angry tweets, or even strong political opinions, you can do more damage to your reputation than can you imagine.

It is not rare that someone doesn’t get a job or gets fired because of some silly and, at a first glance, benign rant on Twitter or Facebook.

Plus, the more things you reveal about yourself online, the more vulnerable you are to scammers and cybercriminals.
Some things simply best kept private.