How Much Brits Value Online Privacy on Social Media?

We've increasingly started living much of our lives online. Social media has made it possible for us to connect with each other, and has even made us more productive.

According to research, Britons spend 1 hour and 20 minutes each day on an average of four social networking sites. Though this figure is slightly lesser compared to stats from the rest of the world, but still represents a considerable amount of time spent online.

Britons are increasingly concerned about their right to privacy, yet are giving away huge amounts of personal data on social networking websites, inviting the bad guys to come and get their hands on data that could potentially be worth millions of dollars.

Social Media Privacy Concerns

Many would remember when a security row broke out over the new head of MI6's appearance on his wife's Facebook profile. This was because cybercriminals usually flock around social networking sites, always in search of an opportunity to steal personal information, spread malware for future attacks and defraud unsuspecting users.

In fact, terrorist organizations including ISIS and Taliban use the platform on a daily basis to gather intelligence reports, promote their propaganda, and recruit people to their cause. Military chiefs agree that these organizations gather 80% of their intelligence reports from social media.

Here are only some of the privacy issues social media users may be confronted with if they are not careful:

• Facebook Likejacking: Using intriguing posts often referencing current events to trick users into clicking on a malicious or phishing link.
• Rogue Apps: Which could lead to spam, phishing or malware via Facebook
• Facebook Chat Attacks: Which can spread malware via unsolicited links and promote phishing apps
• Spammy Tweets and Malicious Twitter Links: Representing a major threat to micro bloggers
   

Privacy and Social Media

In this scenario, what can you do to safeguard your social networking and privacy against identity thieves and malicious organizations? The following tips will help you do just that:

-) Don't post too much personal information

Always remember that the cyber world is a shared public place. So, you should only share information that you are comfortable sharing with strangers. Refrain from posting any information about your address, bank account, daily schedule or your routine on social networking sites.

Also, make sure that the combined information related to you and shared by your family or friends is only visible to trusted people.

-) Evaluate your Social Media Settings

Most social networking sites today have custom privacy settings for the benefit of the user. It is highly recommended that you take advantage of these settings and use them to restrict unwanted people from accessing your information.

Others might still be able to peek into your privacy, so as recommended above, try not to post too much private information.

-) Use Strong and Complicated Password

You cannot imagine how dangerous it is to use a single set of password for all of your social networking accounts. Even if one social networking site gets hacked, the hacker can use your acquired password to access all of your accounts. The best practice is to use a different password for each social media account.

Also, you must always select a complicated password that comprises alphabets, numeric and signs. Plus, make sure to use 2FA authentication whenever and wherever it is available.

-) Beware of Third-Party Applications

There are too many third-party applications available on the internet asking access to your social media profile. It is always better to ignore any such requests from these applications and keep access to your profile limited to yourself.

Conclusion

The current state of cyber world is not as safe as people might believe. Considering the fact that Britain is rated higher on the list of countries having social media privacy issues, Britons should exercise extra caution in order to keep their privacy on social media intact.

The importance of a VPN, like PureVPN in this regard cannot be emphasized enough. As they say, precaution is better than cure, and in the context of social media, being invisible to the bad buys is as good as being  protected.