Legal, Policies, and Ethics - Security settings and privacy

Have you ever had a friend, or even yourself find out about a post that you did not post on Facebook or another social media site? Are you ever worried about someone hacking into your email and gaining all of your vital information? Social media and networking can be a scary place, luckily websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ (to name a few) have incorporated security settings to help prevent such occasions.
Trendmicro presented a couple of steps that I really like and will go over in this post.

1. Understand what information the site needs for your account and how they use it in the first place.

Never give more information than is necessary to operate an account. Try this sometime, go to Google or the search engine you prefer and type in your name followed by facebook or a hobby of yours and make note of what you see. You would be astonished at how much you can find out about someone. The more you give on a social media site, the more information people will be able to know about you. 

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2. Make sure that your posts are not indexed into search engines. 

·       Each social media site handles this in a different way. For example, you can use your Facebook settings to block search engine indexing, or on Twitter you can make your posts visible to people who follow you only. Go into your Facebook settings and block search engine searching. Now go back and use the same search as you did in point 1. Now what did you see? Did the amount of information decrease?

3. Remember to set all your posts private on Instagram so only friends can see them and, of course, be cautious of what you post on any social media site. 

	·       Just because you can post it doesn’t mean that you should. This is a big deal if you are planning on looking for a job or worried about a certain "social status." Now days employers search social media sites to see if you hold yourself to their standards. Be careful what you post online!!

4. Make sure that mobile apps for social media sites are not using personal data or sharing additional private information. 

·       You should also use caution when linking together different apps like Facebook and Twitter or news apps like Flipboard and Facebook. When was the last time you downloaded a game or app on a smart phone and it did not ask you to link the app to Facebook or Twitter? It simply doesnt exist anymore to not link your account. Some ways to go around this is to create a fake account, or in most cases the app will let you create a seperate account through the app instead of linking out.

The point I make about this post is that there are ways to protect yourself, as long as you are cautious and think before you do. Remember once it hits the internet there is a record of it somewhere. The HTTPS settings in Facebook is a really good way to protect yourself as well. It will keep the "hackers" out so the only person to make a fool of you, is you.

What are your thoughts on securities and privacy settings in apps and social media sites??

http://blog.trendmicro.com/social-media-privacy-settings-are-important/
http://lifehacker.com/5745086/why-should-i-care-about-https-on-facebook-or-other-web-sites