LAFAYETTE, La. ( KLFY ) — Being “private” on social media means keeping your profile private from other users, not the company itself. Because apps are constantly collecting data from our activities online, your private information can be made public without you even knowing it.
Better Business Bureau CEO Chris Babin said social media companies have a lot of information on its users, making those companies a target for scammers.
“They have a lot of information about you, and what scammers do is target those companies and try to get into their systems and breach into their data to get all of the consumer’s information that they have on file,” Babin said.
Information they have on file about you includes everything on your phone, from app tracking to location history. You agree to share this personal information when you accept the app’s privacy settings.
“The privacy protection, or the settings that you may have on your account or what the business promises when you sign up for an account on their platform, that is what’s in place,” Babin said.
Protecting Your Privacy: How businesses can protect employee and customer personal info “But that doesn’t mean that scammers can’t potentially hack through that and get beyond it. In some instances, businesses may sell consumers’ information, so, if that’s happening, you would want to know that before you sign up for an account with them,” Babin continued.
Scammers target social media sites to steal your information. They exploit weaknesses in the site’s digital security, as well as collect information that you freely post.
While we may think it’s not that valuable of information, information we share on social media puts everything in one place,” Babin said. “Scammers are typically looking in any place they can about us trying to add together and use the information they’re able to gather to go somewhere else and pretend to be us.”
To protect your privacy on social media, the BBB advises you to read social site’s privacy policies.
“A lot of times, if we read that, we may not be so eager to sign up for some of these applications,” Babin said. “Because our data, once we give it to these companies, a lot of times those privacy policies say that they now own that data and can do whatever they like with it.”
Eye on Scams: Social media scams The BBB also says to avoid oversharing online. Hackers can get information directly from you when you share personal information online, from playing quizzes on Facebook to posting confidential information like your child’s school.
“A lot of times you’ll see on social media these quizzes about the street you grew up on and your first pet’s name. Well, if you remember, a lot of times when you set up an account, they may ask some security questions in case you don’t remember your password down the road. A lot of times those quizzes are set up with what would be that same information, the street you go up on your first pet’s name,” Babin said.
“So, if they would try to access your account, maybe they have your email address, they’re not sure of the password; and they go to reset it, and they ask these questions that you just put in a social media quiz. They would have the answers to that and potentially be able to change your password without your knowledge,” Babin continued.
The Better Business Bureau Serving Acadiana also advises social platform users to use strong passwords and implement two-factor authentication on accounts and devices.
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