In continuing with our National Cyber Security month theme, I have been searching for a list of ways one can better protect themselves as a social media user. The number of people who fall for social media scams is in the hundreds of thousands. We all must be more aware of the dangers of social media.
With technology issue education part of the crux of our coalition, Wired Wisconsin is dedicated to the philosophy that with greater technology growth, comes greater responsibility.
The National Cyber Security Alliance gets it right with their tagline, “Our Shared Responsibility.” This tagline articulates one of the most important messages when it comes to online security—as social media users we have responsibilities to act conscientiously when posting stuff on our own profiles and our Friends, our Tweeple, our Links–you get the idea—profiles as well.
People use social media for a variety of reasons—some personal, to check in on their friends and family, and some professional—finding a job or networking.
Take a good hard look next time at what you have posted on your connections’ profiles—would you want YOUR boss or mom or business contact to see it? If it’s questionable, i.e. “but we were at a wedding; having pictures with people drinking is par for the course, right?!” Nope. You are better off not posting it at all—save yourself and your connection some face and eliminate those, “Please delete this photo. My boss would kill me if they saw it!” emails and calls by choosing to not post anything that might get someone in trouble.
Back to ways to protect yourself while using social media…
This CNN article provides a great list of things that for most users should land squarely in the “I know I should be doing that but I haven’t because X (fill in your choice of excuses)” category. But in any case, they are good reminders and opportunities for “I told you so’s” in the future.
How to protect yourself against social media scams:
- Change your passwords frequently
- Adjust Web site privacy settings
- Be selective when adding friends
- Limit access to your profile to contacts you trust
- Disable options such as photo sharing
- Be careful what you click on
- Familiarize yourself with the security and privacy settings
- Learn how to report a compromised account
- Use security software that updates automatically
(Information provided by FBI and Internet security experts)
One thing that I often see are the sites that allow you to sound off about bad service, a bad
vendor, or a hopefully good experience. Social media allows us to review and post our opinions
and comments to blog posts, service establishments, hotels, books, etc.
While this helps when the comments are good and glowing, and even makes it real if there are some
people who just not satisfied, there are instances where the reports are just not true and are
damaging to reputations and companies. We should all think very carefully about the extended
consequences of a review we post on such sites. Are you really trying to hurt a business owner or
are you just anxious to have your needs met? Have you tried in at least three or more ways to get
the attention of the company, its owners and customer support staff to have your issues resolved?
What happens when the problem comment / review is untrue? I am not talking about authentic
unhappiness, but the more vindictive abuse of such freedom of speech that could take place. Often
the business cannot get the directory or posting site to remove these comments. I have know
business owners who have deleted an account due to the nature of a malicious post within a
directory. They have felt that the good comments on the page are do not outweigh the damaging post
they can't remove.
I also recognize that when someone really does get "conned" or "ripped off" our system today does
not always react quickly enough to prevent the same scheme from happening to someone else. I
worked for a company that was conned by a telemarketing company scheme. The better business bureau in the state made one phone call and posted nothing. Several companies had posted details of their experiences and warnings on Ripoff.com. Aside from all out social media blast, you have to consider if its worth your effort.
The point is think about your reviews of businesses and make sure you have exhausted all avenues for satisfaction of issue before you post negative comments.
Wendy Soucie
http://www.xeesm.com/wendysoucie
Comment by Wendy Soucie — October 21, 2009 @ 6:46 pm