Location tags and daily routine
Regular check-ins at the same places show when you are at work, where you walk the dog and when your flat is empty. Share places after you have left.
Security
Security
Most trouble starts not with a sophisticated hack but with small things people post publicly themselves. A photo of a boarding pass, an answer to a playful poll about the name of your first pet, a check-in at the same café at the same time every morning: harmless on their own, together they add up to a detailed portrait.
Do not just check each post on its own; check what can be pieced together from all your posts combined.
How this section works: we describe the risks related to your own page in general terms. Other references cover fraud in general and device protection in detail; here the focus is on what you yourself publish about yourself.
Risks
Six habits that most often give away more about a person than they intended.
Photos of documents and tickets
Boarding passes, access badges and receipts can carry codes and numbers that reveal your personal details. Cover them before posting or simply do not photograph them.
Quizzes with personal questions
Games like "tell us your mother's maiden name and the first street you lived on" collect exactly the answers used as security questions for account recovery.
Reused passwords
If your social media password is the same as your email password or one from another site, a leak in one place opens every door at once.
Strange links in DMs
A message from an acquaintance saying "is this you in the photo?" with a link often comes from a hacked page. Check with the person another way before clicking.
Public friends list
An open friends list makes it easy to find your relatives and colleagues and message them pretending to be you. Hide it, at least from strangers.
The law and other people's data
In Russia, Federal Law No. 152-FZ on Personal Data, adopted in 2006, applies; other countries have their own rules. Put simply, it starts from the idea that information about a person belongs to that person, so you must not publish someone else's personal data without their consent.
Separately, Article 152.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation protects a person's image. As a rule, you may publish a photo of someone else only with the consent of the person in it. The simplest way to avoid mistakes is to ask permission in advance.
Also remember that what is posted online can survive in copies and screenshots even after it has been deleted. So the best moment to think about the consequences is before you press the publish button.
See also
- Trouble
Hacked account, your photo posted without asking, a hurtful comment, a fake page, a child posting too much: what to do.
- Settings
Settings found in almost every social network: profile visibility, close friends list, photo tags, login history, two-step login and archive.
- Guides
Step-by-step guides: how to write a status, choose a photo, set visibility, clean up old posts and agree on family rules. The article catalogue is here too.
- Glossary
A glossary of terms: profiles, privacy and communication on social media in plain words.
- Questions
Answers about this reference, about your status and profile, and about children and family rules on social media.
Sources
- Federal Law No. 152-FZ on Personal Data (Russia)
- Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Article 152.1
- Social networks' privacy help pages
Legal information is summarised in general terms from the official texts of the laws as of the preparation date. Social network settings and laws change over time, so check the help pages of the services themselves and the current versions of the laws.