Social Media Privacy

The Danger of Oversharing

We live in a world where sharing every detail of our lives online feels normal. However, scammers use your public social media profiles as a treasure trove of information to steal your identity or craft highly convincing phishing attacks against you and your family.

When you post a photo of your new car with the license plate visible, check into a restaurant in real-time, or complain about your bank on Twitter, you are handing scammers the exact puzzle pieces they need to impersonate you.

3 Settings You Must Change Today

1. Lock Down Your Profile Visibility

If your Instagram, Facebook, or X (Twitter) accounts are set to “Public,” anyone in the world can see your photos, your friends list, and your location.

• Go to the Privacy Settings of every social media app you use.
• Change your account visibility from “Public” to “Private” or “Friends Only.”
• Regularly review your “Friends List” and remove anyone you do not personally know in real life.

2. Hide Your Friends List

Scammers frequently use a tactic called “Cloning.” They find a public profile, download the profile picture, and create a brand new account with the exact same name. They then look at your public “Friends List” and send friend requests to your grandmother or aunt. Once accepted, they message your family pretending to be you, asking for emergency money.

• On Facebook, go to Settings > Privacy > How People Find and Contact You.
• Change “Who can see your friends list?” from Public to “Only Me.”

3. Disable Location Tagging

Posting a photo of your expensive new TV while tagging your exact home location is an invitation for burglary. Posting that you are checking into a resort in Hawaii tells the internet that your house will be empty for a week.

• Turn off GPS tagging for your camera app so photos don’t secretly contain coordinates.
• Delay your posts: If you want to share vacation photos, wait until you are already safely back home before posting them online.

The Security Question Trap

Have you ever seen those fun Facebook quizzes that ask: “What is your stripper name? It’s your first pet’s name + the street you grew up on!”

Do not answer these. These viral posts are often designed by hackers to trick millions of people into publicly revealing the answers to their banking security questions (e.g., “What was the name of your first pet?”, “What street did you grow up on?”). By commenting on the post, you are giving hackers the exact information they need to reset your bank password.