8 tips to stay safe and protect your privacy on social media
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Loading... - Adamu Suleiman
- 09 Jun 2022
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It is arguable whether social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and TikTok are real places but one thing is sure, they can be dangerous places. Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram are great places to meet cool people but there are also people who will try to violate your privacy and safety there. A report from cybersecurity expert Norton showed that 330 million people experienced cybercrime in 2021. On social media, harassment and crimes take several forms: threats, bullying, spamming, identity theft, doxing, and even account hacking.
Social media companies have a duty to protect you from harassment and discrimination and to ensure your right to privacy. In order to do that, they have set up some features that can protect you and allow you to control your experience on their platforms. This article will show you how to use them to protect your privacy and safety on social media.
Two-factor authentication
It goes without saying that you need to choose a strong password for your account: aim to create one that’s at least 10 characters long and has a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. And if you’ve had the same password for years that you simply use across all of your social media accounts, now is a good time to create a new one.
After you’ve chosen a strong password, you should use two-factor authentication (2FA) to add an extra layer of security to your account. Activating two-factor authentication will ensure that only you can access your account by requiring you to enter an additional security code after your password when logging in. You can enable these features in seconds.
Password reset protection
If you’ve been hacked or for some other reason are unable to access your account and are locked out of it, you can reset your password to regain access to it and anyone else from logging in with your old password.
This feature is standalone on Twitter. To enable it, log into your account. Tap your profile picture at the top left to open the sidebar menu. Tap Settings and privacy. Tap Security and account access. From there, select Security, then Password reset protection, and then check the Password reset protect box. This feature will ask you to confirm your email address or phone number whenever you need to reset your password.
Control who sees your posts
Social Media platforms have features that allow you to control who can see and engage your posts. On Twitter, there is a Protected tweets feature which ensures that only your followers see your tweets.
These settings allow anyone who follows you to like, comment or share whatever you post.
Turn off photo tagging
Have you ever been tagged in a group photo or selfie without your consent? Or maybe in a picture or video where you were doing something embarrassing. No matter the reason, photo tagging can be an unwelcome interaction and there are features on social media platforms that allow you to decide who can tag you in their social media posts.
Control your location information
It feels wonderful to flex your vacation at Seychelles on Instagram but you need to know that when you tell people where you are, you also let them know where you are not. It is a trend for burglars to target houses based on location check-ins. While you are out, thieving people who follow you online can drop by your house and cart away your belongings. Your location is private information and should be shared with caution on social media.
You can make sure your location remains protected information by disabling location services on your device. To do this on an iPhone, go to your device’s Settings feature and tap Privacy. Tap Location Services. Toggle Location Services to turn the feature on. You will see a list of apps, locate that you want to disallow from checking your location and tap Never. If you use an android phone, open your phone’s Settings app. Find Location and move the slider to On. Read More…
