Writers: With online trackers, spambots, data leaks, viruses, and hackers hiding in every nook and cranny, protecting your online identity, information, and social media accounts has never been more important. The Internet experts here at Web Design Relief have a few tips and best practices you can use to protect yourself and your online presence.
Smart Tips And Best Practices To Keep You Safe Online
Use Two-Factor Authentication
This is something you should set up on all of your social media platforms and devices. Most of the major social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. have some sort of two-factor authentication protection available to create a second barrier to entry into your accounts. By integrating with your smartphone, tablet, or personal email address, these social media sites can authenticate that you are the user—rather than someone posing as you. Here’s how to set up two-factor authentication on Apple and Android devices.
Create Complex Passwords
This might seem obvious, but many people don’t do it, preferring to use passwords that are simple and easy to remember. After all, no one will hack YOU, right? Wrong. While it might be easier to remember something like Password1234, it doesn’t do much to protect you, your privacy, or your personal information. To more effectively keep your author website and social media safe, create passwords that have complex (sometimes nonsensical) combinations of letters, characters, and integers. A password like AA2714jolp!!$% may be harder to remember when you’re in a hurry to check out cute kitten videos and the latest tweets on your social media accounts, but it’s an important line of defense in the ongoing battle to protect your information.
Review Your Security Settings
Every smart device and social media platform has fairly comprehensive security settings to help protect you and your information. Checking and reviewing the settings on each site you use can help you guard against hackers accessing information you don’t want them to have. Since the big Cambridge Analytica leak, Facebook has upgraded its privacy settings tenfold, giving you more comprehensive control over who—and what—can see your data. You can even set limits on what posts and details the individuals on your friends list can see. As a result of the Facebook leak, many other social media platforms implemented large privacy overhauls as well. A best practice is to always check your security settings and stay updated about new changes and additions.
Change Your Password Often
The average social media user rarely updates his or her passwords or tends to use variations of the same password over and over. This has the potential to create a huge breach in your online security. No two passwords should ever be the same, and as mentioned earlier, every password should be a complex combination of letters, symbols, and numbers. Using the same or similar passwords for all your accounts leaves you wide open to spam, data loss, and hacking. To be extra secure with your social media platforms and online privacy, you should change your passwords at least every two or three months.
Check Before Logging In With Or Linking To Social Media Accounts
Many times you’ll come across apps or websites that ask you to log in with or link to one of your social media accounts. While Social Login may seem like a convenient way to log in and out of apps, it could also provide access to your personal information via those platforms. Before allowing an app or website to use your social media account as a login, be sure to check what they will be accessing. Some will ask for an email address—others may ask for access to your friends, birthdays, and more.
Question: Do you think social media platforms provide enough security for their users?
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