People are increasingly worried about their privacy due to new technology, but ironically, they’ll announce their every move on Facebook. It’s not surprising because we all want to be noticed, and Facebook is the narcissist’s best friend. However, there are plenty of hackers and marginal friends out there who would love to gather up all that personal info you like to share and use if to create a false identity. You willingly give up your privacy with Facebook.
Think about it. You post a few dozen pictures of yourself. You post your kid’s picture. You document your whereabouts, and you unwittingly give clues about yourself that make it super easy for a savvy hacker to figure out your passwords. Narcissism is the best friend to identity fraud. Very few people can come up with twenty different random passwords and commit them to memory. Most of us create those keys to our privacy from things that are significant to us. An honest person can figure out when your birthday is, who your best friend is, and when your kid was born. You posted it on Facebook!
Once the hacker’s in, he can pretend to be you and get even more information. Would you be suspicious if someone who posts on your wall often were to message you and ask for your mailing address because they want to send you a Christmas Card? An indentity fraud criminal will get just about everything he needs in your profile settings. While he’s pretending to be you, he’s going to poke around and see which one of your friends he can hack, too. Even creepier, this person could actually follow you around in person because you’re telling everyone where you’ll be partying on Saturday night. If you like to post drunken pictures of yourself, you’re setting yourself up to be more than a victim of identity fraud.
Facebook users need to use common sense and be more protective of their personal information. That’s everything from phone numbers to where they go to party.