6 Things You Should Never Share
On Facebook
10 February 2012
Your birth date and place
Gives the thieves the opportunity
to steal the identity and key to stealing our financial life.
Vacation plans
There may be a better way to say
"Rob me, please" than posting something along the lines of:
"Count-down to Maui! Two days and Ritz Carlton, here we come!" on
Twitter. But it's hard to think of one.
Home address
A study revealed that users of
Social Media sites were at greater risk of physical and identity theft because
of the information they were sharing. Some 40% listed their home address on the
sites; 65% didn't even attempt to block out strangers with privacy settings.
And 60% said they weren't confident that their "friends" were really
just people they know.
Confessionals
You may hate your job; lie on
your taxes; or be a recreational user of illicit drugs, but this is no place to
confess. Employers commonly peruse social networking sites to determine who to
hire -- and, sometimes, who to fire.
Password clues
If you've got online accounts,
you've probably answered a dozen different security questions, telling your
bank or brokerage firm your Mom's maiden name; the church you were married in;
or the name of your favorite song.
Got that same stuff on the information page of
your Facebook profile? Are you playing games where you and your friends
"quiz" each other on the personal details of your lives? You're
giving crooks an easy way to guess your passwords.
Risky behaviors
You take your classic Camaro out
for street racing, soar above the hills in a hang glider, or smoke like a
chimney? Insurers are increasingly turning to the web to figure out whether
their applicants and customers are putting their lives or property at risk,
according to Insure.com.
So far, there's no efficient way
to collect the data, so cancellations and rate hikes are rare. But the
technology is fast evolving, according to a paper written by Celent, a
financial services research and consulting firm.
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