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The Risks of Oversharing on Social Media

Staying safe and keeping private on the Internet

In a world where 3.8 billion people own a smart phone; facial recognition and finger print scanners are the norm, and laws regarding digital data are constantly evolving: privacy is everything.

Yet at the same time, most people feel comfortable on the internet. Many of us now have grown up with it being integral to our day-to-day lives. It’s in this comfortability that we can sometimes be ignorant of the immortality of our digital information. Like the physical world, there are real risks that come with ‘oversharing’ in our digital communities.

People share, or ‘post’, online every day for all kinds of reasons: to connect with others; to disseminate information; to share concerns and to engage with the wider world. Some find a sense of community online; sharing views and opinions either with family, friends or people you’ve never met before. Others just like to show off a bit and let everyone know that they’re having the greatest time of their life. While there is nothing inherently wrong with any of those reasons, there are always factors that you should consider before you share anything online.

Exposing Your Location

Seemingly obvious, though often overlooked: displaying your location online. It may be superficially harmless – you might want to let everyone know you’re in Dubai living your best life – but exposing your location can have serious implications if you haven’t taken precautions.

If you have loose privacy settings and regularly post on social media with a tagged location, you could be building a map of your day-to-day life for anyone online to view and make note of. If you regularly take photos or videos at home and post them online, you could be putting your house items on display for potential thieves viewing; now imagine they know when you leave the house too!

Unfortunately, the internet can be used for nefarious purposes and there are many a horror story to be read; even photos of you and your loved ones could be used by cyber criminals to commit identity theft (but that’s a post for another time). So if you, a partner or your child are posting your location regularly, it might be time to check those privacy settings or better yet, move to a digital space you can trust with your information.

Be careful who you interact with; oversharing could give hackers all the information they need to get into your digital accounts.

Posting Distasteful/Unprofessional Content

Often, we post so much online that we forget a lot of what we put out there. As we get older (and wiser in most cases) our opinions, lifestyle and standards often change.

The difference between real life and the digital world is when you physically do something embarrassing or say something you would later regret, its often forgotten about (or you can do your best to not have it brought up!). This is not the case digitally. In some form or another, that data can live on forever; whether you clicked that delete button five minutes or five years later.

It’s not uncommon for employers to go through perspective employees social media accounts to see what sort of person they may be hiring. Wouldn’t it be a shame if you lost out on your dream job because your mate posted an embarrassing video of you online? Or your perspective employer saw that tweet you made sharing something best kept private?

The simple hack to not becoming a victim of your own making? Don’t post anything silly online and don’t let anyone tag you in anything without reviewing it yourself! And if you really want to upload the photos of your best mates stag do, upload it somewhere your data is encrypted and truly protected like Iternal.

PSA: Posting Harmful Views

No one likes a bully in real life and the same goes for the digital world. Like real life, there are laws designed to prosecute producers of hate speech online. Be mindful of others and respect each other’s differences; you can make incredible memories from new, shared experiences.  

What Do Your Privacy Settings Look Like?

Attention to privacy settings cannot be understated. Poor privacy settings could lead to all manner of unwanted situations, from undesired visitors; fraud; hacking and worse. Most major platforms will allow you to privatise varying aspects of your account, be it your content; displayed information or even your profiles visibility in searches. This can typically be found in the settings of your account.

Strong privacy settings can help limit the capacity for oversharing it’s true; however, who or what stops those same platforms from profiting off of the digital data you accumulate? Unfortunately, not a lot. It’s usually in the terms you accept when you create an account, leaving you fairly powerless against them…

Not with Iternal.

Here, you can share and upload the moments that really matter to you without having to worry about your privacy or data ever being exposed. YOU decide who sees and shares those memories with you – whether they’re written, filmed, photographed and/or audio-recorded – with our personalised privacy settings giving you the power of choice.

Unlike other services, Iternal will never sell your data to third parties, and you won’t be pestered by advertisement; this is entirely about you as an online user and a safe space for your families and friends to share the memories that life’s beautiful adventures gift us.

So if you’re not already signed up, what are you waiting for? It’s a free service (the first thirty uploads are on us) that’s easy to navigate so everyone can get involved! With a promise of data-encryption, complete privacy and to never to sell your data, there’s never been a more secure way to make sure your life is documented in the way you want. Get on board and #ShareYourStory on #Iternal

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