Beware What You Share! Social media sites are great for passing information, news and gossip, and we know that many of you are part of local community groups, sales pages, interest sites here on Facebook. Can we just remind people to be very careful what personal information they write in posts/comments on these groups and the photos you share, as recently we have noticed some people are unwittingly putting themselves at risk of crime and anti-social behaviour in these forums. Never give clues to where you live – not even a vague location – that photo of ‘dodgy parking’ taken from your bedroom window not only shows the ‘offender’ where you live if they are part of the group, but also everyone else if they recognise the street or local landmarks. Venting about piles of rubbish fly tipped outside your house in ‘Whichever Street’ makes your home identifiable – if you fall out with someone in the group at a later date do you want them to know where you live? When selling items like bikes don’t take pictures of the cycle on your driveway, make sure any items photographed indoors don’t show what other posessions you have, and never post your contact details – we know that thieves watch these pages to see who has what. Be careful about sharing your daily and weekly activities – if hundreds/thousands of people in a local group know that you go to gym class every Wednesday at 7pm because you recommended the class then they know you’re not at home, or where to find you. And we’re always surprised by how many people as willing to tell a large number of strangers when and/or where they’re off on holiday – you wouldn’t leave a note on your front door saying ‘No deliveries we’re away for a fortnight’ so why tell all of Facebook on an open group? Please be wary of sharing details about your children as well. It may be cathartic to have a rant about how unsupportive the teacher at the local school has been to ‘little Jonny’ in connection with him being bullied/forgetting his homework/deciding to dye his hair purple but it rarely does ‘little Jonny’ any favours having it aired in a public arena where his friends, enemies, teachers and other parents can see it. Most (but not all people) have their security on their profiles well managed, but can often forget that groups and pages are usually open to view by large numbers of people who they don’t know – please stay safe in cyber space because it helps to keep your safe in the real world too. Thank you.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 22:35:29 +0000
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