What are the privacy concerns related to social media?

Common Social Media Privacy Concerns

1) Data mining

Scammers use data mining for identity theft. They do not need much data for that. Actually, publicly available information on social media can help them successfully target victims. Scammers can get email addresses, usernames, phone numbers, and physical addresses quite easily. With this data, they can send phishing scams or gather more information like leaked passwords or credit card numbers.

2) Data breach

If a company is hacked, customers’ social media data is one of the first data to be stolen. People provide a lot of personal information on social media which could be used for malicious purposes. As in the case of data mining, scammers could use this information for phishing scams or could try to gather more information to perform more serious online crimes.

3) Third-party data sharing

Many social media platforms are in partnership with third-party services and share user data with them. While it allows the integration of different services, it also creates significant privacy risks. Users often grant permission to share or sell their data to these third parties even without knowing it. When signing the Terms of Services agreement or accepting cookies, read carefully what you are signing for.

4) Privacy setting loopholes

Social media accounts often are less private than users think. For example, if you share something with a friend and they commented on it, the friends of your friend can also see the information you shared. Your friend could also repost the information you shared on social media, and it will also become available a completely different people. Even closed groups are not completely private since group members could repost your content, postings can be searchable, etc.

5) Location settings

User location paired with personal information can provide detailed information to a user profile. Scammers can use this comprehensive data to physically find and target users or collect more digital data. Even if social media users turn off their location settings, scammers can get device’s location by other means such as public Wi-Fi, cellphone towers, and others. If you care about your location settings being tracked, always turn off the GPS location services and browse through a VPN.

6) Harassment and cyberbullying

Defrauders can send threatening messages, perform harassment, or cause emotional trouble even without getting into users’ social media accounts. Publicly visible inappropriate comments on social media accounts are one of the forms of harassment. Cyberbullying includes sharing negative or harmful content about persons on social media platforms.
Doxxing is a form of cyberbullying and involves sharing harmful content about persons like revealing a person’s address, phone number, or personal photos to cause harm, embarrassment, or humiliation. They also encourage others to harass the person online.

7) Fake information

Social media can be used to spread false information or propaganda quickly. Trolls and bots often provoke social media users by manipulating emotions. They can also create a fake account or advocate for a person by posing as a person. It has also been used for harassment, or cyberbullying. Most social media platforms have content moderators or procedures for how other customers could report fake information, but it takes time for posts to be marked or deleted. You should always check information before resending it or making conclusions on social media.

8) Malware and viruses

Malware and viruses can spread through social media platforms. They can steal sensitive data, infect, or slow down users’ computers. Cybercriminals can take over the social media account of a user and spread malware to the affected account of the user and all the user’s friends.