- 1). Carefully read the privacy terms of any social media website you use. Those documents contain a complete list of your rights to the information you publish on a social network. Users concerned about privacy and identity theft should read the Terms of Use carefully to fully understand how their information will be used and decide if they are comfortable providing it knowing the terms.
- 2). Configure your account to maximize privacy. Privacy settings vary from network to network, but almost all social networks allow you to specify which users or kinds of users can see certain types of content. You can, for example, keep users with whom you do not have a connection from seeing any of your information or make sure that certain types of information like updates or pictures are only sent to a designated group of friends or followers. Investigate your privacy options in the Account Settings options for your account in the network.
- 3). Omit any information you do not feel comfortable sharing with all the network's users on your profile. Keep your information basic and avoid excessive detail. Every detail can potentially be used by someone trying to gain information about your life for malicious purposes.
- 4). Provide a single way for network users to get in touch with you, such as an email or an internal network messaging process. Providing your full contact details encourages users to send you unsolicited information or provides potentially private information such as your geographic location as contained in an area code. You can send your close contacts additional contact information through a personal message.
- 5). Avoid publishing any type of sensitive information, including financial information, medical records or anything else that could reveal private information which you do not want all the network users to see.
- 6). Avoid posting a personal picture as a profile picture. In networks with picture uploads, you can use a picture in which you do not appear as a profile image and then include personal pictures in private folders or sections for your friends.
- 7). Provide a fake name. If you are extremely concerned about your online identity, you can open a profile under a fake name on most social networks. Just be sure to tell your friends about your online identity.
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