Social Media is wonderful! We can say what we want, whenever we want and share it with the world. You can let your followers know what you had for breakfast and ask questions you can normally find the answers in the library. However, there is a point of oversharing. Let’s take a look at the Karadshian’s for an example. When Kim Kardashian flaunted her $4.49 million engagement ring on Instagram in October, thieves were tracking her down in her Paris apartment and stole her ring. Police are also warning the younger sister Kylie to stop posting her GPS coordinates on Snapchat because there is a fear that strangers will be lining up her front door. While this example is mainly for the stars and celebrities of Hollywood, this mistake could happen to anyone really. Posting vacation pictures or images of pricey gifts like rings, cars, jewelry, etc., is sharing information not only to your BFF from another mother, but it is also sharing the information to criminals and leading them straight to your home and valuables. One study found that nearly 80% of burglars use social media to plan their heists. Kind of creepy when you think about it, but there are ways to avoid it. Here are three main social media habits that we all might be guilty of doing, but instead it is leading burglars and criminals to our save haven instead.
- Including locations in your posts – When you post an update on social media, they will typically ask if you want to tag the location in the post. Twitter has an option to share your precise location when you make a tweet. This is BAD! Especially when you are posting at home, your GPS location is giving the criminals the address of where you are and where your valuables are stored. All that is next is they are waiting for a post that you are going away on vacation or taking a couple of days out of town. So first thing firsts, to solve it let’s take a look at your permissions. Make them viewable only by “friends” and not to the public. Yet however, sometimes that is not enough. If you’re your friend’s account gets hacked and compromised, anything you share to your “friends” will be viewable to the burglar now. As an added extra layer of security, make sure you don’t include your location. If you REALLY want to share with your friends that your toes are in the sand, post those pictures later. Let your friends know that it’s from a previous vacation and no, you are not pulling a Ferris Bueller and sipping a cocktail with Mickey Mouse and his friends at the current moment.
- Posting photos of expensive items – Even if you have the high-security update on your social media account that restricts locations from your posts, your photo posted from your iPhone may automatically contain geotags with your GPS coordinates. Major social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will stripe the location data from the phone, there are some sites like Tumblr that don’t. So if you upload to your social media account that you got a fancy new painting or that new 4K flat screen system with all the bells and whistles on it, you might as well have a neon light pointing on the item saying “Take me I’m free!” So the best option to keep you safe is to not post pictures of your expensive/valuable items on social media. However, if you have the urge to post it and you NEED to let your friends know, you should disable the option on your iPhone to adding the GPS location on your pictures. To make that edit, in the iPhone 6, go to Settings/Privacy/Location Services/Camera/Choose “Never”.
- Adding your hometown, birth date, and other personal details to your profile – Even if your exact home address is not on your profile, did you know some simple details like your hometown and workplace can make robbers use the information on sites like Intelius or Spokeo to locate where you actually are? Kind of creepy isn’t it? So don’t add your personal information like your birth date, hometown, and any other personal information. Even if your profile is private and is only view able by friends, your information can still be at a risk. Not only could your friend’s account could be hacked, but a burglar could create a fake profile and try to add you as a friend on social media.
The bottom line here is try to think twice before you make an update on your social media account. Do you want to make a road map to your home and let strangers know what they can grab from your home?
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