Social networking websites

People use social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Twitter and Linkedin for many reasons. People use them to stay in touch with friends, make new friends or business connections and to share information and opinions about a range of topics. These sites let you share your personal information and opinions in profiles, updates, forums, chat rooms, email and instant messaging tools.

However, you need to be careful about the information that you share on these sites and how you protect it. While the majority of people using these sites are not threatening, people can use your information to embarrass you or damage your reputation. Criminals can use your information to steal your identity.

Steps to protect yourself when social networking

• Protect your accounts with strong, unique passwords. Never use the same password that you use for your email account. This reduces the chances of a hacker or even your friends logging in to your account without your permission. Have a different password for each social networking site so that if one password is stolen, not all of your accounts will be at risk.

• Never click suspicious links—even if they appear to be from your friends. Their accounts could have been infected with viruses or other malicious software. If you click the links that they post on your profile page or send in messages, your computer and account could become infected by malicious software too.

• Watch out for phishing emails. Emails pretending to be friend requests from social networking sites try to direct people to fake versions of these websites. These fake websites may contain malicious software that could steal your personal information and infect your computer.

To help protect yourself from phishing emails:

• never click on links in emails, even if they look genuine, and
• always type your social networking website address into your browser.

Any genuine friend requests will appear on your home page on your social networking site.

• Think about the amount of personal information you share online. Do not post information that would make you or your family vulnerable (e.g. your date of birth, address, information about your daily routine or holiday plans). This information can be used by criminals to commit identity theft. Adjust your privacy settings to control the amount and type of information you want to share, so that people you don't know very well can only see certain parts of your profile.

• Think before you post. The photos, comments, messages and wall posts that you share could be seen by anyone, and are not always removable if you change your mind. This includes information in your profile, on blogs and other forums. People often forget that people other than their friends might see the information.
  

Once information is online, it is not easy to remove it. Even if you remove the information from a site, saved or cached versions may still exist on other computers. Your “friends” could share your information with your boss, or even the media. Think about whether the information that you share now could harm you in 10 or 20 years’ time.

• Be wary of strangers. People are not always who they say they are. It is a good idea to limit the number of people you accept as friends. If you are “friends” with people you do not know, be careful about the amount of information that you reveal and don't agree to meet them in person. Use your social networking site’s privacy settings to limit their access to your information.

• Check the sites’ privacy policies. Some sites may share information such as email addresses or user preferences with businesses, which could send you spam. Also, try to locate the sites’ policies for handling referrals to make sure that you do not accidentally sign your friends up for spam.

Further information

For more information about how to protect yourself when social networking, visit the help sections of your social networking sites.

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