Why you should use caution with Facebook posts

Facebook quickly zoomed to become the most popular social network website and has maintained this top position since 2009. Today,  membership has soared to over a billion users located across the globe. Millions of people log into the network each day to share comments, photos, news and play games, to name a few activities. Posting Facebook status updates are one of the most common features used on the network. Unfortunately, it can also lead to loss of identity, property or worse.

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Using Facebook status updates

Many Facebook users frequently and routinely use to communicate with their family and friends. And why not? It's a convenient an easy way to tell people what they are doing or just share random thoughts, allowing others to comment on the status and/or spark discussion. Through this, conversation can begin to flow which often leads to a lot of shared information.

There are some people who use the Facebook status box constantly throughout the day. Every time they leave the house to go to work, on vacation, eat at a restaurant, see a movie or anything else the person plans for the day, some Facebook users tend to tell everyone on their network what they are doing or planning to do either verbally or thorough check-ins and other geolocation methods.

When does it get to the point of over-sharing personal information? The reality is, pretty quickly.

Dangers of posting too much information

There are many potential dangers associated with these kinds of status updates. Due to the highly interactive nature of Facebook and, depending on privacy controls set, any information listed on the status can be seen by an awful lot of people. If you sit down and really think about it, do you really want everyone knowing your house will be left empty for an hour, a day or a week? What about personal information regarding family? And you figure, unfortunately, there are stalkers out in cyberspace who use many of Facebook's features to get the info they want. Not to mention ID thieves who are happy to take your personal information to the bank, literally.

While true friends and family would never think of breaking into a home they know is empty or using personal information to commit theft or other risky act, what about all those long ago classmates or strangers met through Facebook interaction? How well do you really know them now? The person may be helpful in tending to your Facebook farm (ok, ancient example but you get the point), but would they exercise the same level of care in real life?

If you think about it, chances are you probably don’t know your third grade best friend anymore than you’d know a stranger on the street. Just because you could trust them to carry your bubblegum in elementary school, could you still trust them with your personal property or information today?

Use caution

People change over the years and the fact is, while chances are most people are genuine, there is likely a percentage that are not.  Or a friend of a friend gains access to information not meant for them, but sees the comment on a status exchange because they have access to another party’s profile. Plus, with search capabilities, if privacy settings are not used, strangers could simply do searches based on location or other attributes.

In a segment showcased on the popular Good Morning America show in 2010, a Facebook representative advised viewers to:

“Pick your friends just as carefully on Facebook as you do in real life and use the privacy tools to restrict more sensitive updates to your closest friends.”

Even though this quote is a bit dated, in 2018 it is still very good advice. While the network advises people to exercise caution, realistically, they've designed the site in such a way it feels "small town" and it seems people often forget they are talking to a broader audience when they post. Plus, there is the fact that when Facebook does updates or makes changes, occasionally privacy settings are reset without the user's knowledge (it's happened to me). It's always a good idea to visit your privacy settings on a routine basis to make sure all is set the way you want them to be.

People have actually gotten robbed or had their identities stolen after unsavory people got hold of too much personal information through Facebook (and other social media) status updates. Sharing is caring, but oversharing often leads to trouble in today's online-centric society.