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SPECIAL EDITION: Protect Your Identity Through The COVID-19 Pandemic

SPECIAL EDITION: Protect Your Identity Through The COVID-19 Pandemic

Apr 19, 2020
Uncategorized

Like many, you’re probably sheltering in place and staying safe from COVID-19. You’re finding that you have a lot of time on your hands and to pass the time, you often check your social media pages. As you scroll down your timeline you see a quiz that a friend recently took. It looks fun! So, you give it a try. To access the quiz, the application asks for your acceptance of the terms and conditions. You accept the terms and conditions without reading them. Of course, you do… who reads them anyway? Besides, your friend took the quiz and accepted the terms and conditions and so you trust your friend, right?

3rd Party Terms and Conditions 

Did you know that the terms and conditions of 3rd party applications often contain disclaimers regarding “information sharing”?  This means that by accepting the term and conditions, you may be giving consent to the social media platform (like Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chat, etc, etc) to share certain information about you with the 3rd party application. Information that you have voluntarily provided over time through taking past quizzes or playing games. As well as, they may share habits that you have shown by the clicks that you have made on certain posts over time.

Click Bait

There are posts on social media that are made for the sole purpose of getting users to click. Once a user clicks (or engages with) the post, the company behind the post falls in love with that user. You see, when you engage with a post, it fires what is known as a “pixel”. For the company behind the post or application, when a number of people click on the same post, they can then create an audience (from the pixel) that is made specifically from those people who “clicked”. This enables them to post something new to the same people (or audience). The chances are very good that this audience will click on the new post. This can repeat again, and again, and again, and again. Well, you get the picture.

Protect Your Privacy

Think about the “chain post” that you see from your social media connections and then posts from the same connections that read, “I’ve been hacked!”  There is a reason for them potentially being hacked; however, their social media page should be the least of their concerns.

These chain posts were (likely) not started by your friends. They read it, thought it was neat and reposted or shared it. Thus, the name “chain post”.

Chain post do look interesting, fun and yes, we can learn a lot about each other. So, can someone wanting to steal your identity. SERIOUSLY, look at some of the questions that have been in some recent chain posts.

  • What year were you born?
  • What is your mother’s maiden name?
  • What year did you graduate high school?
  • What city was your high school located in?
  • What was the model of your first car?
  • What was the name of your first pet?
  • What city were you born in?
  • What’s your middle name?
  • What’s your favorite color?
  • What color are your wife’s eyes?
  • Where did you meet your spouse?
  • What is your favorite month of the year?

These are just a few, and what’s frightening is… these are all common security type questions. Don’t answer them!

Social Media Settings

We highly recommend that you review your social media settings. For example, your Facebook settings. Ask yourself this question: Are you okay with the world seeing your profile, all your pictures and all your posts?  If not, then you should change your settings from Public to Friends Only. For more security, you can always set your settings to “Only Me”.

Think. Be Cautious. Be aware.

Our goal is to help protect our readers, followers, customers and clients. In this day and age of technology, you can never be too careful when it comes to protecting your identity. Since 2008, Credit Expert LLC has helped many clients fixed their identity after it was stolen. You can help yourself by thinking it through before playing a game or taking a quiz. Be cautious and be aware when it comes to clicking a link.

Stay safe and stay well!

Posted by Rick Mull Apr 19, 2020 Categories: Uncategorized

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