From broadening the horizons of international communication, to allowing brands to market their products and services, to simply allowing individuals to stay connected with friends near and far, social media is somewhere that we spend a great deal of our time – and somewhere that knows a fair amount about us. Often without us even realising. But how much have you considered your data security on social media?
Since the dawn of social media, some corners of society have been suspicious of its intentions with personal data usage – and when GDPR came into force in 2018 and set specific rules for businesses and companies to adhere to, data security on social media was once again thrown into the spotlight.
2018 was also the year when emails – which showed Mark Zuckerberg proposing that developers should be charged for access to Facebook user data – were released. Of course, this was all hushed up and denied as having been put into practice, but the question still remains to this day: what data does our social media have access to, and is it safe?
Origin’s top tip:
Operating system updates may be the bane of your working life sometimes, and the chances are that you probably continuously delay them until ‘later’, but they are more important than you might think. They also hold security defenses against recently discovered threats, so delaying these updates increases the chance of putting your computer at risk.
What data do social media channels hold?
Have you ever found yourself browsing a specific website – perhaps fashion or gifts – and then found the next day that the exact shop you were looking at has popped up in an ad on your social media feed? This is called, quite simply, targeted, or re-targeted advertising and allows a brand or business to follow you around the internet and continue to show you adverts for things you have looked at in the past.
But what about that conversation you had with a friend about a holiday, which just so happens to appear days later on your Facebook feed? Social media knows a lot more about you than you think.
When you first filled out your profile, you provided basic information to set up your account. Every time you post a picture, like a post or a page, or check in to a new location, you are revealing more about yourself: your demographic, your location, and what you like to do. So, when an advert for your favourite holiday destination suddenly pops up, this is because you have most likely shown a preference for that location through your online activity in some way.
The crucial thing you need to know, is what happens to this data beyond the creation of an innocent advert?
Origin’s top tip:
Don’t send company passwords or confidential log-in information when using a public or unsecured Wi-Fi network. This happens much more than it should. Sometimes on a public network, there are hundreds of other users that, with the right equipment and know-how, could compromise your accounts and perform identity theft.
Is your data safe?
If you are one of those people who reads the terms and conditions of a platform or a company sign up form, you will probably see a note which states that they will never sell your information to a third party – ever. This is primarily a result of GDPR and is designed to put users’ minds at rest when it comes to the safety of their personal and financial information.
While these social media sites do not sell your direct data, they do however give advertisers access to insight about their target audience or target demographic – and they do this by developing targeted advertising tools which allow advertisers to get their marketing materials in front of the group which Facebook and other platforms deem to be the most appropriate audience.
It all still seems fairly innocent, right?
Well, have you ever heard of data scrapers? Because this is the part where you need to tread carefully.
These are the tools which individuals, companies, and organisations can build and specifically set, in order to find users that meet a certain set of criteria. An overwhelmingly alarming example of this in practice is groups searching for individuals who are wanted for a crime, often engaging in illegal tools to find evidence of where a person may be or what they may be doing.
Of course, in a real life setting, instances like this are few and far between – and are unlikely to occur for most people. However, this shows the extent at which innocent data and a few Saturday night photos can be used to reveal things about you that you don’t even realise are there.
By simply being on social media, you are revealing data to others. Of course, this level of data sharing isn’t all bad – there is some vital, fascinating research being achieved through the valuable and very legal sharing of data for academic and humanity research. But the next time you check into a location or share personal details with a social media site, just consider how you would feel if that information was made available to anyone outside your friend list.
Origin’s top tip:
When you sign in to a third-party website, such as at the checkout of an online clothing website or a forum to might frequent, you’ve probably seen the option to ‘sign in using Facebook’. Now, this may seem like a really convenient way to log-in, but beware that this third party website now has all of the data that you had on Facebook. If the worst happens, and you get hacked, remember that they can potentially gain access to your third party account too.
For more information on our offerings within social media, you can see our digital media section on our website. If you’d like to know more about data security on social media, you can contact our expert team.