Think Before You Provide Personal Information

This post is just a warning to those of you who maybe just getting into using social media for your online businesses. This is also a reminder for those of you already involved with social media. Be careful what you post that you wouldn't want the whole world to know.

DO NOT BELIEVE THE HYPE

Have you ever logged into Facebook, Twitter or some other social media network and were hit with a popup asking you for your phone number to make your account more secure? Giving them your phone number is NOT going to make your account more secure.

Do not believe the hype. Do not be fooled into giving your phone number or even your home address to any social media network. Even though you will be able to block anyone from seeing this information or contacting you, you cannot block the networks from using it.

Facebook in particular have been pushing hard to get its members to provide their phone numbers for what they called Two Factor Authentication (2FA) security. But there were other reasons they wanted your phone number, that they didn't want you to know.

According to an article in Tech Times earlier this year, Facebook was/is using those saved phone numbers to send targeted ads to those members. Now that might not seem so bad, but what really can be done with those phone numbers is fairly unethical.

By associating a phone number with a Facebook account, the default setting for the 2FA allows everyone, EVEN THOSE WITHOUT A FACEBOOK ACCOUNT, to pull up a Facebook profile based off a phone number they submitted.

This new Facebook privacy data security scandal was started by an investigation by Twitter owner Jeremy Burge. Like many of the other scandals Facebook has had recently, they only admit their fault once they are exposed. So what does that tell you about privacy?

YOUR PRIVACY IS NOT GUARANTEED

Facebook and any other social media network can take your private information and use it in more ways that benefit them and others while making you more exposed. If they were not exposed, Facebook would have kept giving access to your personal information.

I find it ironic and a bit uneasy that not only was this latest Facebook scandal outed by Twitter owner Jeremy Burge, but now as seen in the above image, Twitter is asking its members for their phone numbers for better security.

How does anyone know that Twitter or any other social media network will be more trustworthy with your private information? Since you have no real guarantee of your personal information remaining private, your best course of action is to not provide any info more than your email.

Because once you associate your social media profile with your private phone number and or address, you will lose your claim to privacy. If you are like me and you haven't given your phone number, DO NOT DO IT! If you have already, you may want to delete it.

The best course of action is to NEVER give a social media platform your private phone number or address. They do not need it for security when they have access to you through your email address. What are your thoughts about this topic? Leave them below.