Who Knows You're Online?
Hey everyone,
Today's blog is about : Social Media Safety or Who Knows You're Online?
Instant Chat
It's inevitable. If you spend enough time online connected to others through social media, you are bound to be contacted by someone through instant chat. Maybe it's someone you know and trust within your circle of friends and network contacts and that's great. But maybe it will be someone you don't know wanting personal details about your life. All the lounge lizards of social media think it's perfectly okay to ask a complete stranger for personal details like it's nothing. Always remember that your personal life is your own and if you don't feel comfortable with the direction your chat is taking, you have the right to say so. If that person won't take no for an answer then you do have some recourse. You can block that other person, or in some cases report them.
Because Google Plus is connected to Google Hangouts, everyone in your network can see if you're signed in and online. By default your Gmail account is connected as well and so is your android phone if you have one. For myself, I have my gmail signed in pretty much all the time because that's how I roll. But a lot of the time it's my teenager who is actually using the computer when the lounge lizards start trying to get lucky. So it's not only my online safety to consider, but hers as well.
If you want to turn off "when you were last seen online" in Google Hangouts, you can do it directly from inside your Gmail account or by going to:
And clicking "Menu" then "Settings" and unchecking the box that says "Show when you were last seen online"
It's not going to block others from chatting with you. But it at least let's you move around on the internet while logged into Gmail without others knowing exactly when you are online.
Posting Your Personal Information Details
Ask yourself: is it necessary to post the following information online?
Birth dates, contact phone numbers, addresses, details of family members, education and employment history.
Only post what you feel comfortable with. Your private business is just that, private.
Friends and Followers
If you aren't sure how much you can trust the people in your online networks, then limit their access to your personal information using the account settings and safety features.
Revealing Your Location
If you aren't comfortable sharing where you are, then keep your location private.
All of us here at Wealthy Affiliate are learning to take risks and keep the faith while we are starting our online businesses. We are learning so many new things every day. At least I know that I do. For myself wrapping my head around social media has had it's ups and downs. Every account that I open has a learning curve and quite frankly I don't always know what I'm doing. But despite all that, social media is a must for a thriving online business. The more connected we are the better it is for our online growth, networking connections and our bottom lines. We are all connected nowadays and that is great for business but it shouldn't put us at risk in our personal lives. So keep on building your social media connections but be safe while you do it.
And if you would like to know how to block people on all of the most popular social media sites here is a good article to get you started:
http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/how-to-block
So that's it for today Lovelies,
Stay Cool...Stay Connected...and Stay Safe!
Thischick aka Lori
Recent Comments
58
This is a great reminder Lori, we must all think about security while online. A special secure measure for our Families is most important. Thank You Lori for sharing tips for Google hangout, Google+, Google etc....
Any time you are logged into a Google product you are by default logged into your email and Google hangouts. Hangouts should be a separate thing from all the other Google products in my opinion or at least give users the ability to opt out if they don't it.
Yes ma'am. I was logged in to Google Plus yesterday and a man started chatting to my computer using Google hangouts because it shows I'm online and connected. It was my daughter who saw the message. He was asking where I lived and if I was married. He's been blocked and I learned how to make it so that no-one on Google Plus can see when I'm online. That's why I wrote this blog. I had no idea that's how Google Plus worked until yesterday.
Thanks, I will dive into this, I do get questions like that on facebook too. I often am just a few seconds on social media, depart direct after posting my blog, just to avoid al those strangers
Hey Lori,
Great Blog post...and just at the right time as well. We can never tell when somone has something up his or her sleeve....and honestly, the majority of us folks online are very trusting especially when we start chatting online and have regular chat partners who claim to be who they are. Nonetheless, you have given us a great service by explaining how to turn of 'when you were last online'. I must add that if you are on Skype and that's on your laptop as well, it shows if you are online and sometimes we don't want to be disturbed while trying to finish up on an assignment or some content writing, so we can choose to indicate if we are online/offline/busy etc. I just make myself invisible...
Thanks again Lori....will go check if I have turned of that signal that shows when I was last online....
Have a great day ahead!!!
Blesssings!
Dan
Hi Dan!
Thanks for reading my post and your inspiring words. This blog just came to me while watching my daughter using the internet while I was still logged into my Gmail. Next thing you know some strange man is asking where she's located and if she's married. I know he was looking for me because of my profile, but you never know who could be at the other end of that profile. So I went in search of how to protect ourselves better from people like that and this post was born. Keep up the good work Dan and keep on being safe online :)
That is great thank you have to say I turned google hangouts off as all I seemed to get were men chatting and wanting to just know personal stuff
I know the feeling my dear...Google Hangouts makes me annoyed because it is such an invasion into my privacy. I don't chat with total strangers online but somehow men from Google Hangouts think it's okay to start asking the personal questions. Stranger danger my friend...stranger danger :)
Thanks for the tips. I have had strangers contact me on Google and I really did not like the encounters. So I have already turned my when I was last on google off and hopefully that will help. Thank you again Lori. One can never be too safe! Shelia
You are absolutely right Sheila. I made this post because not everyone will know how to protect themselves and their children online with social media. I'm glad you took the steps you did when you were uncomfortable. Not everyone does and then things can spiral out of control easily. Good for you my dear and thanks for reading :)
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Thank you Lori. This is very good information.
Tom
You're welcome. Thanks for reading and take care of yourself online :)