Importance of social media privacy settings

The fastest and most popular communication pathway being used today is social media. Most of us who post on social media want to share the information about our day to day lives with our friends and relatives and if you want to share information with a lot of people at once, social media is an easy way to do it.  While Facebook and other websites can be great for sharing information, people often forget to consider who may end up seeing the information they post on these websites.

Many people do not limit the information that they share to just their friends.  Failing to set your privacy options properly can result in your personal information ending up in the hands of people you do not want to see that information. For example, people do not consider that this information may get revealed to their employers that may affect how they are viewed.

Say someone is looking for a job and they apply at a large company. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google allow employers to get a glimpse of who you are outside of a resume, cover letter, or interview. It is more than likely that a company is going to look into that person’s social media to get an idea of who they are outside of what they put on the resume. Like posting a few pics after a night out are appropriate for you friends to see but may not your boss. Having your privacy settings correctly set up means that your information can be filtered exactly how you want, and co-workers don’t need to know any more than what you tell them.

You should regularly check the privacy settings on your social networking sites and should consider what information should go where. Your private life should stay private!