Most people would never consider walking into a crowded room and loudly broadcasting to total strangers all the details of their private life—from their health issues to their family and friends’ names, ages, jobs, or school locations. Ironically, these same individuals don’t think twice about posting that same information on social media. The ramifications of over-sharing can negatively impact not only you (personally and professionally) but also the lives of your family and friends. Social media is a great place to reconnect, share, and learn. However, just ensuring that your social media privacy settings are strong isn’t the only way to protect yourself. Once you post anything online, you have lost control of it. You need to understand what information is being collected and how it is used. 

Consider these privacy concerns before sharing personal information on social media: 

Unintentional Disclosure: The information you post about yourself may reveal much of your personal history and thus provide the answers to your online secret security questions. 

Artificial Intelligence: AI, social media, and marketing are the perfect combination of personal information sets. Marketers use the merged data they gather from your online habits to target ads that focus on your recent search or purchase and continue learning even more about you. 

Information Sharing: If a service is “free,” know that you are the product. Investigations have found that what you are doing online may be sold to others. 

Privacy protection requires far more than adjusting the standard privacy options available within your social media accounts. The more information you share, the more information that others share about you, the more information that will be collected and used by corporations, governments, etc. One of the best ways to protect yourself is to carefully consider and limit what you share and what others share about you, regardless of the privacy options you use. 

If you have questions regarding online privacy, contact the OIT HelpDesk at 865-974-9900 and a security professional will contact you. 

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If you have any questions about the topics covered in this week’s OIT Weekly, 

contact the OIT HelpDesk online or at 865-974-9900. 

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