Reducing Identity Theft Risks Associated With Social Media

(NAPSI)-Today’s communication technology—namely social media-gives us more ways to keep in touch, but it also makes us more vulnerable. It’s important to proactively protect your privacy and your identity.

Here are a few tips from the insurance experts at HUB International on how you can reduce your risk:

• Reduce access to your personal information. Don’t make it easy for identity thieves by sharing your home address, birth date or phone number online.

—Enter your name in search engines to find out what information has been posted about you. Contact these websites to determine if your personal information can be removed.

• If you participate in social media sites like Facebook, customize your privacy settings. Allow only Friends or Friends of Friends to see your profile. For maximum security, set your sharing settings to “Friends Only.”

—Ask your friends not to post photos of you or tag you in photos without your permission. Tagged photos that include your first and last name can be found by anyone looking for you on Google or other search engines. Be sure to remove your last name from any tagged photo and use privacy settings to restrict who can see photos of you online.

—Avoid playing online games or answering quizzes on social media sites. These programs may access the personal information in your online profile. Your risk of identity theft increases if your personal information is shared with third parties or accessed by a hacker.

—Think twice about posting your travel plans. Do you really want everyone to know that you are out of town and that your home is unoccupied?

• Lock out hackers and online thieves with anti-virus software, and if you have children, install an adult content−blocking program.

—Children are especially vulnerable, so insist that they never share personal information online with strangers, including their name, age or address. Use privacy settings to restrict who can access and post on your child’s website or profile page.

—Explain to your children that the content they post online via computers or mobile devices may remain on the Internet permanently.

For more tips on how to protect your privacy and your children and reduce your risk of identity theft, visit www.hubIDsecure.com.