Social networking has everyone sharing the most intimate details of their lives on the Internet and anything seems to go. While it’s relatively safe to share photos of your friends or family, there is definitely other personal information that you don’t want to share with the world. The people at insure.com warn that you should heed their warnings if you don’t want your insurance cancelled or if you don’t want to pay higher rates on insurance plans. In addition, you could also put yourself at a higher risk of getting robbed if you aren’t careful about what you put on websites like Facebook, Twitter, or Myspace. Read on for what personal details you should leave off of your pages:
- Your birth date and place. If you provide these simple (and seemingly harmless) details about yourself, you’re basically giving thieves the key to figuring out your social security number.
- Vacation plans. There is no better way to invite robbers to your home than posting an announcement that you’ll be away for a week or two.
- Home address. This is pretty obvious.
- Confessionals. You might hate your job, your boss, or lie on your taxes, but these are bits of information that you want to share with the world on your social networking pages. It could get your fired, or worse.
- Password clues. Online accounts always ask you to answer security questions before logging in. If you’ve provided the answers to any of these questions on your social networking pages, you’re giving cyber thieves that answers to these questions–and the keys to your account.
- Risky behaviors. Perhaps you enjoy riding your motorcycle down abandoned country roads at 100 mph or hang gliding above mountain tops, but down share this information on your social networking site. Life insurance companies, as well as other types of insurers, are quickly turning towards personal websites to determine how much of a risk a client is–and raising their rates accordingly.
Keep these tips in mind the next time you decide to update your profile.
