Although many of these are common sense, still many people share personal information on Facebook which they shouldn’t. Here are 6 things you should NEVER share on Facebook.
1. Home address
Unless your profile is on complete lockdown and no one but you and your cats can see it, then you should never put your home address on your profile.
You’d think this was common sense, but many people use different “check-in” services while at their house. It may seem funny at the time to call your house “The Casa” or “The Beer Joint” and check in there. But if your profile is public, then any creeper can figure out where you live and come make themselves welcome.
2. You’re going on holidays
Bought tickets for a 5 day getaway to a tropical island and want to share your departure date on Facebook? Probably a bad idea. Criminals are getting smarter and smarter these days. If you can easily setup a search in Tweetdeck or Mention based around a keyword or keyword phrase, don’t you think criminals can do the same search for “Holiday” posts within your area code?
Sure it’s ok to be excited about your cruise and maybe brag about it. But if you’re gonna do that make sure your post is set only to your friends — and that your friends aren’t weirdos! Maybe it’s best to post pics of your cruise AFTER you get back from it, rather than making yourself an easy target.
3. Stuff about your kids
Ok, this is a tough one. We all love to share pics of our kids doing goofy things or when they accomplish something. That’s totally fine. Facebook is all about being social.
Unfortunately, we live in a time when pedophiles are smarter than they used to be. You need to protect your kids by not giving away too much info about them online. Don’t post their names to the “public” setting at all. And you should never say what school they go to. Last but not least, please don’t post pics of your kids in the bathtub or running around naked!
So is it ok to brag about your kids and post pics of them? Sure. But limit that to your real friends and family online. Not to the public who can take that image and do whatever they want with it.
4. The layout of your house
Let’s say you built a new house and want to show it off to your friends and followers on Facebook. You grab your iPhone and record a video or take pictures of each of the rooms in the house and post to Facebook. No big deal, right? WRONG!
What you just did is allow any criminal to know the exact layout of your house — so it’s 100 times easier for them to get around once they breaks in.
5. Post copy & paste status updates
You’ve seen these status updates that have been floating around Facebook for years:
Facebook is going to start charging on February 21st and unless you want to get charged you need to post this status update saying you do not agree to being charged for the service. You also need to go pet a unicorn while wearing a Speedo and rollerblades.
Use some common sense before you post these things. It just makes you look foolish and uneducated. Before you post something like this do some research. Don’t just regurgitate what you saw someone else post. Most of the time these things are completely false.
6. Complaints about your boss
Maybe you hate your job or your boss is such a pain. We’ve all been in those situations. With Facebook being such a huge part of our lives, it can be tempting to “air our grievances”. Your boss and your co-workers have Facebook too. They can see when you’re griping about work – and obviously those gripes aren’t going to reflect well on you.
So save your rants for your close family and friends but not the public “friends” you have on Facebook.
