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Protect Yourself from Hackers and Spammers!

October 29, 2012
Hacker in the darkness by powtac, on Flickr Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic License??by??powtac?
Social media websites like #Twitter have allowed thousands of individuals to easily connect and share information regardless of the time and place. You can easily follow interesting people and topics as well as get more information from profiles before deciding to become a follower. The problem is, there are unscrupulous individuals that can launch attacks against others online and take advantage of your private information. There are a number of steps and methods that will help keep your information private. Personal information should be protected although you are registered in public online space.

Initial Tips

Twitter users should be careful when making their accounts online. It is important to share just enough information to be identified without compromising your privacy. Twitter is a public space and social media platform where you can share details and information as well as gain a huge following. A lot of individuals and companies actually take advantage of the wide coverage and improve their reputation. It?s important to set your objectives accurately and provide information that will attract potential customers. In other cases, people might retweet?or repost the information you share. There are actually a lot of options that can be adjusted so that you only let selected individuals browse your profile and read your posts. You can choose to have approved followers be the only ones seeing your tweets. Unprotected tweets?will be visible in other places on the internet.

Review Your Posts

When using Twitter, always be aware that some types of information might be visible to others including websites other than Twitter. Private or personal information should be constantly protected such as your full home address, telephone number and credit card digits. Also be careful about the things you share publicly. A lot of people compromise opportunities or even lose current privileges when some of their posts are deemed offensive or sensitive. Twitter might remove the post or ban your account temporarily depending on how serious the violation is.

When Sharing Information

Also be careful when dealing with other people online. Many hackers and unscrupulous users will use fake names or use the accounts of people you know so that you will eventually share sensitive or private information. Review the people you?re communicating on Twitter with and make sure that you only share the details once you have confirmed that the person is the right one. People can share different types of information and media content on Twitter. There are a number of options available on the site where you can choose to protect the information. The account can be kept secure by changing your password every month or so. Also, be careful when adding followers or when following others in the network.

Making Reports

If you discover that your personal information has been shared on Twitter by someone without your consent, you can report or complain. You can initially request the person to remove the content but if the problem persists, report the violation to Twitter. Be sure to read the policies first and find out which particular rule or guideline the person has violated.

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