Security and the internet

[Maggie/915]

When should we truly be ourselves.

On this website we could be said to hide our identity !

On Facebook etc should we be ourselves .

The risks of identity theft are great if we read some accounts or newspapers.

Obviously people use fake profiles to cause mischief and insult others.

Big business and even governments local and national are using social media to influence our opinions.

Bedlington is no exception.,

My question is ‘when is it important on social media to be truly yourself.’ Possibly never.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

I would say be yourself on all social media and I would be surprised if anyone could steal my identity from what info I post on social media.

There will always be some that post documentation on Facebook etc but normally not enough info for identity theft to enable access to  online accounts. Serious online thieves would be wasting their time joining social media and searching for identities they could use, all they have to do is invent a name and from that create  documents eg. passports, birth certs etc and that has gone on for centuries.

I would also add that these days there is no need to steal someones identity to commit online theft. You don't need photos to buy goods online, just the credit or debit card info. Anyone that posted info of that type on social media must be daft. 

I know it's difficult for many who can't get out to shops and have to use online sites and therefore disclosing their plastic card details and they have to rely on the retailers to keep their details safe but as we have seen many times in the news even the large tech firms can be hacked by today's online cyber_thieves.

A recent form of cyberthievery is identity theft—stealing the identities of others by cracking into a computer system and getting individuals’ Social Security numbers, birth dates, credit card numbers, and similar personal information but there is nothing the social media user can do about that.