A stranger's story at the coffee shop had me double-checking my social media settings.

I was getting coffee yesterday, and this guy was talking loudly about how his account got hacked. He said he shared too much personal info online. I mean, it left me wondering about my own habits. So I went home and tightened up my privacy settings. It's crazy how a random conversation can remind you to stay safe.

3 comments

3 Comments

perez.thea17d ago

Honestly I think people overreact to this stuff. I have location tagging on all my photos and my profiles are wide open, nothing bad has ever happened. @riley_bell says to remove people you don't talk to but that feels a bit paranoid, you never know when an old acquaintance might hook you up with a job lead or something. Two-factor auth is a huge pain and I think most hacks happen because people fall for obvious scams, not because they left their birthday visible. If you're not posting your address or your full social security number, you're probably fine. I feel like all this privacy paranoia just gives people anxiety over something that rarely actually goes wrong.

riley_bell4mo ago

Turn off location tagging on your photos, that's how I got burned once. Also go through your friend lists and remove people you don't actually talk to. Setting up two-factor auth is a pain but it stops most hack attempts cold.

piper_scott4mo ago

That location tag thing is scary lol, what actually happened when you got burned? Like did someone show up somewhere or was it more about someone knowing your routine? And how much of a pain was the cleanup after, like did you have to lock down all your other accounts too?