Keeping yourself safe online: A personal experience

As you probably know already, I like to share with you guys what I do with my family on this blog. I know you all enjoy it, but sometimes I wonder about who might be out there reading it. I try to be a little cautious when sharing a few precious photos and where I go out and about with Ethan and Adam.

Many bloggers like me try to share their personal stories in the hope that readers can learn from our trials, errors and insight - but is there such a thing as sharing too much? Blogs and social media profiles often contain a lot of personal information which, in the wrong hands, might be used for malicious purposes. It could come in the form of photos, previous jobs, location or even your kids’ names.

Privacy is golden

Giving away sensitive information is something that could be dangerous. Whether on a blog, on social media or when talking to someone on a site such as Skype, it’s important to be a little cautious about what you share and don’t share. The first thing I would suggest is to keep it simple on social media profiles – just your name and home town will do.

Something else I would advise doing is being careful with any pictures you decide to post. Try and make sure that there aren’t too many of your Son or Daughter, as you can never be entirely sure of who’s looking at them. If your car’s in any of those pics, I would try and blur the number plate or just crop the image so that it can’t be seen. The same goes for your home, house number and street name.

Social media sites such as Facebook have privacy settings. You need to read the small print for each social media site’s privacy policy before setting up your profile. On Facebook, you should try only to accept friend requests from people you actually know, while you can ensure only your friends can see all your posts.