Social media is part of our daily lives, there’s no doubt in my mind about this. Jack Vale did a little social media experiment by walking around and freaking people out and making them think that he knew personal information about them. He used Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to find people in an area he was in and it didn’t take a lot of effort to find people.
This should make you think twice about what you’re posting on your social media profiles. Privacy is almost non-existent in the age that we live in. Someone can easily figure out in which restaurants, pubs and clubs you go to if you frequently post images on Instagram, check in on Facebook or Foursquare or Tweet about it. All of these networks have geo-location features built into them, so you can be easily located.
People don’t realize just how much personal information they leave scattered throughout the Internet, and that information can be misused. Google recently demanded that people use their real names when commenting on YouTube. There has been a huge public outcry about this. Some YouTube commenters prefer to stay anonymous. They don’t want their friends, family or co-workers to know that they’ve commented on a My Little Pony video or something a bit more serious (like videos about conspiracy theories or porn stars).
I have to admit that I tweet a lot, I use Instagram regularly and I post on Facebook almost every single day. I’m probably one of the more socially active people in South Africa. Maybe I should tone down on some of things that I post online.
Just check the video out below to see Jack Vale’s Social Media Experiment
Just think about what someone could do if they were a person with malicious intentions.
Well, there you have it. What is your two cents about this? Do you think making EVERYTHING that you do public is a good or a bad idea? Leave a comment and let me know. Let’s get a debate going.
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