Ghazanfar Abbas
Security and Privacy are Always the First Priority
With all the news about Facebook and Instagram and their serious privacy issues, are you starting to feel alarmed by the amount of information you may be unintentionally exposing? You’re not alone.
Facebook and Instagram are among the worst social media platforms when it comes to storing a large amount of personal data due to their birthdays, events, locations, photo albums, and friend lists. It is the first place anyone looking to learn more about you will go, whether they are friends, family, coworkers, or, in the worst-case scenario, hackers.
One way to safeguard your privacy is to permanently delete your Facebook and Instagram accounts. However, if you are really on it, as so many of us do, to stay in touch with the people in your life, that’s not always an option. So here’s your best alternative: take the safety measures we recommend here to secure your Facebook and Instagram account and make sure that your sensitive information isn’t being compromised.
In this article, we will cover some basic tips to protect your Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Set Everything to Private
It sounds obvious, but the first and most important step you can take is to make sure your Facebook content is only being shown to people you trust. You’ll find the relevant settings in the Privacy tab under Settings.
Here you can edit who is allowed to see your posts, send you friend requests, and find you through external search engines. For optimum security, it’s best to set all settings to “Friends,” so only people you know can see your information. Some settings can also be marked as “Only Me,” to make them completely private. Or, you can choose to show things to selected friends only. The Limit Past Posts options can also be useful if you’ve been on Facebook for a long time and don’t want new friends, colleagues, or employers to see your old posts and photos.
Secure Your Login
In early 2019, it was revealed that Facebook had accidentally been storing millions of users’ passwords in plain text. Although Facebook never found any breaches in the database, the error put millions of Facebook and Instagram users at risk of hacking. You can’t do anything about Facebook’s insecure storage habits, but you can protect your own passwords by using a password manager.
Using the same password for all of your accounts is dangerous. Once a hacker has cracked one account, they will easily be able to access all your others. A password manager will create and store unique, strong passwords for all of your accounts including Facebook. This will keep both your Facebook and other accounts secure in case of a security breach. Another good idea to prevent anyone from accessing your account without your permission is to enable two-factor authentication. This can be found under the Security and Login tab under Settings. Two-factor authentication will ask that you input an additional security code whenever you log in from an unrecognized device or location. You can even set up alerts to notify you whenever an unrecognized login occurs.
Understand Friend Requests
One thing that many people don’t know about Facebook friend requests is that, until you confirm or delete the request, that person will be able to see information about you on your profile and on their news feed.
You can modify your availability to friend requests in the Privacy section of the Settings menu. However, it is recommended that you review the requests you have been ignoring and modify any that you have accepted. If you receive requests from people you do not know, it is in your best interest to reject them right away and mark them as spam if they appear to be unreliable.
Hide Your Location with a VPN
Although you can turn off your location history (in the Location tab under Settings), unless you have all location settings disabled on all your devices, Facebook will always have access to your location via its app. The only way to stop both your physical location and digital movements from being tracked is to use a VPN.
A VPN routes all your internet traffic through a private server in a different physical location. Thus keeping any social media site or app from knowing where you really are.VPNs mask your digital movements, too. Social media companies often share or sell this information to third parties, who use it to send you targeted advertising.
Our recommendation for a top VPN is ExpressVPN. Take a look at these excellent user reviews to find out why.
Protect Your Account on Instagram
Pick a Strong Password
As more people create accounts, there are more attempts at phishing and hacking Instagram. And precisely who is to blame?GDI Foundation security researcher Gevers asserts this. un secure password vectorizes a password manager and a password that is generated automatically for additional security.”You don’t want the hassle of trying to remember it yourself,” Gevers explains.”Password managers give you access to your passwords on a desktop computer or mobile phone even when you are not connected to the Internet.
It’s also a good idea to use a unique password for each of your accounts. As this makes it harder for hackers to gain access to all of your information. Once you’ve landed on a potential password, plug it into How Secure Is My Password for a final check. This will tell you if your password is strong enough to withstand a hacking attempt.
To guard against phishing scams. You should always verify the legitimacy of any emails you receive, and you should never divulge your password to anyone you do not know or trust.
Make Sure Your Email Account Is Secure
Just think about it, your Instagram account and many others are linked to your email account. If someone has access to one, they have access to all. Scary stuff.
According to a recent survey, 22% of Internet users say that at least once. Their online accounts have been hacked. while 14% stated that they had been hacked multiple times. As a result, using two-factor authentication or email encryption to protect your email is a good idea. If you want to keep hackers from accessing your Instagram account, these simple deterrents can help a lot.
Revoke Access to Suspicious Third-Party Apps
It’s common to use Instagram as an authorized account to sign in to third-party apps like dating services, games, and photo editing tools.
But did you know that even if you haven’t used said third-party apps in weeks, months, or even years? They may have access to your social media profile and account information?
And if their database is targeted, your details are up for grabs. This is why Instagram suggests “think before you authorize a third-party app.” To manage your third-party apps, open your Instagram profile on your desktop computer. Click the settings button, and then click on “Apps and Website.”
If you follow all the above steps to protect your Facebook and Instagram accounts. I hope you will keep your privacy safe.
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