Avoiding Click-Bait And Protecting Yourself & Your Privacy On Social Media

Click-bait is something that we all deal with on a day-to-day basis. Throughout various platforms of Social Media, you’re likely to encounter it on your news feed. Whether you’re using it for work or catching up at home, these kinds of posts appear all the time.

You’re bound to have come across the likes of “Man Tries To Hug Tiger, You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!” and “Person Loses 8 Stone In 2 Weeks! Find Out How”. These are nothing but false headlines with no real content, attracting you in to get clicks.

Click-bait is a waste of time and can put your privacy and personal details at risk. We’ve decided to take a deeper look into ways of avoiding click-bait and how you can keep your social media profiles safe.

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It May Be Tempting, But Don’t Click It

Social Media is a platform that is constantly changing, providing us with the latest updates and trends. While this may be a good thing, it also means that it’s hard to avoid any annoying trends that get shared around.

You don’t need to know “Which Film Star You Look Like”, you really don’t.

They may seem harmless, but these types of quizzes or tests that get shared around from time to time ask you to give access to your profile and by doing so, allows them to use all of your personal information. The best thing you can do to avoid these kinds of posts is to simply keep on scrolling. These trends thrive on being shared around, so just ignore them and keep your data safe.

Whilst we’re talking about sharing posts, it’s important to always keep an eye on what other people are posting. If anyone on your feed is sharing anything that looks suspicious or something they wouldn’t usually post, play it safe and remove the friend. It may seem drastic, but you can never been too safe when it comes to the Internet. These signs might mean that someone has been hacked and could be trying to spread potential malicious software, so be aware.

If you think one of your friends has been hacked, remove them and try to contact them to let them know.

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The Less You Click, The Less You See

You can’t control what other people post, but you can control what appears regularly on your newsfeed.

Social Media works in a way that lets you see the kinds of posts they think you want to see most. For example, if you like a friend’s status updates frequently and visit their profile multiple times, they are more likely to appear on your feed.

Now this can be a great tool, allowing you to see posts that you’re interested in. The downside to this however is that if you have a history of clicking on click-bait articles or links, these kinds of posts will appear for you more frequently.

You should value your time online, don’t waste it with false headlines. The lesson here is the less you click, the less you see.

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Be Careful With Your Content

Now that we’ve sorted out some of your click-bait issues, let’s delve into how you can keep your profile secure.

Let’s start by looking at the kind of content that you are posting. Social Media is great for posting fun updates about what’s going on with your life and keeping in touch with friends. Uploading photos, adding captions and tagging friends in things are the ideal posts you want to be sharing. But what you shouldn’t be sharing is anything with any kind of personal information on it.

This may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised at the amount of people who make this mistake.

Personal information can vary from phone numbers, addresses and payment details to email addresses. If your profile isn’t private, then anyone can access this information and you do not want that.

Make sure that photos do not include any images of your debit or credit card. You need to make sure that you are not sharing any photos of personal documents or anything with your personal information.

This can even go as far as posting a ticket for an event that you’re attending, you might forget that the ticket will contain personal information and could potentially be replicated. In other words, be careful with the content you’re posting.

If you wanted to play it safe, you should make your profile private and there are options for who can see your posts, so make use of these tools.

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Check Your Friends

Speaking of who can see your posts, do you actually know everyone on your friend list?

Most people will have a long list of friends on Facebook. It’s easy to let that list get out of control and you’ll likely end up with people you forgot you even had on there.

It’s time to put a stop to this.

It’s always a good idea to have a Social Media clear out and only keep friends that you actually want on there. You need to think about who you actually want to see your posts and if you don’t want someone to see them, you probably shouldn’t have them as a friend.

Over the years, Facebook has seen a rise in the amount of fake spam accounts and whilst they try to remove these types of profiles, they will surely miss a few.

If you receive a friend request from someone with little or no mutual friends and only one or two profile pictures, it’s more than likely a fake account. Accepting fake accounts can be dangerous because they are able to access personal information about you and use it.

If you don’t recognise them, don’t accept.

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Time For A Clear Out

You’ve likely forgotten which pages or groups you’ve liked over the years, and that’s understandable.

You should make a conscious effort to go through and clear out the pages that you never look at. Liking or following a page is ideal if you want to keep up with updates from your favourite artists or want to know the latest deals from the top brands.

What aren’t ideal however are the random pages that posted a funny video once so you liked the page and now they just post spam. You don’t need to follow these pages anymore, so hit that unlike button and move

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Summary

In summary, it’s so easy to expose yourself on Social Media without even realising. There are so many little loopholes where people can get your information or entice you in, so it’s important to take the right steps in protecting yourself and your data.

Be careful with the posts you are sending out there, think about your audience. Don’t waste your time with friends who you don’t need on there and get rid. Finally, don’t fall for click-bait; it’s just not worth it.

These are just a few of the many helpful tips on how to avoid suspicious and non-time worthy posts. Let us know if they helped you at all or if you have any tips of your own for dealing with the likes of click-bait and spam accounts.