Twitter and Facebook Updates: Are you tipping off thieves?

While attending another provocative insurance company meeting my phone buzzes with excitement notifying me new email has arrived. For a moment I pull my attention from the speaker and reach in my pocket to retrieve my phone. Could it be the office? Nope, a friend of mine has notified me, via Facebook, that she just put in a load of laundry and plans on taking a nap. Why she thinks this is important social networking material fails to capture my understanding. Maybe she thinks it's funny? Is it domestic poetry? What ever the reason, it's not important, but does bring up a major concern I have regarding social networking and what we are willing to divulge about our daily lives to potential strangers; information that has become a growing cornucopia for burglars.

I think we all have that social networking friend that finds it either funny or necessary to provide unimaginative and unnecessary updates of their daily lives. However, in some instances our social networking updates could be reveling information and patterns about our lives that could come back to harm us. Updates about laundry, though robbing me of a minute of time I won't get back, is relatively harmless. What concerns me is the updates about vacation and nights out with friends and even major purchases. For example, just the other day a friend posted a message alerting everyone that she and her family were currently enjoying a vacation in Maine. Seems harmless, but for those less honorable people there's an underlying message- 'Hey, we're not home and all our stuff is sitting there unprotected.'

When we go on vacation most of us put in-play techniques to make our homes seem like we are, in fact, not away. We keep lights on, have the neighbor pick up the newspapers off the driveway and may even have the post office hold our mail. One of my friends used to put a bust of George Washington on his model train and have a timer turn the train on 3 times a day. He thought the shadow passing by the window was a good deterrent. I told him after three passes it was more like a welcome mat. Anyway, I digress. My point is if we do these things to protect our homes when we are away why do many of us feel social networking sites are immune to the wrong side of the tracks and safe to notify the world that we're "Having a great time at Disney World!"

Professional burglars have infiltrated social networking communities in growing numbers and are blindly sending out 'friend' requests to anyone who will accept while scanning for opportunities. These criminal opportunists feed, not only on the growing false sense of security, but also on the common inability most social network users have in comprehending network security features. Add in the desire to plump up virtual popularity by accepting complete strangers 'friend' requests and you have opened yourself up to a potential burglary.

40% of Facebook and Twitter members share vacation plans, while 13% of Facebook members and 92% of Twitter members blindly accept 'friend' and 'follow' requests from people they do not know.

This might be a good time to assure everyone that if you have home or renters insurance you're covered for theft (up to the amount your insured) if such an incident happens. However, why not reduce the possibility of such an event even happening by limiting your online social networking exposure? Of course, I could also mention that only about 28% of renters actually have renters insurance so most of you renters out there are risking everything without an insurance safety net (Is this a good time to mention we offer renters insurance for as little as $95 and condo insurance for as little as $225 / year!).

So the big question I know all of you are asking yourself- what do you do to protect yourself without dampening your social network enjoyment? Here are a couple quick pointers.

TIP#1 Don't Accept a 'Friend' request from someone you don't Know

Maybe your goal is a million friends, or having a friend in every country and every continent. Or maybe you enjoy meeting new people. No problem, have fun, but realize what ever updates you post will be read by all, including the hundreds of strangers included in your online community. Personally, I have a hard time accepting relatives and even my Mother as a 'friend' let alone strangers. Something about letting my Mother into my 'other world' weird's me out. Hmm.. I suppose I could create a separate account specifically for family. In any event, if you do still want to accept strangers as 'friends' there is a way to exclude them from your Facebook updates. Simply go into your account and select 'Privacy' and then 'Basic.' Under each section you have an option to choose 'customize' in the drop down. For example, you can go to 'Status and Links' and choose customize and then exclude individual friends from viewing your updates. This may be tedious for those that have a 1,000 'friends' but the option is there.

Twitter is a bit different than social networks like Facebook. If you're on Twitter the goal is to grow your list of followers whether or not they are friends. Security is a bit better on Twitter and your personal information is not available as easily.

TIP#2 Set Security To Only Allow Friends To View Your Profile

Another big security mistake many Facebook users are guilty of is allowing 'networks' they belong to access to their profile and personal information. Networks can be regional like Boston, Ma or institutions like Roger Williams University. Some of these networks can include thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people. These vast networks are feeding grounds for individuals fishing for people with open profiles. Setting security at 'all', or 'networks and friends' just opens the door for these criminals and invites them to follow your every move. Protect yourself by setting your security to allow 'only friends' access your personal information and updates. These security changes can be done the same way as mentioned before.

My goal here is not to dampen everyone's social networking fun, but to just make everyone aware what we do in every day life to protect ourselves and our property should also be applied to our online behavior. Just making a few adjustments to how we interact online can save us from aggravation and loss in the future.