Social media is great for connecting people, but unfortunately many users don’t realise that some of the most innocent information they share could be putting themselves at risk.
Things like the name of your bank and even your date of birth can be used by fraudsters to take out financial products.
According to a new report by Cifas, a not-for-profit company working to protect businesses, charities, public bodies and individuals from financial crime, identity theft has skyrocketed in the last year, rising by 57%. Of those, more than eight in 10 cases were perpetrated online without even needing to hack people’s accounts.
If you’re worried you might be giving too much information away on Facebook, then you should read through our guide to adjusting your privacy settings here.
But one of the easiest things you can do right now is to hide your date of birth on Facebook. Here’s how:
Step 1: Go to your Timeline
At the top of the page, click on your name in the blue bar.
Click on the Update Info button, situated on the bottom right of your Cover Photo.
Select Contact and basic info from the menu on the left.
Step 2: Remove your age or decide who can see it
Next, you need to decide whether you want to remove your date of birth outright or only allow certain people to access it. If you choose the latter, you’ll need to be absolutely sure all the people you have as ‘Friends’ on Facebook are trustworthy and people you actually know.
Further down the page, hover over date of birth and click Edit.
Next to the day and month you’ll see an icon of two people. Click it and either select Friends or Only Me, depending on how far you want to hide your date of birth. Then click Save.
Do the same with the icon below, relating to the year you were born.
Step 3: Think about other social media accounts
Using Twitter, LinkedIn or another social network? You might want to look at your details there too to find out whether your date of birth is being exposed.
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