THE internet has made the world smaller and made it easier for people to share their lives.
It has also made it easier for criminals to have access to data that would have been private, say 10 years ago. Sharing your location on social media can do more harm than good.
A few social media users shared their thoughts on why they think social media check-ins are a bad thing.
When Nzuzo Nombewu(23) was asked why he thinks checking in on social media is not good, he responded “You’re putting your life in danger.
“I have not always been able to argue my way out of being tagged, especially on Facebook, so I have always resorted to deleting the app. For a while, I was blissfully living without it until I started working in online media where a large part of my job is understanding how people consume the content we produce,” he said.
In today’s world, oversharing comes as easily as breathing. But some people don’t like being the person always nagging not be in the selfie or to be excluded when the location is being tagged because it makes them come across as being rude, they say.
Hlengiwe Hlophe (26) who doesn’t want people tagging her without her permission said, “Checking in, especially when tagging someone else, is a violation of that person’s location privacy. By tagging someone, you’re not only violating their privacy, but you’re also revealing exactly where they are at that moment, and where they’re not, like their home, for example.
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“So in a crime-riddled country like South Africa, someone studying your movements through social media knows exactly where you are, what you’re wearing, where you like to hang out, who you’re with, and this makes identity theft easy.
“Also, something as innocent as your birthday, and people writing on your Facebook wall, Instagram and Twitter feed, means that you’re giving people access to the kind of information normally used to verify your personal details. So someone knows when you were born, and using your LinkedIn bio they also know where you graduated and what years, and this makes it easy for scammers who want to steal your identity,” she explained.
With the recent killings of women happening in the country, even celebrities are starting to push back. Pretty Ncayiyana, actress of etv’s Scandal! said that she says no whenever fans ask to take selfies with her.
“If someone takes a photograph of me, and posts it, within two seconds they’ve created a marker of exactly where I am within 10 meters. They can see what I’m wearing and who I’m with. I just can’t give that tracking data,” she said. I’d really advise people to think twice about this the next time you do that innocent check-in at your local bar for a night out on the town,” said Pretty.
Article regards of South Coast Herald.
