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Friendly reminder: Don't add any personal info on social media platforms

About three years ago I made a blog post about how much personal information you should really give social media websites. My recommendation? Don't add any such information. And if you have made the mistake of doing so, go and remove all of it.

Well, what do you know, recently Facebook leaked personal information of millions and millions of users. I hope you weren't one of them.

One of the most devious things about Facebook in particular (or at least this was so a few years ago, I don't know if they have changed it later) is that it entices their users to enter as much personal information as possible. At least some years ago when you logged into Facebook, if you hadn't entered much personal information the website would pester you about it, enticing you to fill an extensive form asking all kinds of personal questions (such as which schools you have gone to, who you are related to, and so on and so forth).

Maybe Facebook has wisened up since, but at least back then it was really obnoxious. And millions of people fell for it, and happily entered a lot of personal information.

(There's a theoretical reason for all that personal info: To make it easier to find friends, such as old school friends, on Facebook. However, do you really want to give a giant Silicon Valley tech megacorporation all this info about yourself?)

Rather obviously there are a lot of risks in the modern world involved in carelessly throwing lots of personal info on the internet, not least of which is that all this info gets regularly leaked.

Just don't. When websites ask for any personal info, give as little of it as possible. Create a new junk email address in one of the myriads free email services out there, and don't even enter your real name unless it's absolutely necessary. Consider your social media accounts temporary and losable at any point, without significant loss of anything important. Which means: Don't give them your phone number either, or anything else.

The only exception to this is if it's an actually important account that's not just a random social media website, and which you actually need for something important, such as work, or for example to purchase video games. Ie. for example Steam may be an exception to this, but even then consider giving as little information as possible (although take into account that credit card purchases need genuine information, ie. your real name and address, or else it may be considered fraudulent. Consider each situation carefully.)

However, sites like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and so on, if you even want any such accounts, consider them worthless, and don't give them anything real.

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