What NOT To Post On Facebook: 13 Things You Shouldn't Tell Your Facebook Friends

According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company's unofficial mission is to make "the world more open and connected." But there are limits to how open you should be on Facebook and while you might enjoy sharing photos and status updates, there are some pieces of information you would do well never to share.

Who's watching your moves on Facebook? Employers, stalkers, federal agents, and even insurance companies have been known to scan Facebook profiles for information. Just as troubling are reports of Facebook account hackers, who put users at risk for identity fraud. Even if you safeguard personal information with a "Friends Only" setting, there is a chance you've friended someone whom you barely know or have never met.

What details would you do well never to tell? View our slideshow (below) for tips about what to leave out of your Facebook life. Then, check out Facebook posts that got people fired, and Facebook SNAFUs that lead to arrests.

We want to know what you think about safety on Facebook. Let us know in the comments below. Want to suggest a Facebook safety tip? Email us at [e-mail] or click "Add a slide" below.

 

What NOT To Post On Facebook

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Your Birth Date And Place

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While it might be nice to hear from Facebook well-wishers on your birthday, you should think twice before posting your full birthday. Beth Givens, executive director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse advises that revealing your exact birthday and your place of birth is like handing over your financial security to thieves. Furthermore, Carnegie Mellon researchers recently discovered that they could reconstruct social security numbers using an individual's birthday and place of birth. Rather than remove your birthday entirely, you could enter a date that's just a few days off from your real birthday.

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While it might be nice to hear from Facebook well-wishers on your birthday, you should think twice before posting your full birthday. Beth Givens, executive director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse advises that revealing your exact birthday and your place of birth is like handing over your financial security to thieves. Furthermore, Carnegie Mellon researchers recently discovered that they could reconstruct social security numbers using an individual's birthday and place of birth.

Rather than remove your birthday entirely, you could enter a date that's just a few days off from your real birthday.

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Comments

[direkizle]

07:54 AM on 12/10/2010

Thanks for admin,very sharing..
http://www.direkdizifilm.net

[Layo Adeyemi]

01:36 AM on 12/09/2010

http://changesincommunication.wordpress.com

Keep personal information to yourself, and you will have a less likely chance of compromising your privacy.

[Joe Beltbuckle]

01:44 PM on 12/07/2010

One of the most pointless/irrellevant articles ive seen.

[Hard2kill]

04:54 AM on 12/05/2010

Great articles.. two thumbs up.

[Ruth Lanham]

12:16 PM on 11/30/2010

Thank you so much for this article! I had no idea that posting some of this info on Facebook could be such a security risk. I had wondered why my account had been hacked. I had other similar and more serious problems as well but never tied them to my facebook account.

[Ruth Lanham]

12:14 PM on 11/30/2010

Thank you so much for this article! I had no idea that posting some of this info on Facebook could be such a security risk. I had wondered why my account had been hacked. I had other similar and more serious problems as well but never tied them to my facebook account.

[cdnbystander]

01:15 PM on 11/27/2010

Still not on Facebook, and oddly enough I'm in touch and communicate regularly with my friends, go figure.

[M Kelly]

02:33 PM on 11/18/2010

So... This was a list of 13 things never to share on facebook, but it seems to me that most of them consisted of not telling people when you're not home and what you have at your home. Seems like an artificially inflated list to me.

[pene]

12:10 PM on 11/16/2010

here's another good reason:
This morning i found my facebook deactivated. I was spanked and yanked for using a false name.

I was using my given name, my real birthday, and all other information was true. So after being spanked I was told if I uploaded a photo id issued by the government I could have my account reactived.
WTF - why would i give facebook a copy of any govt issued ID? They must be crazy.

If they thought i was using a false id, they should have contacted me and let me know.

So, facebook is no longer of interest to me. they can keep their new email too...why would anyone risk losing email access to a capricious method of determining eligibility.

bye bye facebook.

[spartanmom]

12:48 PM on 11/16/2010

I think they were hacked because of the new feature's security problems.
This morning my facebook account was deactivated for the same reason and I use my real name. I did fudge my birthday a little. If I follow the links it takes me to a form that wants me to upload an image of my drivers's license. If I go to facebook help on my own, they just want me to describe the problem.
Plus, the form is an http not an https.

Can you say security breach?

[pene]

01:25 PM on 11/16/2010

so it's an elaborate phishing scam? why isn't this a headline? some people are actually stoopid enough to scan in their govt issued ID.....

[Watt D Fuch]

01:25 AM on 11/17/2010

creepy, scary

[CatherineAdenle]

01:30 AM on 11/16/2010

Thanks for a timely and apt post. The problem is not the Internet or Facebook but rather it is that of careless or uninformed users.To be honest, some people’s common sense genes are far removed from their DNAs when it comes to the Internet or when they are on a computer in the quiet surroundings of their room or home. So, they think that no one else can see what they put out there especially their very personal sensitive information. Don’t be a fool or be fooled, always use your judgement and brains. The Internet is a very public place so it is highly important that you exercise the same caution, common sense and decorum you would in real life situations. Be aware and safe either online or in real life.

[faceturkey]

08:03 AM on 12/04/2010

Some of us connect with our actual friends on Facebook and leave it at that. It's just software so like anything else, how it's used depends on the person using it. Your personal informatio­n is never yours if you use social networking­. They hide that in the privacy policies, but it's there.

[CelebObsessed]

05:36 PM on 11/15/2010

o wow, I will definitely keep these things in mind!

[depasquale5]

12:29 AM on 11/15/2010

Facebook is shallow. I can see how it could benefit those sharing causes or for parties. But to have a personal website, seems like it is for men who like variation and ego boosts and for bored crazy women who like to steal a.k.a. "get to know" husbands and boyfriends. Anyone sick of friends taking 100 pictures for their Facebook accounts when your trying to chill?

[faceturkey]

04:38 PM on 11/11/2010

I love Facebook. Keeps me in touch with my family overseas. Whenever I see my uncle posting pictures of my little cousins, I die from happiness. Miss them so much sometimes :((( http://www.faceturkey.com

[OperaGhost]

04:53 PM on 11/10/2010

Not since the Red Scare has our society been so ruled by fear mongering. We have actually become SAFER in recent years!

The best advice for facebook is to make your account private and only accept friends you can trust. Afraid of people auctioning off your information and hacking your facebook? (because every stranger in the world knows who you are and is after you because you are so important?) The majority of identity theft is performed by someone you know. The hacking/identity theft stories we hear are mostly elaborated because fear has been used throughout history to control the weak-minded! So make your profiles private and don't tell your friends obvious free rides to your finances, like your SSN and bank pins (oh and don't add your bosses). No one cares about your birth-date that much that they want to decode it into your SSN.

Source for Identity Theft Statistic: http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Alerts/6-07-26-MostIdentityTheft.htm

[ana23]

12:13 PM on 11/09/2010

Facebook is NOT the problem. USERS (the short between the keyboard and the chair, if you will) are the problem. If you're not smart enough to lock down your profile, then you deserve all of these wonderful things to happen to you.

This has been mentioned before, but there are a lot of scarier websites out there that we have no control over...

zabasearch
spokeo
intellius
123people
zillow
etc....

Give me your name and a simple search on these sites will tell me your address, your age, an aerial view of your home, when you bought your house and how much you paid, the names of your family members, so on and so forth.

While you have a choice in what information you share on facebook, these sites are compiled from public records and you have no control over their content.

If someone wants to find you, they will, and they don't need Facebook to do it.