7 Things I Never Share on Facebook

In today’s hyper-connected world, social media platforms like Facebook have become ingrained in our daily lives. They offer incredible opportunities for connection, information sharing, and even professional networking. However, as our digital footprints grow ever larger, it becomes increasingly important to be mindful of what we broadcast. At MakeUseOf, we believe in empowering our readers with the knowledge to navigate the digital landscape safely and securely. While sharing life’s moments is a joy, certain pieces of personal information are best kept private, not just for your immediate safety but for the long-term integrity of your digital identity. This comprehensive guide delves into seven critical categories of information that we, at MakeUseOf, firmly believe should never be shared on Facebook. By understanding the potential risks and adopting a more judicious approach to online sharing, you can significantly enhance your privacy and protect yourself from a variety of online threats.

1. Your Precise Location and Travel Plans: The Open Invitation Nobody Wants

One of the most common and often overlooked security risks associated with Facebook is the sharing of your real-time location and detailed travel itineraries. When you “check-in” at a specific venue, tag your location in a post, or even allow location services to automatically update your whereabouts, you are essentially broadcasting your physical presence to a potentially vast audience. This audience includes not only your friends and family but also their friends, acquaintances, and, unfortunately, individuals with less benevolent intentions.

The Dangers of Geotagging and Check-Ins

Every time you tag your location, you create a digital breadcrumb trail. While seemingly innocuous, this trail can be pieced together by someone who is actively monitoring your activity. If you are posting photos from your holiday destination, detailing your departure dates, return times, and even the specific attractions you plan to visit, you are inadvertently providing a roadmap for potential burglars. Imagine posting a picture of yourself on a beach with a caption like, “Soaking up the sun in Hawaii! Back home next Tuesday.” This clearly signals that your house will be empty and vulnerable for an extended period. Even if you don’t explicitly state your return date, the accumulation of location tags over time can paint a clear picture of your daily routines and periods of absence.

Why Your Holiday Plans are Risky

Sharing your upcoming travel plans in detail is particularly hazardous. This includes information such as:

Flight or train numbers: This can allow someone to track your movements through airline or railway systems.
Hotel names and addresses: This pinpoints your exact temporary residence.
Dates of departure and return: This signals periods of prolonged absence from your home.
Specific activities planned: Revealing your intended itinerary can make you a predictable target.

Even if you trust all your Facebook friends implicitly, there’s no guarantee that their accounts won’t be compromised, or that they won’t inadvertently share your information with others outside of your trusted circle. Furthermore, “going live” from your vacation spot while your home is unattended is a cardinal sin of online security. The temptation to share immediate experiences is understandable, but the risk of compromising your home’s security far outweighs the fleeting satisfaction of an instant update. We strongly advise against sharing any information that could indicate you are away from home, especially when your property is left unattended. Consider waiting until you have safely returned to share your travel memories.

Mitigating Location-Based Risks

To protect yourself, we recommend the following:

Disable location services for the Facebook app on your mobile device unless absolutely necessary for a specific, infrequent task.
Avoid “checking in” at your home or workplace.
Post travel photos and updates after you have returned from your trip.
Be mindful of what your friends share about you. If a friend tags your location in a post, politely ask them to remove it.
Review your Facebook privacy settings regularly to ensure that location sharing is disabled for all posts.

By being vigilant about your location data, you significantly reduce the risk of becoming a target for opportunistic crime and protect your personal safety.

2. Sensitive Personal Identification Details: Guarding Your Digital Identity

Your personal identification documents are the keys to your entire identity. Sharing details from them on Facebook is akin to leaving the front door to your digital life wide open. This category encompasses a range of highly sensitive information that, if compromised, can lead to identity theft, financial fraud, and significant personal distress.

While a birthday might seem like a harmless piece of information, it’s a crucial piece of the puzzle for identity thieves. Many online services and account recovery processes use your date of birth as a security question. Coupled with other readily available information, like your mother’s maiden name (which is also often shared on Facebook), this can be enough to initiate a takeover of your other online accounts. Similarly, your place of birth is another common security validation detail.

Why Full Names and Addresses are Strictly Off-Limits

Facebook already knows your name, but avoid posting variations or nicknames that could be used to impersonate you. More importantly, never share your full date of birth, including the year, or your full residential address. This information is invaluable for malicious actors seeking to:

Perform social engineering attacks: They can use this information to craft believable phishing emails or calls, pretending to be from legitimate organizations.
Initiate fraudulent applications: They might use your details to open credit cards, take out loans, or make purchases in your name.
Conduct doxing: This involves publicly revealing private information about an individual, often with the intent to harass or intimidate.

Never, under any circumstances, share photos or scans of your:

Driver’s license
Passport
Social Security card (or equivalent national identification number)
Bank statements or credit card numbers (even partially obscured ones can be risky)
Any other document containing unique identifying numbers or sensitive personal data.

Even if you think you’ve covered up the important bits, sophisticated image analysis tools or simple human observation can still glean critical information. The potential for misuse is simply too high. For example, a seemingly innocuous picture of your child’s birth certificate, shared with proud grandparents, could inadvertently expose their social security number or other vital data.

Protecting Your Identity

Review your “About” section on Facebook and remove any overly specific personal details, such as your exact birthdate (consider just sharing the day and month, or nothing at all), or birthplace.
Be extremely cautious about quizzes or games that ask for personal information, as these are often designed to harvest data for malicious purposes.
Educate your family members, especially older relatives who might be less tech-savvy, about the dangers of sharing such information online.
Utilize strong, unique passwords for all your online accounts and enable two-factor authentication wherever possible.

By keeping your sensitive personal identification details locked down, you build a crucial barrier against identity theft and protect the integrity of your personal and financial life.

3. Your Daily Routines and Habits: The Predictability Trap

Understanding people’s daily routines can provide valuable insights, but for those with malicious intent, this information can be a goldmine. Sharing details about your daily routines and habits on Facebook can inadvertently make you a predictable target for a variety of threats, ranging from burglary to stalking.

How Routines Can Be Exploited

Consider the seemingly harmless post: “Just finished my morning run at the park. Now off to my yoga class!” or “Heading out for my usual grocery shopping at 3 PM.” While these posts might seem mundane, they contribute to a larger picture. If someone is observing your Facebook activity, they can start to build a pattern of your movements and the times you are typically away from home.

The Risks of Regular Absences

Home Security: If you consistently post about leaving your home at the same time each day for work, exercise, or other activities, you signal periods when your house is unoccupied. This creates an opportunity for burglars to assess your property and plan a break-in. Even if you don’t explicitly state you’re leaving, a consistent pattern of posts from external locations during specific hours can imply your absence.
Stalking and Harassment: For individuals with malicious intent, knowing your regular movements can make it easier to track, follow, or approach you. This is particularly concerning for those who might be experiencing online harassment or have reason to fear for their personal safety.
Social Engineering: Knowing your habits can help attackers craft more convincing social engineering attempts. For instance, if they know you always order from a particular restaurant on Fridays, they might send a fake promotional email or text message that mimics the restaurant’s style to trick you into revealing sensitive information.

What Constitutes Routine Information?

This includes, but is not limited to:

Regular work hours and commute times
Specific gym or exercise class schedules
Consistent shopping habits (e.g., “Every Saturday morning, I’m at the farmer’s market.”)
Children’s school or activity schedules (this is a particularly sensitive area, as it can put your children at risk)
Pets’ feeding or walking times

Maintaining Privacy in Your Daily Life

To safeguard against these risks:

Be vague about your schedule. Instead of saying “I’m going to the gym now,” try “Having a great workout!” without specifying the time or place.
Avoid posting real-time updates about your activities. It’s often better to share a recap later or not at all.
Be mindful of your privacy settings regarding who can see your posts. Even if you’re not sharing explicitly about your routine, your posts might still be visible to people you don’t know well.
Consider the cumulative effect. Even if individual posts seem harmless, together they can reveal a predictable pattern.
Think before you post about your children. Their routines are particularly vulnerable information.

By refraining from sharing details about your daily routines and habits, you make yourself a less predictable and therefore less attractive target for those who might seek to exploit your patterns.

4. Private Conversations and Personal Opinions Shared in Confidence

Facebook is often perceived as a casual space for sharing thoughts and updates. However, it’s crucial to remember that even private messages or seemingly private posts can be compromised or inadvertently shared. We believe that private conversations and personal opinions shared in confidence should remain precisely that – private.

The Fragility of “Private” Conversations

While Facebook offers privacy settings for messages and posts, these are not infallible. Accounts can be hacked, screenshots can be taken without your knowledge, and even trusted friends can sometimes forward messages or share information they were asked to keep confidential. The digital realm offers a permanence that spoken words often lack, making the potential for misuse even greater.

Misinterpretation and Misuse: A private conversation, often filled with nuance, tone, and context, can be easily misinterpreted when taken out of its original setting. A snippet of a private discussion, shared out of context, can be used to damage your reputation, create conflict, or even blackmail you.
Breach of Trust: If you discuss sensitive personal matters with someone, that information is shared in the expectation of trust and discretion. Sharing these discussions publicly, even if you’ve removed the other person’s name, is a betrayal of that trust.
Reputational Damage: Expressing personal opinions, even in what you believe to be a private setting, can have unforeseen consequences. If these opinions are shared publicly and are controversial or offensive to some, it can lead to significant reputational damage in both your personal and professional life. Think about political opinions, criticisms of colleagues or employers, or personal struggles that you’ve only confided in a few people.
Legal Ramifications: In some cases, sharing certain private conversations or opinions could even have legal repercussions, especially if it involves defamation, breach of contract, or disclosure of proprietary information.

What Constitutes Confidential Information?

This includes, but is not limited to:

Personal confessions or emotional disclosures
Critiques or negative comments about individuals or organizations
Discussions about sensitive family matters
Confidential work-related information
Personal financial details discussed with trusted individuals
Any information shared with the explicit understanding of privacy.

Maintaining Confidentiality

Use private messaging or other secure communication channels for sensitive conversations.
Never assume that a “private” post or message is truly secure.
Be mindful of who you are communicating with. Even within your trusted circle, accidental sharing can occur.
Avoid discussing highly sensitive topics on platforms like Facebook unless absolutely necessary and with extreme caution.
If you are discussing something sensitive, explicitly state that it is confidential and ask the other person to refrain from sharing.
Educate yourself and others on the concept of digital permanence and the ease with which information can be disseminated online.

By treating your private conversations and personal opinions with the utmost discretion, you uphold trust, protect your reputation, and maintain control over your personal narrative. We believe that private conversations and personal opinions shared in confidence are sacred trusts that should never be broken by public broadcast on social media.

5. Sensitive Financial Information: The Direct Route to Fraud

This is perhaps the most obvious but also the most critical category of information that should never be shared on Facebook. Your sensitive financial information is the lifeblood of your financial security. Exposing it online is akin to leaving your wallet unattended in a crowded marketplace.

The Irreversible Damage of Compromised Financial Data

In the digital age, financial information is highly sought after by cybercriminals. Sharing details about your finances on Facebook can have immediate and devastating consequences, including:

Identity Theft and Financial Fraud: Criminals can use your bank account numbers, credit card details, or even just your income bracket to open fraudulent accounts, make unauthorized purchases, or drain your existing accounts.
Targeted Scams: Once someone has a glimpse into your financial situation, they can craft highly personalized scams that are much more convincing. For example, knowing you recently received a tax refund could lead to a fake “tax agency” phishing attempt.
Blackmail and Extortion: Revealing details about debts, financial struggles, or even specific large purchases could make you a target for blackmailers who might threaten to expose this information unless their demands are met.

What Constitutes Sensitive Financial Information?

This encompasses a broad range of data that should be kept strictly private:

Bank account numbers and routing numbers
Credit card numbers, expiry dates, and CVV codes (the three or four-digit security code on the back of your card)
Online banking login credentials
Details of specific financial transactions (e.g., “Just deposited my bonus!”)
Information about your income, salary, or savings
Any documents containing financial details, such as pay stubs, tax returns, or investment statements.
Even seemingly innocent posts about large purchases can sometimes provide clues.

The Illusion of Privacy on Facebook

It’s a common misconception that if you only share with “friends,” your financial information is safe. However, consider these scenarios:

Compromised Accounts: A friend’s account might be hacked, and their compromised profile could be used to extract information from their friends.
Inadvertent Sharing: A friend might take a screenshot of a private message or post and share it with others without your knowledge or consent.
Data Breaches: While not directly your fault, Facebook itself has experienced data breaches. The less information you have stored with them, the less data is at risk.
Third-Party Apps: Many apps integrate with Facebook, and if these apps are not secure, they could potentially expose your data.

Fortifying Your Financial Defenses

Never share any financial details, no matter how seemingly insignificant, on your Facebook profile or in private messages on the platform.
Be extremely wary of any links or messages asking for financial information, even if they appear to be from trusted sources. Always verify through a separate, secure channel.
Regularly review your bank and credit card statements for any suspicious activity.
Use strong, unique passwords for all your financial accounts and enable two-factor authentication whenever possible.
Educate your family and close friends about the critical importance of keeping financial information private.

Protecting your sensitive financial information is paramount. Facebook is simply not the place to discuss or display any aspect of your financial life.

6. Intimate Personal Details and Vulnerabilities: The Stalking and Exploitation Risk

While the first few points focus on financial and physical security, this category addresses the deeply personal and potentially exploitative risks associated with oversharing intimate personal details and vulnerabilities on Facebook. This kind of sharing, while sometimes driven by a desire for support or connection, can open the door to manipulation, harassment, and emotional distress.

The Double-Edged Sword of Vulnerability

Sharing personal struggles, health issues, relationship problems, or deep-seated fears can be cathartic. However, on a public or semi-public platform like Facebook, these admissions can be weaponized by those who wish to exploit your vulnerabilities.

How Intimate Details Can Be Used Against You

Emotional Manipulation: Individuals with malicious intent can use your shared vulnerabilities to manipulate you. They might offer fake support while subtly reinforcing your insecurities or directing you towards harmful actions.
Targeted Harassment and Bullying: Revealing personal insecurities or difficult experiences can make you a target for online bullies. They might mock your struggles, spread rumors, or deliberately try to trigger your anxieties.
Stalking and Obsession: Details about your emotional state, your fears, or your personal relationships can be used by stalkers to build a profile and develop an unhealthy obsession with you. They might use this information to try and gain your sympathy or to exert control over you.
Professional Reputational Damage: Sharing intimate details about personal crises, mental health struggles, or controversial opinions can, if discovered by employers or professional contacts, lead to a damaged professional reputation, even if the sharing was intended for a private audience.
Exploitation of Trust: When you share deeply personal information, you are implicitly trusting your audience. Breaching that trust by sharing it more widely can lead to feelings of betrayal and isolation.

What Falls into This Sensitive Category?

Detailed health diagnoses or ongoing medical treatments
Mental health struggles or therapy details
Specific details about relationship problems or marital issues
Personal traumas or experiences of abuse
Deep-seated fears, anxieties, or phobias
Family secrets or private disputes
Any information that makes you feel exposed or vulnerable.

Use Facebook for broad updates, not deep confidences. If you need support, reach out to trusted individuals directly through private messages or phone calls.
Consider the audience. Who will see this post? Can you truly trust everyone in that audience?
Think about the long-term implications. Will you regret sharing this information in a few weeks, months, or years?
Seek professional help if you are dealing with significant personal issues. Therapists and counselors are trained to provide support in a confidential and safe environment, which Facebook cannot replicate.
Be critical of quizzes and personality tests that ask for intimate details about your life, as these are often designed to harvest your personal data for marketing or more nefarious purposes.

By exercising discretion and setting firm boundaries around your intimate personal details and vulnerabilities, you protect yourself from potential exploitation and maintain your emotional well-being. We advocate for a cautious approach to sharing that prioritizes your safety and mental health.

7. Sensitive Information About Your Children: The Ultimate Protection

Perhaps the most critical aspect of online privacy involves protecting our children. Anything that could inadvertently identify, endanger, or exploit your children is information that should never be shared on Facebook. Children are inherently more vulnerable than adults, and their digital footprints are often created by their parents.

The Paramount Importance of Child Safety Online

The digital world presents unique risks for children, and as parents, it is our utmost responsibility to shield them from these dangers. Oversharing information about your children on social media can have severe consequences, impacting their current safety and their future privacy.

Predatory Behavior: Sharing identifying details such as your child’s full name, school, age, or even their favorite activities can make them a target for online predators. These individuals actively seek out information that can help them groom or abduct children.
Stalking and Harassment: Information about your child’s daily routines, school schedules, or extracurricular activities can be used by stalkers or individuals with malicious intent to track their movements and potentially approach them.
Cyberbullying: Even seemingly innocent posts about your child’s school friends or their school activities can, if misinterpreted or taken out of context, contribute to cyberbullying scenarios.
Future Reputational Issues: The content you post today can be found by your children years from now. Embarrassing photos, inappropriate comments, or details about their childhood struggles can have a lasting impact on their self-esteem and future opportunities.
Identity Theft for Minors: Children can also be victims of identity theft. Information like their birth date or social security number, if shared publicly, can be used to create fraudulent identities.

Information That is Absolutely Off-Limits

We strongly advise against sharing any of the following on Facebook:

Your child’s full name, especially when combined with their school or location.
Photos or videos that clearly show your child’s face or identifiable features, particularly if they are in their school uniform or in a recognizable location.
Details about your child’s school, including their class, teacher, or specific location.
Your child’s date of birth or age, particularly the full birthdate.
Information about your child’s daily routines, such as when they walk to school or attend after-school activities.
Private medical information or diagnoses related to your child.
Any conversations or images related to family disputes or personal issues involving your child.
The location of your home in relation to where your children play or go to school.

Establishing Robust Digital Boundaries for Your Family

Create a separate Facebook account for yourself, and ensure its privacy settings are stringent. Never use your child’s account or tag them extensively in posts where their identity is revealed.
Educate yourself and your family about online safety. Teach your children about the importance of privacy from a young age.
Think before you post. Ask yourself: “Could this information put my child at risk?” If the answer is yes, do not share it.
Use privacy settings to limit who can see your posts, but never rely on these settings as your sole protection.
Consider the concept of “digital legacy.” The content you share now will exist on the internet indefinitely.
Communicate with other parents about responsible sharing practices.

Protecting your children’s privacy and safety online is a non-negotiable priority. By meticulously guarding sensitive information about your children, you provide them with the most valuable gift: a secure and protected childhood, both online and offline.

Conclusion: Mastering Your Digital Presence

Navigating the complexities of social media requires a conscious and proactive approach to privacy. While Facebook offers a powerful tool for connection and communication, it is also a repository of personal information that, if mishandled, can lead to significant risks. At MakeUseOf, we are committed to providing our readers with the knowledge and tools to create a safer and more secure online experience. By adhering to the principles outlined above – safeguarding your location and travel plans, protecting your sensitive personal identification details, maintaining the privacy of your daily routines, treasuring private conversations, securing your financial information, guarding your intimate personal details, and most importantly, shielding your children from online threats – you can build a robust digital defense. Mastering your digital presence is an ongoing process. Regularly review your privacy settings, stay informed about emerging threats, and always prioritize your safety and security above the fleeting gratification of oversharing. Your digital footprint is a permanent record; ensure it reflects a person who values their privacy and security.

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