Signs You’re Sharing Too Much Online

If you post in your online communities frequently, you know there’s always fear and talk about the dangers of oversharing, but they hardly talk about what to be cautious of. Most of the time we misinterpret oversharing as openly talking about our struggles and experiences. But it’s more about engaging in behavior that gives strangers access to information on your identity, routines, and relationships they can later exploit.

This blog explores some of the oversharing behaviors many of us engage in without thinking. Read to find out if any apply to you and make appropriate changes to keep yourself and those you care about safe.

You Regularly Post Real-Time Location Updates

Keeping friends and Instagram followers in the loop sounds safe. You might post a pic from a restaurant you’re currently at or tell everyone where you’re going next. This can be dangerous because it tells others where you are and where you aren’t.

Influencers should be particularly wary since this can help with stalking behavior or make it easier to find you. But regular people are at risk too. Some statistics claim that close to 30% of burglaries are committed by neighbors, acquaintances, and other people we understand in some way. If they follow your social media activity, crooks like these can simply tell when your home is ripe for the picking.

You Reveal Personal Details About Yourself 

Publicly sharing personally identifiable information is not a good idea. This can be your full name and address, the names of your parents and siblings, which school you go to, who your employer is, etc.

Telling a public social media group you were born in June isn’t a big issue. The problem is that we let such information slip all the time. The more of them there are, the easier it becomes to piece together your real identity.

This can be misused in various ways. A scammer who knows where you live or where you went to school can make their scam messages sound more believable. With enough exposed information, it’s also possible to become a victim of identity theft. The thieves may try to pull off various schemes, like credit card or tax fraud. If you think you’ve read this article a tad too late and suspect you’ve already been a victim of such fraud, learn how to start the identity recovery process immediately.

You Post Photos without Considering What They Show 

Consider this. You just decorated your front yard for Halloween or got an awesome new Christmas wreath for your front door. It’s genuine to want to show moments like these off. However, doing so can offer clues about you that you didn’t intend to share.

That wreath pic might cover your house number, and the front yard might be easy to find on Google Maps. You might also include things that tell a lot about your socioeconomic status and flag you as someone worth stealing from.

You Share a Lot about Family and Friends 

It’s second nature to be proud of our loved ones’ achievements. You might share pics from your daughter’s latest dance recital or brag about your spouse’s new promotion and think nothing of it since these things are positive and worth celebrating.

Sadly, such information can negatively influence both you and the loved one. Scammers might pose as your child’s school and send a phishing email that asks you to cover an outstanding payment or fill out a form with even more personal information.

There’s also the matter of consent. You’re actually exposing people who might not have agreed to have their information shared, including your close family. To protect yourself and your loved ones, consider subscribing to reliable protection tools. Reliable and well-rounded tools like Coveron come with discount codes so that you can pay less. 

You Assume that Sensitive Information Won’t Leave Private Groups 

Private social media groups, Telegram channels, small Discord servers, and message-deleting chat apps create a false illusion of safety. You might be tempted to drop your guard when you’re in these spaces and show more about yourself than you would in a more public setting.

The companies that offer these services aren’t immune from data breaches. Depending on what details they keep and what a data breach exposes, anything from your email address and password to credit card information could end up on the dark web.

Also, a small audience group you trust doesn’t necessarily guarantee confidentiality. Other participants might screenshot conversations or just share what they find out about you elsewhere. Their accounts might also be compromised by attackers who impersonate the real user to find out more information about others.

Conclusion

Oversharing isn’t about being too open or sharing about your feelings too much. It’s about the little information we give away without thinking. Where we are, where we live, who our loved ones are, and what we own — and the list goes on.

Luckily, protecting yourself and your digital privacy doesn’t require deleting your accounts and disappearing from the internet. Post that restaurant pic after you’ve left, keep identifying information to yourself, double-check what’s visible in your photos, and don’t think that “private” groups are actually private.

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