Protect Your Privacy While Online
August 9, 2012
In today’s connected world, we are often comfortable with sharing personal details about ourselves online. While the amount of information you share is your choice, it is important for you to take steps to protect your information online to reduce the risk of identity theft or other issues.
Ten tips to help you protect your privacy:
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Don’t give personal information (e.g., name, social security number, date of birth, address) to other people or organizations you don’t know or unsure you can trust.
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Social Security will never ask for personal information on third party social networks, such as Facebook. Don’t post your social security number in blog comments or via email. More tips on protecting your social security number can be found here.
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What you post online is widely available and could stay there forever. Be careful of what you post or what you say, as someone may be able to find it online years later.
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Facebook and other third party social sites try to protect you from malicious attacks, but any website can be breached. Always use strong passwords, and use different passwords for different websites.
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Always be cautious of emails and links sent to you. They may appear harmless, but they could be a virus. You can hover over links in many email programs to see the actual URL behind the link. If you don’t know it, don’t click on it!
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If you often use many social sites, look at your accounts to see if someone can connect the dots to identify who and where you are and what you are doing. Here is an article that talks about some of these dangers.
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Avoid using your full name when you can; it’s okay to use aliases or just your initials.
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Do not post personal, sensitive or medical information to any public site, including Facebook. For example, on the Choose Work Facebook Page, we don’t need to know about your personal medical information to get you help!
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Facebook is one of the most popular social networks, and because of the type of sharing it encourages, it is very important to understand and use privacy controls. Learn more at http://www.facebook.com/help/privacy.
- Review the Ticket to Work Program comment policy, at www.chooseworkttw.net/footer/comments-policy.html and review the Ticket to Work Program privacy and security notice at www.chooseworkttw.net/footer/privacy-security.html
Be safe online! If you wish to discuss your personal situation in relation to your Social Security disability benefit and the Ticket Program, the safest way to do that is to call our Help Line at 1-866-968-7842/866-833-2967 (TTY/TDD) M - F 8:00 AM - 8:00 PM EDT.
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