How to Keep Your Family Safe Online (and Protect your Identity)
Updated: Feb 22, 2022
Sponsored by: MyIDCare
Alright. Time for some real talk. A heart to heart if you will. We need to talk about your social media usage. No, I’m not going to talk about the time you spend on your devices so you can stop rolling your eyes at me. I want to talk about something more important than that… I want to talk about privacy.
With good ol’ Zuckerberg in the news visiting Washington and reports of government agencies stalking social accounts it has started to make me feel like I’m in a George Orwell 1984 world. Big Brother is coming after our data… the problem is, Big Brother could be a government agency, an internet identity thief, or your neighbor Steve. Leave us alone Steve…
If you’re reading this and you’re not currently worried, here are a few data points and sources for ya:
Active social media users have a 30% higher risk of becoming fraud victims
70% of US employers use social networking sites to research job candidates during the hiring process.
48% of US employers check up on current employees on social media.
The above stats relate more to you and me. The adults of this world. But what are the numbers for our kids you ask? Well… Guard Child has a laundry list for you to read through… but here are some unfortunate highlights:
55% of teens have shared PERSONAL INFORMATION to a stranger (photos & physical descriptions)
33% of internet initiated sex crimes were linked to social media sites
88% of teenagers have witnessed cyberbullying on a social media site
There will be an average of 70k posts about a child by the time they are 18 (Who Knows What About Me 2018)
Ok… So are you with me now? (if you weren’t already…)
Now, the obvious follow-up question I had to all of this as a parent myself is “what can I do about all of this?” Well, one might say that you could shut down all of your social media accounts… But, chances are, your kids are going to fight to have their own. Also, there are people trying to steal other personal information outside of social media (social security, credit cards, etc.). And you can’t just “shut those down” either…
I’ve tried looking around for companies that can help and I also signed up for that one year of free monitoring after Equifax got hacked (I’m still baffled how ONE OF THE MAJOR CREDIT BUREAUS was compromised...); but, I couldn’t find anything that would cover everything.
Enter, the wonderful people over at MyIDCare. This company surprisingly had it all: Tri-Bureau credit monitoring, Fraud Alerts, Dark Web monitoring, $1 Million insurance, Identity theft recovery, SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING, and more!
I’ve been using their services for about a month now and I’ve already been notified of 3 different places where my passwords have been compromised! It’s sad to see, but I’m excited to know that their software is working!
Also, SocialSentry, its social media monitoring feature, has been in full force as well, scanning for frauds/scams, account takeovers, impersonations, and inappropriate content. Within seconds of connecting my social accounts, SocialSentry was pinging me with words and phrases that it caught on my posts that it thought were offensive. Since I have a family-friendly page (as do many of you), catching comments that could be inappropriate is very important to me. If a specific comment is unable to be deleted by me, SocialSentry will work to contact the social media site to pull that comment down!
Heaven knows I don’t need Aunt Karen or Uncle Joe looking through my posts to find some unsightly comments to share at the next family gathering.
So, if you want to help keep your personal information safe and keep your social media protected (as well as your children’s data), please do yourself a favor and check out MyIDCare for peace of mind. This is something that I’ve been worried about for the last few months as I’ve seen more and more headlines about stolen data.
See! I told you this wouldn’t be about shaming us for our time on our phones and social media! I think these sites are great and a lot of fun.
It’s ok to be social online, just use protection. ;)
Use Promo Code PAPA30 for 30 days free of MyIDCare’s premier membership to start protecting your family now.
Have you or someone you know been hacked before? What happened? And what did you or they do to prevent it from happening in the future!?
Let me know in the comments below!
Author: Andrew McFarlane
Andrew McFarlane is a full-time dad and a parenting blogger. He shares advice for new parents, experienced parents, and any parent in-between at PapaPerspective.com. He does this through positive parenting methods, the best parenting gear, and lots of laughter. When he's not blogging about the best parenting practices, he'll be out taking photos, playing hockey, or spending time with his wife and 2 boys.
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