Keep Photos Private in a Digital “Shoebox” | Avast

Emma McGowan, 9 June 2021

Maintain your online privacy in the new old-fashioned way

We all do it. You baked a perfect cake? Post a photo on social media. Your dog is too cute for words? Post a photo on social media. You and your family hiked through a national park? Post a... you get it.
Yes, so much of life today is observed through the windows of social media apps. It’s not even new – we’re all used to it by now. In this age of cell phones, we’re snapping digital photos constantly, and a certain percentage of them inevitably end up paraded on social media for all the likes, hearts, and care emojis they can rack up.
Unfortunately, it’s a double-edged sword. Social media does let us share our joys and sorrows with friends and family, no matter where they live. But it’s also in the data business. Namely, your data. They collect it, share it, and create a profile of you with it in order to divine the best way to get you to buy stuff. Actually, maybe it’s a triple-edged sword, because oversharing online is also a way that identity thieves and scammers get information about their future victims.
Being an open book on social media to your friends and family is not a bad thing, but being an open book to advertisers who are only interested in your wallet or scammers who only want to scam – that’s another story. As evidenced by Facebook’s recent data leak, the site already holds your phone number, full name, location, birthday, email address, and biographical informat ..

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