As spring comes around, it’s time for many people to focus on decluttering and cleaning up their living spaces. But in addition to physical spaces, it’s also important to pay attention to digital clutter and clean up our online presence, starting with social media.
For many of us, social media profiles are like our front windows, allowing others to peer into our private lives. It’s crucial to regularly review and clean up our online presence to ensure that our private information remains private.
One of the first steps in digital spring cleaning is to tidy up our digital trail. Many people have been using various social media platforms for at least a decade, such as Google+, MySpace or LastFM. It’s important to ask ourselves whether we still even use these platforms and, if not, delete those accounts right away.
It’s also important to review our privacy settings on the platforms we still actively use. Facebook’s “Memories” feature is a good nudge for deleting old posts, reviewing who can see our activity or find us on the site, and making other adjustments to our privacy settings. Other social media platforms also offer similar features for privacy checks.
Another important step is to tidy up our blogs and free websites, which are often forgotten about and left open for anyone to find old, potentially private information. It’s crucial to review these sites and remove any personal information that is no longer necessary or wanted.
Now, let’s talk about passwords. It’s important to aim for better account security, starting with using a password manager. Password managers generate a strong and unique password for each online account, helping to avoid common password mistakes such as using the same password across multiple platforms. Using a password manager also ensures that we only need to remember a single, master password.
It’s also important to audit our passwords and ensure that they are unique and strong. If any of our passwords match or are similar to common passwords, it’s important to change them. Passwords should also be unique because if a password is stolen or leaked, criminals often attempt to break into other accounts using the same username/password combination.
Another important aspect of account security is two-factor authentication (2FA). This feature adds an extra layer of protection to our accounts and requires a second factor, such as a text message or biometric data, in addition to our login information. Many online services offer 2FA for account protection, but it’s not always automatically enabled, so be sure to check and activate it in your account’s security and privacy settings.
In conclusion, digital spring cleaning is just as important as physical spring cleaning. By tidying up our social media presence, reviewing privacy settings, and improving our account security, we can ensure that our private information remains private and secure.