Spartans,

Here are a few quick tips to help you stay safe while you connect with friends and family through social media.

• Make your account private: While each social media platform has a different process to control privacy settings, most provide the option to make your profile and posts visible to friends only. Making your social media accounts private helps prevent unwanted persons from seeing what you are doing and posting.
• Be careful posting photos: Photos can inadvertently provide personal information to individuals, such as your location, child’s school, place of employment, and so forth. Use discretion when posting images.
• Review your tag settings: Sometimes well-meaning friends and family may tag you in posts that you would rather not be tagged in. Some social media platforms allow you to review posts that are tagged with your name. Consider checking your account settings to see how and where tags may be used by others.
• Assume that what you post will not be private: Even if you have enabled strong privacy settings, you should not expect that what you share on social media will remain private. What you post can be saved and shared again. If you have any concern that what you share might  get out in the general public, it’s best not to share it.
• Be critical of “friend” invites: While a friend request from a complete stranger will usually send up a warning flag, sometimes friend requests can come from fake accounts using the names of people you know. Always be cautious when accepting a friend request, even if it is from someone you know. When in doubt, reach out to the person and confirm the request is from them.

Thank you Jeff Japp from our Project Management Office for providing these tips. As always, the SJSU IT Service Desk is here to help by phone at (408) 924-1530 or online.

Thanks,

Bob Lim
Vice President for Information Technology
and CIO at San José State University