Christian Mancier, Partner at Gorvins and specialist in data protection, has been featured in the This Is Money section of The Daily Mail providing his expert tips for staying safe whilst being online.
‘It’s so important to be selective about what you post on social media,’ advises Christian Mancier, ‘For example, posting that it’s your 21st birthday today could allow people to work out your date of birth — a frequent security question — which someone may use to bypass security while trying to impersonate you.’
This, he says, could let crooks do anything, from using your personal details to apply for credit to impersonating you on a dating website. ‘So it is vital to think before you post, and to carry out regular check-ups of your social media accounts to prevent that information from falling into the wrong hands.’
Here, with the help of leading experts, the article reveals the vital steps your children and grandchildren should be taking to protect themselves — tips you’d be wise to follow as well.
‘Use a strong password which is a mix of upper and lower-case letters, numbers and special characters such as !@%*,’ says Christian Mancier at Gorvins. ‘The longer the password the more secure it will be.’ It’s also best to use different passwords for different social media sites.
Not posting when you are going on holiday on social media. ‘Aside from the risk of burglary, this may actually invalidate your home insurance as you are alerting people to the fact your home is unoccupied,’ says data protection lawyer Christian Mancier.
Being careful how you use activity monitoring apps such as Strava, which are popular with cyclists and runners so they can keep track of their performance. Enable the privacy setting that hides your start and end location so people can’t locate your house, says Christian Mancier. ‘Very expensive bikes have been stolen by thieves working out where cyclists live from their public Strava profile, which shows the route they have just cycled right from their front door,’ he adds.