One in five users has never changed the settings on their social media accounts
Only 28% of users are aware of their account privacy policies, while 51% have never dealt with them and 20% have never changed the default settings.
One in five users has never changed the settings on their social media accounts, which means they have probably never bothered to filter the
information they share with their online friends, since the default settings usually serve the commercial purposes of each platform.
A typical example is Facebook’s recent move to expand the ability to search for people even when they don’t want their profile to be visible, as well as Google’s move to use Google+ usernames alongside product ads. Users can opt out of both of these, provided they have checked their account settings for recent changes. The relevant finding comes from a recent survey of social media user behavior conducted on behalf of ESET by Harris Interactive.
In a related question, 64% of respondents indicate individual responsibility as the main factor in online security, with ISPs (17%) and social media themselves (12%) occupying second and third place respectively.
However, when investigating whether this responsible behavior is implemented in practice, the percentages show that only 28% of respondents are informed about the privacy policies of their accounts, while 51% have never dealt with it.
28% of social media users say they have been the victim of cybercriminals on one or more accounts. In fact, for more than half of these users, the attack took place in the last year, while an overwhelming 91% have received at least one suspicious email. Although emails are considered mainly suspicious, one in three users also recognize messages on social media as suspicious, while more than one in five have encountered malware or links to malicious software on social networks.
Source: protothema.gr
