2022 Data Privacy Day – Tips On Keeping Your Private Information Safe

On this International Data Privacy Day, we could all use a reminder to focus on what we can control – the extent to which we share private information about ourselves online. We cannot control the fact that there is an entire economy fueling bad actors who spend their entire lives trying to steal our private information. But, we can take basic steps to avoid publicizing information that only makes the bad actors' lives easier.

On January 25, 2022, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published data on the frequency with which scammers mine social media posts to defraud unsuspecting consumers. According to the FTC, one in four people who reported losing money to fraud in 2021 said the scam started with an ad, post or other message on social media. More than 95,000 people reported losing approximately $770 million due to fraud initiated on social media platforms in 2021. That represents an 18-fold increase over 2017. Scammers use personal details gleaned