Whether you realize it or not, whenever you sign-up for a new social network, you share a lot of valuable, personal information. While you need this to sign-up for most social networks, how much information is too much to share? This collection of social media stats shows you what type of information gets posted to your favorite social networks and what the risks are to posting it online.
Some of the information that people often share on social media sites are their birthday, names of family members, favorite television shows, and more. While this doesn’t seem like a big deal, it is when you consider that 63% of users use their birthday to answer a security question (tweet this stat).
To put that into context, if you’re someone who uses your birthday to answer a security question and it is available publicly on your favorite social media sites because you shared it, this could put you at risk.
In addition to sharing your birthday, here are a few more social media stats that you want to be aware of.
- 50% of Facebook users check their Facebook privacy settings at least every 2-3 months (tweet this)
- 25% of Facebook users location-tag their posts each month (tweet this)
- 20 million US users include their birthday and year in their profile (tweet this)
Overall, there is a lot of personal information that you share on social networks that can a security concern.
Take a look at this infographic from Trend Micro that talks about other social media stats that we post on social networks and the risks associated with sharing them.
Social media stats on oversharing
Protecting yourself from oversharing on social media.
The only true way to limit the sharing of information on social networks is not to join them. Obviously, you feel like you’re missing out.
If you’re a Facebook user, be sure you read the following articles:
- 10 Facebook privacy settings to know and bookmark
- 10 things to never share on Facebook
- Facebook photo privacy settings
Do these social media stats surprise you? What ways do you protect yourself from oversharing personal information on social networks? Leave a comment below.