Careless use of social networking continues to grow the network of criminals ready and willing to use your information against you.  With the tremendous rise in the use of social networking, there has also been a drastic increase in crimes attributed to information obtained from unsuspecting users.

                According to the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) the four major dangers of using social networking websites are: 

                Over sharing information.  When creating a profile page, most websites will ask for personal information such as home addresses, birthdays, and phone numbers.  Giving this information can be very dangerous and will be made public to anyone who visits a user's profile page. 

                Sharing simple things like your favorite color can tip off a hacker to try to see if you used that as a password on your account.  The biggest threat of oversharing information is identity theft and it is not uncommon in the world of online social networking.  Online computer criminals look to steal identities in obvious and not-so-obvious ways.

                False identities.  Social networking sites make it very easy to pretend to be someone else. Even if an individual may be friends with someone on the site, anyone can take control of a user's account if he or she can obtain the user's password.  As a result, someone who is a "friend" can ask for money or gain personal information that can be used to hack into other accounts.  You may think you're talking to a friend or relative, but in fact the information is being requested by someone who has hacked into their account.      

                Location-based services.  Location-based services can be one of the most dangerous features provided by social networking sites.  It exposes the profile user's location and whereabouts.  The service also has a feature that allows users to tag who they are with at any given time.  While it can be fun to share your location with friends and family, it can also increase your vulnerability, potentially opening you up to being robbed, sexually assaulted, or worse as predators can use this tool to track your movements. 

                Posting photos.  One of the features of online social networking that many enjoy is the photo-sharing feature.  This feature allows you to post photos 24 hours a day, whether it is from your computer or mobile device.   The internet makes it easy to obtain photos and use the images in any way a person may choose.   Photo tampering is a big threat when it comes to posting photos online.

                According to the NCPC, a few good rules to remember when posting on any social network include:  Should I share this? Will the information shared put yourself or someone else in danger?  Am I selecting friends online that I can trust?  Always keep in mind that it's not just about what you post, but how others may use that content.  Is the information I am sharing transparent? Before sharing information to the public, does your post give out too much personal information? 

                Use your head and think about what you're about to post before you touch the keyboard.