7 Personal Details You Should Never Divulge Online

7 Personal Details You Should Never Divulge Online

iStockphoto
By Suelain Moy

What do the following have in common?

  1. The name of your favorite movie
  2. Concert tickets or sporting event passes with a barcode
  3. Your high school
  4. Your mother’s maiden name
  5. The name of your best friend in high school
  6. Your full birthdate, including the year
  7. The street address of your childhood home

Basically, any of the answers above can be used to answer common security questions that would allow cyber thieves to gain access to an online banking or credit card account. They can be used to reset your password. That’s why you should never post these details publicly on a social media account. Even the name of a beloved pet or school mascot can be fair game.

Related: Think You’ve Been Hacked? 10 Tips to Protect Yourself Now

We already know not to post our vacation plans, where we are meeting friends for drinks or dinner, or where our children go to school. But we should be aware that information we post on our social media accounts can be used by others to profile and target us.

This is especially important when you consider that Facebook users admit that as much as 7 percent of their Friend lists, which can easily number 200 or more, are people they’ve never met in person. If you share your address and phone number on Facebook with Friends only, make sure all of your contacts are people you know; otherwise cut them from your list or relegate them to Acquaintance status.

Even if you don’t have a profile on Facebook, chances are your spouse, co-worker, or teenager does. According to the Pew Research Center, half of Internet users who do not use Facebook themselves live with someone who does. Make sure they’re not giving out your personal information too.

Will Trump's Tax Cuts Really Happen? Economists Are Surprisingly Optimistic

By Yuval Rosenberg

Despite all the thorny questions swirling around President Trump's nascent tax reform plan, 29 of 38 economists surveyed by Bloomberg in a monthly poll said they expect Congress to cut taxes by November of next year.

The hitch: The economists don’t expect the cuts will help the economy much. The median projection of a larger group of 71 economists is for 2018 growth of 2.3 percent, up only slightly from 2.1 percent this year — and by 2019, the economists see growth slipping back to 2 percent.

Clinton Loses Altitude in Iowa

By The Fiscal Times Staff

 

Sanders and Biden Pressure Clinton in a Three-Way Race

By The Fiscal Times Staff

 

Super PACS Have Raised a Startling $258 Million…So Far

By The Fiscal Times Staff

 

Clinton Improves in National Poll, but Biden's Potential Grows

By The Fiscal Times Staff