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Why It’s a Bad Idea to Comment with Personal Information
Anyone who is on social media knows the practice of commenting, but most don’t know why it’s a bad idea to comment with personal information. Many feel like they are making a point or sharing vital information to provide clarity, but many people often share way too much personal information. Many people combat this by keeping comments to a minimum and just use likes, reposts, or reTweets or shares to express their opinions. Sometimes, though, you just feel the need to comment. On those special days when liking or hearting a post just isn’t enough, go ahead and share your opinion with the tread and the contained world, but try not to be trapped by these commonly made comment mistakes:
- Don’t include your family members’ names
- Don’t add your social security number (this seems like common sense, but people have actually done this to prove they are “American”)
- Don’t post your address in a comment
- Don’t even post your town in a comment
- Don’t give out your phone number on an open, public thread
- If you need to use an example, don’t use anything that is very personally identifying
- If you don’t own your own business and your account isn’t work-related, don’t mention your company or include their name without their permission
- Be vague about the details of your personal life, unless it’s very relevant to the clarity of your comment
- Don’t post bitter “side message” comments to people causing you grief in your personal life, keep your social media life separate and don’t give them the narcissistic supply they crave and so desperately need, eventually they will go away and move on to the next victim/imaginary competitor, there’s always another one around every corner
If you have posted any of these things, go back into your history and threads, and edit or delete the posts. You can do this on most social media websites. Simply go into your profile and view your activity, click the ellipsis in the upper right corner and click edit or delete. If you cannot edit it is better to just delete the entire post rather than leave the information out there flying in the wind. If you need help figuring out how to edit or delete a comment you made, try looking it up on the social media’s help files. If you’re still having trouble, reach out to tech support, most companies have live chat now and they can probably help you get rid of that info quickly. You just do not want this data floating around online for everyone to see. So, do whatever you can to get it off the feed.
Sometimes it is too late and various data miners and data harvesters have already gotten some of your personal information such as your address, phone number or other info. As a result of all this data gathering, you may do a search and find out that your personal information has already ended up online. If you find your name and address are online, contact an internet removal service who can show you how to remove your information from the internet. They can also delete information and remove your address from the internet.
