Are you sharing too much online? 

This morning, you probably scrolled through your feed, liked a few posts, and maybe shared something yourself. A photo, an update, or a check-in. None of it felt like a risk. 

But every one of those posts handed a stranger a piece of your life. And the picture they paint is more detailed than you think. 

This isn’t about quitting social media or living in fear of every post. It’s about knowing what you’re sharing without realizing it, and making a few small changes to protect yourself without changing how you live online. 

Social media was built to get you sharing 

Social media platforms are designed to reward sharing. Every like, comment, and notification is a nudge to post more, share more, and stay longer. The more you share, the more the platform learns about you, and the more valuable you become to advertisers. This means that oversharing is the intended outcome. 

Four in five people overshare personal data on social media, with 42% posting enough information to give criminals what they need to launch an attack. Most of them had no idea they were doing it. 

What scammers do with your public posts 

Your public posts are an absolute goldmine for scammers, putting you at direct risk. 

They collect details from your posts over time and piece them together, giving them enough to work with. Here is what they do with that information: 

• Build convincing scams using your name, location, and personal details to craft messages that feel legitimate. 

• Answer your security questions using pet names, hometowns, and schools pulled straight from your posts. 

• Impersonate people you trust by using details about your family and friends to pose as someone you know. 

• Target you with personalized phishing attacks that reference your bank, your city, or your child’s school. 

Five things to think twice about before you post 

Not every post carries the same risk. Some types of information are far more useful to scammers than others. These are the five that come up most often. 

1. Vacation photos shared in real time: A vacation photo tells people you are away from home. It also tells them how long you will be gone and where you are staying. Your home sitting empty is useful information for the wrong person. Saving those photos for when you get back shares the same memory without the risk. 
2. Birthdays, pet names, and schools: These three details show up in almost every account recovery process. Your full birthdate, your first pet’s name, and the school you attended are commonly used for security verification by banks and platforms. When that information lives on your public profile, anyone can use it to get into your accounts. 
3. Your kids’ daily routines: Posts about your children reveal patterns that are easy for strangers to follow. A school name, sports schedule, or a tagged location at an after-school activity tells someone exactly where your child will be and when. That kind of information, in the wrong hands, poses a safety risk. 
4. Location check-ins and commute patterns: A single check-in tells people where you are. A pattern of check-ins tells them where you are every Monday morning, Friday evening, and weekend afternoon. Routine is predictable and is useful to someone looking to take advantage of it. Most people don’t think about their posts as a pattern, but that is exactly how scammers read them. 
5. Photos with more in the background than you realize: The subject of a photo is rarely the only thing worth looking at. A boarding pass shows your full name, flight number, and travel dates. A piece of mail shows your home address. A laptop screen in the background of a selfie can expose open documents or account details. Scammers look at backgrounds. Before posting, the background deserves as much attention as the subject. 

What your family should do first 

Small changes to your online habits can significantly reduce your exposure. Here is where your family should focus first: 

• Review your privacy settings on every social media account and switch public profiles to private. 

• Look at your old posts and delete anything that shares your location, routine, or personal facts. 

• Check your bio for things like phone number, hometown, or work details that do not need to be public. 

• Sign up for MERENA, your free personal cyber advisor, which can help you identify what information about you is already public and guide you on the next steps. 

• Talk to your kids about what is and isn’t safe to share online before they post. 

Your story should be yours to tell 

Staying safe online does not mean disappearing from it. It means being more intentional about what you share and who can see it. 

The risks are real, but so are the fixes. A few changes to your privacy settings and your posting habits put you back in control of your own story.