November 2013: Social Network Users Ignore Privacy Settings

ESET, an Internet security company, polled 2,000 adults in the U.D. and found that 80% of those adults used social media. Of the adults that used social media, 64% understood that it was the individual's responsible for online privacy and security but in their online usage, social networking best practices were rarely followed. Another finding that emerged from that study was that only 1 in 5 of the users ever made changes to their privacy settings. This lack of awareness led to 28% of the accounts being hacked.

Security and privacy involves more than just settings. 33% of users stated that they flagged a suspicious post or email, and 30% helped notify friends of suspicious activity on their accounts. Alerting friends and raising security awareness can help protect individuals and their personal information.

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