Don’t Post Any Status Updates About Your Vacation While You’re Still on Vacation
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is posting anything about your vacation while you are still on it. A thief trolling social media or perhaps a friend with a delinquent brother who happens to see your vacation post will be able to put two and two together and infer that you are not at home since you are posting while on vacation.
They will realize that, given the fact above, they have ample time to rob your house since you aren’t going to be back anytime soon.
Never assume that your status post is going out to ‘friends only’ as your friend may have left their Facebook account logged into a computer at the local library, allowing complete strangers to view your status posts.
Bottom line: If you wouldn’t share your vacation details with a room full of strangers, don’t share it on Facebook until you have safely returned home.
Don’t Post Pictures While You’re on Vacation
Did you just snap and post a picture of the decadent dessert that you are about to enjoy while at that fancy restaurant on your vacation?
By doing so you may, depending on your privacy settings, have just given away your present location in the GPS-based geotag information that gets embedded in the metadata of the picture when you took it. This geotag information can allow Facebook to know where the picture was taken, which again, depending on your privacy settings, could provide both friends and strangers with your current location.
Don’t Tag Fellow Vacationers While You And They Are Still on Vacation
Vacationing with friends or family? You should probably not tag them in pictures or status updates while you are all still on vacation because doing so will indicate their current location as well. They likely don’t want this information revealed about themselves for the same reasons mentioned above.
Wait until everyone is safely at home and then tag them later if they want to be tagged.
Afraid of being tagged by someone else? Enable the Facebook Tag Review privacy feature to prevent being tagged by someone else without your permission.
Don’t Post Upcoming Travel Plans
Posting upcoming travel plans and itineraries on Facebook can also be very dangerous.
If you post that you’re going to be somewhere at a certain time and place then criminals could be there waiting for you, or it could help them know how much time they have to rob your house before you return home.
Your family and your employer should be the only people that need to know specifics about your travel plans, don’t post the information on Facebook.