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What Is “Sharenting”?

What Is Sharenting?

The Collins English dictionary recently added a new word to its lexicon – Sharenting. What is “Sharenting”? Collins describes sharenting as, “the habitual use of social media to share news, images, etc of one’s children”. In the social media age, many parents are quick to share each and every one of their children’s life events on their profiles. While being a proud parent is nothing to be ashamed of, are there consequences to “sharenting”?

Potential Risks Of Sharenting

Parents may not be aware of just how much of their child’s information they are sharing, even with the most innocent of posts. Let’s say you make a post to celebrate your child’s birth. The first thing you would easily give away would be the child’s birthdate. You also most likely will reveal their name, possibly even their full name. This may not seem harmful, but a person’s full name and birthdate can be used in the creation of a synthetic identity. It can happen even when they are a child, or criminals can wait until they are older. The information doesn’t change.

One topic that many people overlook is password protection. Many of us use passwords that can be easily remembered. The sharing of personal information can be used to hack into your accounts. Names of pets, schools, birthdates, maiden names, sports teams you support – many people use these types of things as parts of their passwords. Sharing this information on social media may unintentionally aid criminals in accessing more of your personal information.

How Can I Protect Myself?

To avoid “oversharenting”, follow these guidelines to self-monitor what you post and to protect your information.

  • Frequently review your security settings on each of your social media accounts. Are your privacy settings as strict as they can be? Who can see your posts?
  • Set up strong passwords on all accounts which house personal information (that is pretty much every website you have to log into). You should use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Passwords should be 12-18 characters long. We advise using a password manager to store your passwords for easy access and use unique passwords for every website. Since you most likely won’t be able to remember all of these, a password manager makes it quick and easy to log in to your favorite sites. Never store passwords in your web browser.
  • Before you post to social media, think about what you’re posting and what information you’ll be sharing.

What is “sharenting”? We hope you have a grasp on the concept now and are better equipped to protect your children’s personal information. Barclays Bank predicts that “sharenting” will account for ⅔ of identity theft facing children by the end of the next decade. Now is the time to truly think about what you’re posting to social media.

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The Full Impact Of The Equifax Data Breach

The Full Impact Of The Equifax Data Breach

By now you sure are aware of the massive data breach Equifax suffered in 2017. Since word broke about this incident, some numbers have been estimated regarding the scale of those affected. We’ve never been given the full report, until now. In a filing detail to the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), Equifax released the entirety of the numbers regarding their data breach. The full impact of the Equifax data breach is astounding, as more than half of the American population had some their sensitive information stolen.

Breaking Down The Numbers

What makes the Equifax breach so terrifying is due to the types of information that was stolen. Names, Social Security numbers, addresses and driver’s license numbers are just a few of the things that were widely stolen during the breach.

 

Name 146.6 Million
Birthdate 146.6 Million
Social Security # 146.5 Million
Address 99 Million
Gender 27.3 Million
Phone # 20.3 Million
Driver’s License # 17.6 Million
E-mail Address 1.8 Million
Credit Card Information 209,000
Tax ID 97,500

As you can see, this is a huge amount of highly confidential information that was compromised. This is information that can be used by criminals which can damage your good standing.

Not only information was stolen, it also involved images which were uploaded to Equifax’s website.

Driver’s License 38,000
Social Security/Tax Payer ID 12,000
Passport 3,200
Miscellaneous 3,000

These images can be used by criminals to escape the country and create synthetic identities among other nefarious activities.

What Can You Do?

  • You can place a credit freeze/hold on your file through one of the major credit bureaus. This will create an extra hurdle for criminals when trying to use your information.
  • You can sign up for an identity theft restoration service, such as ReclaimMyID, which will fully restore your identity should it be stolen.

The full impact of the Equifax data breach is yet to be seen. Odds are that your information has been obtained by criminals, so you must protect yourself. Also, use this as an opportunity to become more familiar with identity theft and how to protect your information.

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How Often Does Identity Theft Happen?

How Often Does Identity Theft Happen?

Identity theft is a hot topic in the news due to recent data breaches, specifically Equifax. A data breach is when a company has the personal records of their clients or consumers stolen. This can be as simple as a name or as severe as a social security number. Data breaches are becoming more and more common, so how often does identity theft happen?

Identity Theft Statistics

Javelin Strategy and Research has publicly posted identity theft statistics dating back to 2012. These findings help paint a broad picture of the impact identity theft has in the US.

Year
 # of Individuals Impacted (Millions)
 Stolen (Billions)
2017 16.7 $16.8
2016 15.4 $16.2
2015 13.1 $15.5
2014 12.7 $16.4
2013 13.1 $19.3
2012 12.6 $22.1

 

This information shows us that the number of individuals who are victimized by identity theft is increasing. With the increase in data breaches, this makes sense. However, the amount of money stolen per victim as decreased slightly. In 2012, victims had an average of $1,753.96 stolen, compared to $1,051.94 in 2016 and $1,005.98 in 2017.

While it is good to see that the amount stolen per victim has decreased, it’s the increase in total victims that is extremely concerning.

Most Common Types Of Identity Theft

There are 9 common forms of identity theft, but which ones are the most common? Thankfully, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has provided this information.

Type Description Percentage
Employment/Tax Fraud Using stolen information to obtain a job or file a fraudulent tax return. 34%
Credit Card Fraud Stolen credit card information is used to make fraudulent purchases. 33%
Phone/Utilities Fraud Stolen information is used to open a cell phone or utilities account. 13%
Bank Fraud Personal information is stolen and used to open a bank account or take over an existing account. 12%
Loan/Lease Fraud Loans or leases obtained with stolen information. 7%
Gov’t Benefits Fraud Government benefits obtained via stolen information. 7%

 

You will notice that these percentages add up to more than 100%. This is due to the fact that the same claim can feature more than one type of fraud.

In order to learn to protect yourself, visit our news section for a wide variety of articles related to identity theft.

How often does identity theft happen? Now you have facts to provide you with an answer. Identity theft is becoming more and more common, so it requires more and more of your attention.