• Have you met each of your contacts? You may add complete strangers to your profile to make new
friends, or to make your friend count higher. Whatever the reason, allowing strangers to see all of your
personal information is just creepy. If you wouldn't share personal details with a stranger on the street,
then why let them access it online?
• Does the message look suspicious? What scammers, hackers and phishers are able to pull off these
days is endless. Bottom line is, if it looks suspicious, don't click it. If you get a message from a friend or
stranger and it looks kind of sketchy, ask the sender personally if the message came from them before
you open it.
• Can strangers find you? Sharing details like your first name and gender are okay, and so is sharing
your general location (e.g. "Canada" or "Ottawa"). But sharing things like your phone number, home
address or even what school you go to makes it easy for anyone to find you. If you don't want to get
spammed, end up a victim of identity theft or let Joe Shmoe know where you live, then keep personal
information like your phone number and email address off your profile.
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca