I like to think that I am fairly social media savvy.  I don't share too much, never post when I won't be at home or where I am when I am out but thieves get smarter faster than I can with ways to steal my identity. 

This week in our local industry publication The Standard was a short article about how to keep your ID safe when using social media and there were some tips that I have not seen yet.

• Never share your date of birth and where you were born.  This information is embedded in your SS number and sharing it gives thieves the opportunity to guess the full number.
• Don't use a passport-style photo as your profile picture.
• Don't share your child's school name or any pictures of your child [that's a really tough one!].
• Never give anyone your driver's license number.
• Try to come up with unique user names and passwords for EACH profile you maintain.  Change your password every 3 months, at least.
• Never give out your username & password to third parties
• Only invite people to your network that you know or have met, as opposed to friends of friends and strangers.
• Never click the box to save your password when you are on a public, work or laptop computer.
• Type the link to the social media site, or use a bookmark, instead of clicking on e-mail links.

It is also important to make sure that your children are following these guidelines as well!