Whether you’re relaxing on the beach, hiking on a mountain, or enjoying a fun night in the city, vacations give you memories you want to capture and share. But you might be sharing those vacation photos on social media with more than just family and friends.
Criminals scroll though social media accounts to target people who are out town for break-ins, steal personal and financial information, or run phishing scams.
Social media sharing goes on every day, but oversharing on social media can be more dangerous than many people realize. The photos and information you post can give cybercriminals the clues they need to commit fraud and other crimes.
But that doesn’t mean you have to keep your vacation photos to yourself. By following best practices for social media safety, you can share your vacation memories without putting your personal and financial information at risk.
Here’s a checklist on what you can do to help keep your identity safe while posting vacation photos to your social media accounts.
How Criminals Use Vacation Photos for Crime
So how does a beach selfie turn into an opportunity for a criminal to steal your personal information and identity? Here’s how posting online without taking cautionary steps can lead to possible crime:
- Location Tags Show You’re Not Home: Tagging your location or posting on your social media accounts in real-time lets criminals know your house is empty, making it a prime target for a break-in. Advertising online that you aren’t home makes your house a prime target for criminals.
- Details in Photos Can Be Used for Social Engineering Scams: A photo of your passport, boarding pass, hotel room number, or even signs in the background can give away sensitive information. Criminals can use this information to craft targeted phishing scams, such as fake toll text scams that are on the rise. They also can build a profile of you and then impersonate you to trick friends and family into sending personal information or money.
- Public Profiles Give Away Personal Information: If you don’t have your social media accounts set to private, you should do so now. Public posts can be seen by anyone, including cybercriminals who are after your personal information. Setting your social media accounts to private makes your information more secure.
While not posting your vacation photos in real-time isn’t as fun, the good news is you can still post them. There are steps you can take to help keep your information secure while posting your vacation memories for friends and family to see.
Your Vacation Photo Safety Checklist
Before sharing your next amazing vacation photo, make sure you go through this checklist and follow the steps to help keep your information protected.
1. Wait Until You’re Home to Post
It might be tempting to post in real time, but waiting until you return from your trip to showcase your vacation photos on social media provides a layer of protection as criminals no longer get the heads up that you are out of town. By creating a vacation photo album or recap post and then putting it up after you return home, it still lets you share your memories but without putting your safety at risk.
2. Turn Off Location Services
Smartphones and social media apps can automatically tag your location. You should disable the location services for these before you take a photo and post it. You can do this through your phone settings and app permissions.
3. Review Photos for Info You Don’t Want to Share
Make sure you check and double check your images before posting your photos to social media. There is important information you should avoid posting, such as your boarding pass, passport number, driver’s license number, hotel address, and even the school logo on your child’s T-shirt. Crop out or remove any sensitive information, and make sure to zoom in and view the background.
4. Don’t Post Travel Documents
It might be trendy to share a photo of your boarding pass, passport, and travel itinerary but don’t do it. It can put your sensitive information at risk. These documents contain your personal information and can be used in numerous ways by criminals, including providing clues to help them access your accounts or impersonate you.
5. Be Careful with Hashtags
Using popular hashtags like #vacation, #travel, or #paris2025 can attract cybercriminals to your social media accounts and make it easier for them to find you. Avoid using hashtags that show your exact location, travel plans, and travel dates.
6. Ask Before You Tag Others
It’s best practice to ask permission before tagging any travel companions in the photos you post. They might be ok with you posting the images online, or they may want to keep photos of them off social media. The same goes with tagging children in posts. Ask before you post.
7. Set Your Accounts to Private
While it might be fun to attract and gain social media followers, protecting your personal information is more important. Set your social media profiles to private instead of public, so only trusted friends and family can see your posts. Also, it’s important to regularly audit your friend list and remove people you don’t know.
8. Use Strong, Unique Passwords and 2FA
Use strong and unique passwords for each social media account to help keep cybercriminals from accessing your accounts, especially if your information has been exposed in a data breach. If you use the same password for every account, it makes it that much easier for hackers to access multiple accounts. Enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) also provides another layer of protection.
9. Use a VPN When on Public Wi-Fi
If you’re uploading photos from your hotel, a café, or at the airport through public Wi-Fi, use a virtual private network (VPN) to encrypt your data. Public Wi-Fi can expose your data to hackers, but a VPN hides your data and identity online.
10. Use Identity Theft Protection Services to Monitor Your Information
Actively monitor your personal and financial information through identity theft protection services. You can receive alerts for possible suspicious activity and fraud. Identity theft protection services can help keep your data safe whether you’re on vacation or at home.
Bottom Line
While you don’t have to keep your vacation photos offline forever, being cautious and taking your time to review the images before posting helps keep your information safe.
Before you post, ask yourself “Does this photo reveal personal information or my location?”, “Could someone use information from this photo to guess one of my passwords or impersonate me?”, and “Are my accounts open to the public?” If the answer is yes, you should think twice before posting.
You can be pro-active in protecting your identity by using a top-rated identity theft protection service to monitor your personal and financial information.
IdentityIQ Protects Your Identity
IdentityIQ helps keep your information secure with 24/7 monitoring, alerts for possible suspicious activity, expert fraud restoration support, VPN and anti-virus, and up to $1 million in identity theft insurance underwritten by AIG, so you can travel with peace of mind.
Learn more about how IdentityIQ can help protect your identity wherever you are – on vacation or just relaxing at home.
