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Social media - is it as safe as it seems?
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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The most ordinary data that a person posts on his page on the Internet can ruin a business, deprive money or destroy a family. Many of us do not think about this when filling out a questionnaire, until it is too late.
The number of social network users in Ukraine is growing every day. Only on Facebook the number of users has increased by half a million since the beginning of this year, now there are about 2 million 800 thousand Facebook users. This is not to mention other very popular networks that absorb more and more people every day. Online communication has recently become very popular and convenient, as most users assure. From social networks we learn about the achievements of friends, their new job, where they are and with whom, and much more. The same thing happens to us. We share everything that happens to us, immediately publishing photos on our page, updating statuses, making comments, etc.
According to the Gorshenin Institute, 30 million Ukrainian citizens have registered accounts in social networks. But experts say that online communication is not as harmless as it seems at first glance. And this is not about addiction to social networks and online communication.
Denis Klimov, head of a detective agency, said that today almost every employer hiring a new employee has made it a rule to check them on social networks. Experts recommend that before looking for a new job or going to an important interview, you delete all photos from your page that could somehow compromise you (photos of you naked, drunk), and it is also better to delete all correspondence and comments. As the director of the detective agency reported, recently 1/3 of dismissals occur due to the employee communicating on the Internet during working hours.
D. Klimov shared a case when he was contacted about an illegal dismissal from work. After visiting the page of the illegally dismissed citizen, it turned out that he had been hanging out there quite often during working hours over the past two months, and it also turned out that he had been actively discussing his superiors, whom he considered stupid and incapable of anything. So, the detective warns, you should be more careful about what and where you comment or write on social networks, especially when communicating with new acquaintances.
According to the detective, you can easily get almost any information about each active user: name, surname, date of birth, marital status, address, hobby, occupation, social circle. A password is not able to save personal correspondence, and privacy settings (access only to friends) will protect only amateur hackers. Professional hackers will break into any page, get the information they are interested in, it's only a matter of time. At the same time, the detective especially emphasized that all the personal information you wrote on your page, even after its complete deletion, will be available even after 50 years.