Posting vacation pics on Facebook (vacations, community, state, retired)

[Nelliebell]

Many friends and people in my mostly retired community post their vacation pictures on facebook. I'm wondering if hackers could see these pictures, determine that the people aren't home, then burglarize their houses? Does this ever happen?

[ansible90]

Yes.

You should never post that you are going away on a trip. Don't post pics until you return home.

[in_newengland]

You're never supposed to post your travel intentions or pictures on facebook. The pictures can be posted after you return, but putting them up there while you're away is like an advertisement for a burglary.

[Spuggy]

Are their posts public or for friends only? Generally it’s better not to post vacation photos on any social media until you are back home.

[mschrief]

Originally Posted by Nelliebell

Many friends and people in my mostly retired community post their vacation pictures on facebook. I'm wondering if hackers could see these pictures, determine that the people aren't home, then burglarize their houses? Does this ever happen?

I typically post them, and set the privacy to "just me" and then when I get home I make them available to friends.

[Avalon08]

Oh dear Lord. If you're using Facebook correctly, you have your privacy settings set to "friends only". Nobody can see your pictures except your FB friends and they can't share them with anyone who's not already a friend. So unless your Facebook friends are burglars, it's fine to post pictures in real-time. I have a friend right now posting daily pics from her New Zealand trip. "Friends only", people.

[thinkalot]

Originally Posted by Avalon08

Oh dear Lord. If you're using Facebook correctly, you have your privacy settings set to "friends only". Nobody can see your pictures except your FB friends and they can't share them with anyone who's not already a friend. So unless your Facebook friends are burglars, it's fine to post pictures in real-time. I have a friend right now posting daily pics from her New Zealand trip. "Friends only", people.

Or maybe a friend might mention it someone else, another overhears, and you get robbed.

[mathjak107]

the bigger mistake is names and addresses on luggage .. who sees pictures is likely not going to be a problem or certainly not the problem tipping off burglars you are away that these luggage tags are . .

[galaxyhi]

For this reasin, and many many more, we dont "do" Facebook, twitter or other media.

C-D and a hobby forum I'm on, this is the closest i get to "social media".

The sad thing is all people need to know is your real name and a basic location to get your whole life story on tge net.

And they wonder why ID theft, buglaries and squatting happens.

There was a local news story about a man who put his house up for sale with reputable real estate agent. Then he started getting people showing up saying they rented it on craigslist!!! People had pirated his listing and listed it for rent on CL. Its a well known scam, but hadnt showed up here before.

The thing is, like foreign phone scammers, we never hear about these idiots getting caught.

[Minervah]

It doesn’t have to be vacations. What’s really stupid is people who post they are dining at such-and-such restaurant showing a map of where they are. They feel safe if they have their privacy setting set to friends and family only but there is always the slight chance someone they don’t know will see their post somehow and find where their address. But these narcissistisits just have to post the maps along with pictures of the food they are eating.

On the other hand, Social Media sites can be safe as long as the user uses common sense when posting on them. The smartest thing to do is to use the strongest privacy settings and be discreet in posting personal information.