A selfie could cost you a burglary
The spring break is upon us and some will take the opportunity to escape to the South or to the chalet… The opportunity to share beautiful vacation photos on social networks. Will they give ideas to malicious thieves, happy to learn that houses are abandoned for the week?
It is with a prevention objective that the public awareness campaign “Capture your travel selfie!” was launched by Allstate Insurance Company. Its purpose is to inform the population of the risks associated with excessive sharing of information about their holidays on social networks.
A recent survey by Allstate Insurance Company found that nearly half (45%) of its social media-active respondents plan to post photos from their Spring Break vacation, a practice “which can lead to risk higher rate of burglary,” believes Dominique Vaillancourt, agency director at Allstate Insurance.
A selfie like an invitation
“We recommend that vacationers think twice before posting a photo of their plane ticket or the classic beach selfie,” says the director of agency.
Sharing details of our vacation online announces when our home will be unoccupied. Analyzes that have been made from complaints to Allstate reveal that it is often following publications made beforehand on the networks that thefts take place, informs Dominique Vaillancourt.
“C It's like leaving my house putting up a big sign to say that I won't be there,” she adds.
A few tips
The expert offers some other tips to avoid an unfortunate situation.
First, wait until you get back from vacation before posting your photos. This also goes for sharing your holiday details before and during the trip.
Next, “check the privacy and security settings of your social media accounts to find out who has access to your personal informations. On Facebook, for example, you can only allow “friends” to access detailed personal information, not “everyone” or “friends of your friends”.
You can also review photos already posted on your profiles and remove any information someone might use to find your address. For example, do you see a street name or apartment number in the background of a photo of you? which include geolocation data, as this can reveal your location in real time”.
