With the advancement of technology, more people are opening accounts for social media and online banking purposes. This has led to the question of whether it is beneficial to put personal information online. I think that, despite the convenience it brings, people should not put their personal information online.
On the one hand, I can understand why people would put their personal information online. Firstly, it makes signing up for accounts much more convenient for users. For example, in the past, to open up a stock account, people would have to go to a stock company and complete lots of paperwork. By providing personal information online, people save time doing these registrations. Another benefit is that this makes signing in to these accounts easier for users. Instead of choosing security questions and remembering the answer for them like in the past, nowadays, users only need to provide their phone number or email address to get verified. This feature is useful when someone is trying to sign in to a bank account during an emergency.
On the other hand, there are multiple problems with readily providing one’s personal information online. The first one is that, by doing so, the user will become a target for not just material but also identity thefts. Social media accounts are prone to be hacked. Once the thief acquires the person’s address, they can easily break into that person’s house, especially with other information already posted on social media, like vacation plans. Even worse, they can impersonate the user to claim insurance. On a less serious note, when users give out their information to the social media company or the bank, there is still a slight chance that these companies will sell it to telesales people. There have been reports that some social media platforms, such as Tiktok, collect and sell user’s personal information.
In conclusion, although providing personal information makes registration convenient for people, it has to be done carefully since currently, it still does more harm than good.