According to the Digital Superstitions survey by Kaspersky, 43% of the respondents from South Africa do not post photos with their partners or spouses on social networks.
Posting personal photos on social media can have certain negative consequences. Due to data breaches, photos can become accessible to unintended audiences, risking personal information exposure. Cybercriminals might use photos to gather information for identity theft or phishing attacks. Location data embedded in photos can even compromise physical security by revealing a user’s whereabouts.
Users surveyed in South Africa provide different reasons for refraining from posting photos with their loved ones. In most cases (67%) people do not want anyone to know about their personal life; 13% of respondents do not like how they look in the photos; and 8% of respondents said that their partner does not want the joint photos shared publicly (men voiced this opinion more often than women). Apart from that, 8% of people surveyed are afraid that they or their relationships may get jinxed if photos are shared publicly.
“In some cases, photos on social networks can become a source of information for intruders and cybercriminals – especially if they are accompanied by explicit captions or geotags,” says says Brandon Muller, technology expert and consultant for the MEA region at Kaspersky. “One of the possible risks is to face doxing. This is a phenomenon in which ill-wishers publicly post information about a person in order to harm their reputation or cause persecution.
“Doxers use, for example, personal photos or videos that can put a person in an awkward position, fragments of personal correspondence – usually taken out of context, home address, phone number, information about the place of work, etc. Therefore, before posting a photo with a description – personal or shared with another person – it is important to think about whether such a publication can do harm, and ask permission to post a post.”