Personal data and privacy can be hacked and shared on the Internet, when users do not manage their information responsibly. This can result not only in financial losses, but also affect one’s personal and social life. Similarly, identity theft is another issue that can cause financial losses to anyone by hacking their personal accounts. Several personal 𝕏 and Facebook accounts have been hacked in the past and the hackers had posted materials that have affected the individual’s personal lives. In Module four, we provide guidelines on good online practices to keep personal data and accounts safe and avoid such breaches.

Social media is a wonderful avenue to find content, news and the latest happenings, but on a platform where hundreds of thousands of items of content are created every day and there are minimal restrictions on what a person can share, it is extremely common for fake articles, content and information to be passed on as the real thing. Online users need to ensure that they rely on trusted sources for their information.

A social networking addict could be considered someone with a compulsion to use social media to excess — constantly checking Facebook status updates or “stalking” people’s profiles on Facebook, for example, for hours on end. It’s sometimes difficult to tell when active use of social media becomes a dependency and crosses the line into a damaging habit or addiction. However there is no doubt that excessive use of Social Media affects the real world interaction abilities and communication, and can cause normal social skills and practices to gradually decrease. Psychiatrists believe that this addiction can damage sleeping habits, health and interest in studies and interaction abilities of real life.