Do not use Facebook or Google to sign into other accounts.
It’s estimated that we each have an average of 100 passwords. That’s a lot to remember, especially as we need unique logins for every site to lower our risk of cyberattack.
Every website wants us to set up an account. It helps them get to know their users. They might also share the information with third parties as another source of income.
Websites want to keep its users coming back, so they allow you to sign in with Google or Facebook accounts to streamline the process. Weigh the value of that added convenience against these three considerations.
#𝟏 𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚
By using Google or Facebook to sign in on other websites, you are giving the sites greater access to information about you. Now, they not only know what you do on their sites, but you’re also allowing them to build out their picture of you with data insights from the shared sites.
Google and Facebook have powerful tools to dig deeper into your online activity, and other websites can also extract data from your Facebook and Google accounts. If you don’t read the privacy policies, you may not know what sensitive data the platforms share.
#𝟐 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬
You may join those who are deciding to quit Facebook or leave Google in favor of another platform. If you do so, and you have used that account to access other sites, you'll have to create new logins.
Even if you’re not ever going to do away with your Facebook or Google account, you could still lose access. If there's a major outage at one of those two sites, you won’t be able to log in at any of your connected sites either. The other websites won’t be able to authenticate you until Facebook or Google is back up and running.
#𝟑 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫
If you have one, unique login credential for a website, you risk your data there only if that site gets hacked. However, if you use Facebook or Google login, and bad actors compromise that account, they can access any shared sites.
Think of it like dominos. The Facebook or Google account is the first to fall, but all those other accounts you “conveniently” login to using those credentials will come tumbling down soon after. Don’t think the attacker won’t bother looking for other connected accounts. All they have to do, once they breach one account is go into your settings to see what you have connected.
Social media accounts are also a prime target. Don’t believe us? Bet you've seen a post from a Facebook friend (or ten) telling you to ignore strange activity due to a hacked account.
