How To Safely Share Your Online Space With Friends And Family?

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When sharing your home with others, or if you have close friends and family that use the same apps and streaming services that you do, it makes sense to share some of those with each other. Many of these apps can cost a lot of money so cutting those costs instead of everyone paying for their own accounts seems like a wise choice in most cases. It’s important to identify the risks as well as the benefits to doing this, however, so choose carefully as to whether or not this is the right choice for you and your friends.

Benefits Of Sharing Online

Sharing is a great way of showing your trust in other people. So, make sure you in fact do trust those you’re sharing your accounts with. As mentioned earlier, the prime reason for sharing accounts like Netflix and Spotify is that you’ll save a significant amount of money, especially if you’re all contributing to said shared account. Many platforms now offer for you to create multiple profiles per account too so that your browsing and viewing history or playlists don’t end up getting mixed up.

As well as this, sharing accounts can just be much more efficient especially when living in the same household. Signing in and out of multiple accounts can be time-consuming and finicky whereas leaving one account signed in on a communal smart TV, PC or laptop can save a lot of time and effort. Lots of platforms now offer different types of payment policy too such as family sharing ones that can be logged in on multiple devices. These tend to offer increased security too, providing the prime account holder with full access to private details and secondary users limited access.

Risks Of Sharing Online

Risks of Sharing Online

As sharing your accounts is a demonstration of trust, if you don’t in fact trust the people you’re sharing with, you might be putting your personal details at risk. If you’ve been persuaded to share your password with someone so they can log into your Netflix account, you might have given away a password that can get that person into other more sensitive spaces, or at least given them an insight into your password structures as a whole. The worst possible thing that could happen to you when sharing accounts is your payment information becoming compromised. Even if you do trust the person you’re sharing with, you can’t be certain that their device is one hundred percent secure, and that information could be taken by hackers and fraudsters.

Managing Shared Accounts

If you are going to go ahead and give access to those personal accounts of yours, then do so with a few things in mind. You’ll want to be sure that you’re managing the situation to the best of your abilities, so be cautious and vigilant with protecting your information. Keep in mind any information that you don’t want others to see, which you can get rid of. For example, when sharing your Netflix account, you might want to hide your personal viewing history, or even get rid of the history of those you’re sharing with who may have used your profile by accident. Follow the link to get a better idea of how to delete your Netflix viewing history should the need ever arise https://setapp.com/how-to/delete-netflix-viewing-history. Make sure you stay aware of who is using your accounts, and what level of access they have too.

What To Share?

In theory and depending on the people you plan to share with, you can do so with anything. Your significant other is unlikely to do anything untoward with a shared account as well as close family members. So even sharing online shopping accounts such as your Amazon for shopping purposes. It’s important to note that they will be able to see your purchase history so make use of deleting that information if you’re buying them a gift, for example, to avoid any ruined surprises. You can also share streaming accounts such as Prime Video, Netflix, and music apps like Spotify or iTunes on Android or iOS mobile phones. Just remember to choose family sharing payment plans where available and to create separate profiles to avoid confusion. It might also be worth being the only person to know the password to each device and log them in personally. Whilst it may take a bit more time and administration, you’ll be safe in the knowledge that your password is still secure.

What To Avoid Sharing?

An obvious one here is to avoid sharing any accounts that are solely financial. Bank accounts should remain under your own control without any interference. Even those with the best intentions could compromise your account or spend money that you just can’t afford. If you do need to share a bank account with your significant other, for example, consider getting a joint account that is separate from your main bank account. That way, both of you have a legal responsibility for that account and it will be easier to manage it between you.

Secure Your Accounts

Secure your accounts

Ultimately, you’ll want to make sure to secure data and avoid theft and that your passwords aren’t shared with more people than required, and especially not with those you can’t trust. Don’t write down any passwords or answers to security questions and consider creating complex and hard-to-remember passwords. This may sound counter-productive to you, but if even you can’t remember a password, it will be much harder for others to do so. Instead, make use of digital password managers or “keychains” that will remember them for you.

You’ll be able to use these to automatically log into any website after proving your identity on your device. Don’t forget to keep that particular device secure too. It’s worth using 2-factor authentication as well so that even if someone does manage to get hold of one of your passwords, they’d need to use a separate device to confirm the log-in. You’ll be notified when someone tries to use your password without your knowledge, giving you the opportunity to then go ahead and change that password.

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Christy Bella: Blogger by Passion | Contributor to many Tech Blogs in the United Kingdom | Fascinated to Write Blogs in Business & Startup Niches |