No, I do mean not your social security number. I am referring to encrypting your social media, or the oh-so-private information you think can only be seen by the people you have allowed. However, without TLS or Transport Layer Security, anyone nearby with a packet sniffing tool such as Wireshark can see what you are posting or the messages you are saying.
For those unfamiliar with IT, all of the information you put into or through the internet is sent in information segments called packets. These packets can then be "sniffed" or in essence caught out of the air and read, without disturbing the user's interaction with the internet. This means that things that the user may think is private, like an address for a friend's wedding invitation, can potentially be read.
The only way for users to protect their computers is to ensure that they are sending encrypted traffic. This can be shown by the https:// designation instead of http://. Currently, Facebook and LinkedIn have an option to use secure browsing, but it is not default. So, consider opting-in to protect yourself.
Google+ has it set as default, and I recently learned at The Register that Twitter has changed secure tweets from being opt-in to default. Just make sure to always check that your browser says https://. To much work? Use Firefox and install the add-in HTTPS Everywhere. It will force a secure connection with any site that has a secure option.
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