How private is your data at social registration casinos?
Social media registration seems like such a tempting alternative to creating a new set of logins. When people want to create a new casino account, playing casino games with a hefty bonus is usually the goal and the admin involved in setting up the account is an annoying obstruction. Social media sign-ins remove much of that frustration by allowing you to use your social profile and login details to access your new casino account too.
Although this is undeniably convenient, is it safe to use your social media account to create your casino profile? There are several questions to consider. What happens if your social media accounts get hacked? Can the hackers access your casino account too? And how much information will the casino receive about you? Can they post on your social site without your consent? These are just some of the concerns that players have about using social registration at online casinos.
Can your casino account be compromised?
The first question we investigated was what could happen if a hacker managed to get hold of your login details. Although social media accounts can and have been breached, you can mitigate this risk by creating a strong password and using the two-factor authentication that most social media sites offer. Although this is switched off by default in most cases, you can simply access your security settings to enable the two-factor authentication. This means that if hackers manage to find your password information, they will not be able to access your account without the authorisation that you have set up, and you will be notified immediately if someone tries to access your account from an unfamiliar device or location.
Will the hackers be able to access your casino account? Well, in the first place, they will need to know which casino you use. Unless you have made this public knowledge, this will be the first stumbling block. Once you have received notification of an unauthorised login attempt on your social media account, you can change your casino password. Deposits and withdrawals from casino accounts usually have an authorisation step built in by the payment option, and you cannot withdraw funds into a payment method that you have not used before, so hackers will have a hard time clearing out your winnings. Good casinos have dedicated anti-fraud staff, as well as digital encryption to protect your account. With all these measures in place, it is highly unlikely that a hacker will be able to access your casino winnings.
How much personal information will the casino see?
Most of the main social media companies have strict restrictions in place that dictate how much information third parties can access. When social logins first started to be used online, companies could use these to gather data about their customers. The social media companies started to reduce the amount of information that third parties could access. It became much more difficult to get information permissions, and for third parties to publish anything on their users’ profiles. In a nutshell, there was a massive shift in how social media companies handled data. Now you have a lot more control over what data is shared.
Different social media sites vary in their approach to privacy so before you use social media logins, check the privacy policy of the social media platform you use to make sure that you are comfortable with what they allow third parties to see. We took a look at some of the biggest social media platforms that provide sign-in services.
As one of the most widespread social media giants, Facebook provides a convenient way to log into your casino account. Third parties can access basic information about you, but if they require any more than that, they need to request your permission and go through a review process. Facebook also gives you the option to select what information you are willing to share with third parties.
If you have a Google account, you can use it as a sign-in method at certain casinos. Third parties (like casinos) can access your email, public profile, age and contact list. Google does allow developers to publish on your feed, so this is something to keep in mind. During the initial authentication, you can adjust the information that the third-party developer has access to, but it is very difficult to change this at a later stage.
If you choose to use Twitter to sign in to your casino account, you need to be aware of the information you could be sharing. Although you retain the ability to remove access, third parties could get permission to read your tweets, direct messages and see who you follow. However, most of this information is readily available to anyone with a Twitter account anyway.
Conclusion
A good, licensed online casino will take your privacy very seriously. As long as you are aware of the information you share, adjust your privacy settings and enable two-factor authentication, you should be able to use social media logins safely.