Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are wildly popular these days. We are entertained by following our favorite celebrity's every move via status updates and tweets. Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton and other celebrities have fallen victim to robberies as a result of their posts.

"Tweet: Going to Miami for the weekend." Translated by a criminal: My house is an easy target, come take my stuff.

You may not have as many friends or followers as Lindsey and Paris, but are you putting yourself in the same danger? Do you know who is following you? Do you know all of your friends? How are your privacy settings? Can only your friends see your updates and pics or does the whole world have access to them?

Take a look at your status updates. Are you giving away too much information? A status update of "I miss my husband. I'll be so lonely the next 2 nights while he is in Vegas" seems harmless and sweet to you, but if you have a friend or follower that you don't really know, have you just let them know that you are home alone?  Are your kids doing the same? "Mom & dad went to the movies, no sitter, watching R rated movie on HBO tonight!"  Odds are they are perfectly safe, but do you really want to take that chance?

How to protect yourself-
1) Be careful what you post. Instead of saying "Out east, having a great day pumpkin picking" wait until you get home and say "Had a great time pumpkin picking out east."

2) Clean up your friends list. Only remain friends with people you know and trust. It's not a competition to see who has the most friends. If you have a business or want to promote yourself, create a separate account for your business and do not link back to your personal account.

3) Check your privacy settings. On Facebook, you can choose to allow everyone, my network & friends, friend of friends or only friends to view your profile, pics and updates.

If you've ever watched the news, you know there are a lot of crazy people out there. It only takes a few minutes to clean up the clutter and protect yourself. It's time well spent.