The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) is warning the public against the ongoing trend known as the “bill reveal challenge”. The trend, as its name implies, suggests the public posting their MERALCO bills on social media, aimed at demonstrating the rise of their power consumption in April.
The “challenge” is supposed to illustrate the disparity in the bills in April and the month before it. Facebook users, however, are urging others to also include customer data, including their customer account numbers and addresses.
Meanwhile, Meralco is opposing the idea, citing that the exposure of personal information could put their sensitive data to unscrupulous individuals.
Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga explains that “hackers, scammers, and unscrupulous people” could gain access to the information, which could be used for nefarious reasons.
Acknowledging that there may be dissatisfied customers with their bills, Zaldarriaga is instead advising the public to simply disclose the amount of their bills rather than showcasing the actual bills online.
Oversharing puts customers at risk of allowing strangers to get ahold of the information and track our activities by merely checking up on our social media feeds.
We always put everything about ourselves on social media. However, given the open nature of the platform, our posts become a spectacle to many viewers. That’s why it’s important for the public to limit what we share about ourselves online.
Via: ABS-CBN News