We’re being warned what to share online once we eventually get our COVID-19 vaccinations.

It’s becoming a trend to post a selfie on social media showing your vaccination card.

The Better Business Bureau’s Karla Laird warns us those cards contain a lot of personal information. “When people receive their vaccination they get their vaccination card which shows they’re fully immunized from COVID-19 but at the same time in the excitement that they’ve been vaccinated plus the desire to encourage other to do the same, they’ve started sharing on social media but they forget that vaccination card includes a lot of self identifying information that if it gets in the wrong hands, could put them at risk of identity theft.”

As she says, the cards for vaccinated Canadians are loaded with our personal information. “Including your full name. It has your date of birth. It has details about the manufacturer that you got your COVID-19 vaccine from, the batch numbers, they’re very detailed and even the dates that you received those different vaccinations. So, with that kind of information you definitely don’t want it to get into the wrong hands.”

Laird says there’s other ways we can show people we’ve had our shot when posting a selfie on social media. “For instance you can post a vaccination sticker that you probably get that says, ‘Hey I’ve been vaccinated’ and that in itself lets everyone know you did what you could to support and keep others safe without putting your information at risk and also without giving scammers other information that they can use to take advantage of others.”

It’s not just identity theft as Laird explains. “From what we’re seeing in Great Britain, scammers are also taking these pictures and using that information to create fake COVID-19 vaccination cards that they’re selling on eBay and Tik Tok.”

Laird says making sure our privacy settings are set to include only the people we want to see our posts is a good way to put the brakes on identity theft.