The more you share, the greater the risk to your security and privacy. But lying can also cause problems. It seems like every site out there wants to get personal. When you sign up for a social network, e-commerce platform, or another service, you often have to provide your name, email address or phone number, and date of birth. Some sites ask for a home address and even more personal or private information, like gender or your mother’s maiden name.

The demands can feel invasive, and giving all that information to websites means hackers could gain access to it. Therefore, many people simply avoid the issue by lying. When websites ask for information, they make up names, birth dates, addresses, and anything else that comes to mind.

It’s a common technique for people to use fake contact information, birth dates, and other personal details or pseudonyms,” says John Davisson, legal counsel and litigation director for the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center. “So that, in the event of a breach, or if the company you’re providing information to wants to use it in some way, such as targeted advertising or selling it to a data broker, you’re protected because the information is not high-fidelity and won’t be useful.

There are good reasons to provide false information to a website, say users and experts. But the practice can also get you into trouble.

There are good reasons to provide false information to a website, say users and experts. But the practice can also get you into trouble. Here are some pros and cons to consider.

The pros: it’s easy and low-risk.

It turns out that lying to websites is quite easy. Based on tests conducted on the most popular websites in the U.S., you can open accounts with mostly false information: Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, for example, have all accepted invented names and birthdates.

“I generally don’t use my real name if it’s something that’s not required or is public-facing,” says Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization. As for the date of birth, “In a way, I just spin the wheel randomly and use whatever comes up; January 1, 19XX, whatever. I don’t think too much about it.”

Leah Taylor, a corporate communications consultant in the Denver area, uses a fake email address whenever possible. She provides her primary business email only to companies she wants to engage with, such as research report providers related to her business. Likewise, she considers her cell phone number too private to share. At the same time, “if something is really required that I believe is absolutely necessary, for my taxes or benefits or things like that, then I have no problem providing some of those personal details,” Taylor clarifies. She probably won’t face official repercussions for providing false information. Both Yahoo and Microsoft reserve the right to suspend or terminate an account for violating their terms of service against lying, but the companies indicate that this is unlikely: they are not taking steps to verify whether the information people provide is accurate. They emphasize that these terms are intended to benefit users so they can recover a lost account or comply with laws restricting certain content for younger users.

According to Alex Weinert, Microsoft’s vice president of identity security, investigating user information would go against the company’s privacy policies. “We don’t want to be inspecting accounts and looking for any type of personal information,” he states. “Microsoft has very, very strict rules against content monitoring unless there is evidence of criminal activity.

(A number of other popular online companies, such as Amazon, Google, and Meta, declined to provide any comments or did not respond to requests for opinions regarding users who provide false information. Reddit cited its privacy policy, stating, “At Reddit, we believe that privacy is a right.” To register, only an email address and an area of interest or preferred meme type are required.) Additionally, violating a company’s internal rules about false information is unlikely to be against the law. The Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act imposes severe penalties if someone “intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access.” However, the Department of Justice’s manual on the law indicates that users who lie would only be violating the law if they continued using the site after the company not only caught them but also “explicitly revoked authorization.” Intent is also key when it comes to lying online. “If a person falsely identifies themselves online with the intent to harm or defraud another, such as in a phishing scam, then yes, they could be prosecuted for online identity theft,” explains Michael P. Heiskell, a lawyer and former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “The key to such prosecutions is the element of ‘intent.’ If your intent is to avoid being defrauded and to protect your privacy and security, then there is no violation of the law.”

The cons: they could leave you out.

However, users do run risks if they provide false personal details. For example, a scammer could take over their account. To regain access, they will likely need to provide personal details to prove their identity, which will be impossible if they can’t remember what false information they initially provided. They may also need to present a photo ID that matches what they put online.

Therefore, lying can cost you access to your account and all the valuable information stored there, whether it’s work documents, photos and videos, emails, or chats with friends and family.

Lying could also cause you problems if you need an ID that matches your real-life identity. For obvious reasons, all car rental companies require a driver’s license to pick up your vehicle. Retailers may require an ID for in-store pickups. The pros and cons of lying online are something that ultimately each person has to consider, regardless of who they are or claim to be.