Strong parameters prevent mass assignment vulnerabilities by explicitly whitelisting which attributes can be set via user input. Without this protection, attackers could modify sensitive fields like admin or account_balance by including them in request payloads. I define private *_params methods in controllers that specify exactly which parameters are permitted for each action. Nested attributes require nested permit calls, which can get verbose but ensures nothing slips through. For APIs, I often see developers disable strong parameters entirely, which is dangerous—instead, I keep them enabled and use schemas (like dry-validation or JSON Schema) as an additional validation layer. Strong parameters are the first line of defense against unauthorized data modification.