Frederick Jace
If you think about it the list of risks associated with the private data that you share online is endless. Data breaches, shady characters having access to personal photographs you share online, digital trackers keeping up with every step of yours online and so many more. However, there are ways to exercise control over all the private data you share online. Some tips on improving your privacy online. Know more at bysafeonline.com.
Check your social privacy settings
It is completely up to you when it comes to how much of your life you choose to share with strangers online vs friends and family. You would be surprised how much of the data you share online is visible to everyone by default. You must check your privacy settings. Ensure that your privacy settings on social networking sites are set according to your personal preferences.
Be careful about where you share your private information
Never use online services that are meant for sharing to store your personal information.
Evade tracking
Learn more about tools that help you avoid internet tracking. Whenever you visit a certain website your browser discloses a whole lot of information about you and your browsing history. This is done to profile you and target you with ads. Incognito mode can help you prevent such tracking.
Don’t overshare your email address and phone number
You cant avoid sharing your email id and phone number in some instances. Like for instance when you are shopping online. However, this could mean tons of junk mail and robocalls. Also, dont share such personal info with random strangers on social networking sites. Consider creating a separate disposable email id and if possible phone number also for this purpose.
Use messaging apps with end to end encryption
Choose end to end encryption when it comes to messaging. This way even the messaging service provider will not be able to see your messages. Apps like Whatsapp are end to end encrypted. Facebook Messenger, Telegram etc are not.
Use secure passwords
Using weak passwords means sharing personal information with strangers. Using your name or date of birth as your password gives even strangers the chance to figure out your password through plain guesswork. If you have trouble memorizing the unique passwords you have created for all the services you use a password manager where you have to only remember one master password
Secure your phone and computer with passwords
In the digital age, our phone or computer becomes the equivalent of a personal diary where we store all our personal information so it becomes important that we protect them using passwords. The passwords don’t have to be complicated but should be good enough to keep strangers out.
Stay private on Wifi networks
Public wifi networks do not encrypt traffic and this simply means anyone else on the same network can snoop on your web traffic. Avoid sending any sensitive data such as logins, passwords, credit card data, and so on — over public Wi-Fi. Always use a VPN to encrypt your data and protect it.
