Sophisticated hacking attacks, massive data breaches, websites keeping track of your every action online, creepy stalkers sifting through photos you share on social media — the list of unnerving, intrusive, irritating and dangerous incidents on the Internet is fairly long. So long that it sometimes feels like the quest to maintain your privacy online is a lost cause.
It doesn’t have to be though. The very same technology that makes strangers get access to information about you that they otherwise wouldn’t can be used to enhance your privacy. The following are a number of tips on how you can do just that.
1. Check Privacy Settings on Social Media
The average internet user spends an inordinate amount of their time on social networking platforms and messaging apps compared to the other websites they visit. The most widely used social media sites are Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat and WeChat.
If someone is going to glean plenty of information about you anywhere on the Internet, your social media profile will probably provide them with the most data. Your name, address, email, phone number, date of birth, school history, work history, pets, relatives, friends, banker, preferred vacation destinations and more are things someone can see or make out from your profile information or posts.
Ergo, before you take any other action to protect your personal data, go to the privacy settings of your social media accounts and see what is visible to the public, friends/followers or only you. Best practice is to make sure all sensitive personally identifiable data is only visible to you.
2. Don’t File Private Information on Public Storage
Social networks may be the place you are most likely to overshare information but when it comes to the risk of an unauthorized party gaining access to an enormous amount of your personal information at one go, public storage poses the greatest danger.
Cloud storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive are convenient due to their ability to allow access from anywhere you are as long as you have an internet connection. They can also serve as a backup for data held offline such as on your desktop computer, tablet or smartphone. But whereas cloud storage services have top-notch security controls including real-time monitoring of log server, no platform is ever 100% impregnable.
Before you transfer any personal file into the cloud, think about the potential repercussions if it fell into the wrong hands. Second, even if the files remain secure, you have to consider the cons of giving Google access to your private documents via Google Drive and the likelihood of them using this information to target ads.
3. Keep Your Primary Phone Number and Email Address Private
When you are creating a new account on a website, you’ll be asked for certain personal information. Name and email address is standard but you may also be requested to provide your phone number, mailing address, occupation, employer name, job title, income and more. Unfortunately, your enthusiasm for sharing your personal data may be rewarded with unsolicited phone calls and a barrage of spam email.
If you had given out your main email address and phone number, it will be hard to shake off the nagging messages. To avoid finding yourself in this quandary, create an email account whose sole purpose is online registration. Buy a new SIM card for the same reason. That way, if you start receiving unwelcome calls, all you need to do is throw away the new line. For email, you can either shut down the email account or sign out and ignore it for good.
Europe’s unprecedented and far-reaching privacy law GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) came into effect in the second quarter of 2018. GDPR sought to give more control to European internet users when it comes to how websites captured, used and stored their personal information.
Given the size of the EU market, GDPR has become a global standard de facto. This is helpful and important for you as an internet user because websites are now more keen on making sure that they comply with this regulation. It’s up to you to take advantage and make the most of this new law.