Privacy online comes under more and more scrutiny every day. In a world where people in authority demand access to private data and information, it becomes difficult to keep your private life well, private. As much as it is away from the keyboard, your life is your own and should be treated as such. However, in addition to those seeking to legalise the official snooping into people’s online movements there are also parties around who make it their business to conduct many similar actions but illegally. It’s these parties you need to protect yourself against.
Keeping your IT life private can be difficult but there are many simple steps you can take to at least make it safer online for you and your loved ones.
Set An Impressive Password
Set a password even your mother wouldn’t get. Have you ever heard Italian workers ask cosa è una vpn (what is a vpn)? An employer would tell them vpn cos è (vpn is a) Virtual Private Network which aids you in keeping your personal data and information safe online. A password is a crucial element to that network.
Creating a password which includes letters, numbers, special characters and some capitals makes life much harder for hackers to crack your code. Setting up a password refering to your address, date of birth or name can be a quick job for those in the know. So setting up an intrinsic password will help keep them out for longer.
Disappear Off The Radar
Every time you Google your name or details online you leave a small footprint online. Unfortunately there are many companies who relish in these activities and are paid good sums of money for access to your details. There are some key services available to help delete your details from the Internet including DeleteMe, which removes your personal information from data brokerage sites. This may not remove the problem entirely but it helps to significantly reduce your online footprint.
Start Encrypting Your Messages
In addition to leaving an imprint online, your messages can also appear in places you don’t want them to. Using another specialised service will help you to control this issue.
An app called Signal is a secure and reliable service which allows you to encrypt your messages and all traces of the message are scrambled so that their trace will be completely unusable to other parties.
Stay Up To Date On Your Software
A boring and mind numbing activity most computers hate but so important. Installing various anti virus and anti malware software packages is great but you need to stay up to date in order for them to offer you the best service.
Additional security patches and updates are made available throughout the year and installing them is crucial. These patches combat bugs in previous software applications and also add to the service by defending against newly discovered hacking schemes or viral threats to your computer, smart phone and personal information online.
