Do you know what a truly rare commodity is at present? Your privacy! Think about it: your social media profile, the websites you frequently use, and even the advertisers have too much information about you and your preferences. And, perhaps this is the reason why things like hacking, identity theft, and the likes have become so commonplace these days.
Wait, there’s nothing to panic as of yet! If they have the ways to invade your privacy, you just need to be better than them to protect your privacy.
And, on that note, let’s take a look today at some of the changes you need to make for protecting your privacy.
Table of Contents
Do not fill out every column of the social media profile
The fact is that the more information you put out there, the easier it becomes for the hackers to get to know all that they need to hack into your accounts. So, filling out every column of the social media profiles is almost like cooperating with the hackers!
Keep the fields empty, and don’t fill out your info on them. People who need to know your email ID, phone number, or birthday, already know all that.
It is important to set strong passwords every time
Any discussion about the ways to protect your privacy will remain incomplete without talking about passwords. They are usually the first line of defense you have against someone sneaking their way into your private accounts.
You must have heard time and again about how important setting strong passwords are. Well, you are going to hear it again here because people still make silly mistakes like putting birthdays in passwords.
Besides, you also need to stop using the same passwords everywhere because, in that case, if one of your accounts gets compromised, all the others come at risk too.
If you find it difficult to generate a new password every day or even remember more than thirty passwords on a daily basis (which is totally understandable!), then take help from the tools of password creation and management out there.
Pay the most attention to the password of your email ID because that is the account you use to recover the passwords of other accounts that you have. So, to protect your privacy, you will have to protect the passwords from being compromised.
The hardware also needs to be on a secured lockdown
Change the settings of your laptop to make it ask for a password while booting up or waking up from sleep mode. Of course, there’s no reason to doubt the people in your house, but laptops can get stolen. And, it is better to be safe than sorry to protect your privacy.
Set a strong password for unlocking your phone. Install apps that will help you find your phone in case it gets stolen or lost, and also clean all data and keep the device locked in such situations.
Load high-end anti-malware software and apps on your mobiles and computers to make sure that criminals cannot steal your data.
Keep the OS, software, and apps updated at all times
Want to protect your privacy by keeping those snoopers out? Keep your software and apps updated at all times. Each device has multiple software and apps loaded on to it: some of those are installed by you, while others come pre-installed. Regardless of that, each of those will receive regular updates to add better features, fix bugs, and repair security holes.
When security details are fixed with an update, the aim is to fix the vulnerabilities in that app’s code. The protection offers to the software ensures that hackers cannot abuse it. The hackers prey on the vulnerabilities of the software, and security updates focus on fixing those loopholes.
If possible, you should allow auto-downloading and installation of the apps. Of course, you should check whether the app or software needs updates, especially if it’s an antivirus program or an operating system. But, setting auto-update ensures that you stay ahead of the game.
Use a VPN for protecting the network connection
One of the main reasons why you don’t have much privacy online is because of your IP address. Every device has an IP address, and the experts can use this for identifying the device and its location.
IP addresses are the ones that help websites to know where they can send out data. But, there are websites that use them for cookies and setting trackers for profiling the users.
So, don’t let your IP address be known to protect your privacy and use a VPN for your network connection.VPN offers a way of staying connected online and helps in avoiding such intrusive activities of websites.
When you connect to the VPN before connecting to the internet, your connection passes through the VPN servers first. It replaces the IP address of the device with the IP address of the server. With so many individuals using the servers and the shared addresses, tracing an address back to an individual is too difficult.
Two-factor authentication is an important step to take
Set a two-factor authentication for all your social media accounts. Doing this means that those sites will text you a code every time you log into your account, or they will text the code or a message when you enter your account from a new web browser or device.
You might feel that it takes up too much of your time, but the fact is that it keeps other people from unlawfully accessing your accounts. If you seriously want to protect your privacy, you will not mind spending a little time behind it.
Summing up
Protecting your privacy is somewhat of a continuous quest in this day and age. It’s not something where you can take a few steps at one point in time, and forget about it forever after that. It is important to constantly stay vigilant and alert when it comes to protecting your privacy.
