How To Keep Your Private Data Safe And Secure Online? Here Are Five Simple Ways To Consider

As a lot of people found out last month, malicious actors can do a lot with your private data available on the Internet. The Cambridge Analytica scam got its hands on the Facebook data of over 5.6 lakh Indians, all because about 300 people decided to take a quiz for fun.

Privacy online is your right, but there are loads of groups out there looking to snatch it away from you. However, there are a few ways you can keep yourself protected.

Passwords, passwords, passwords

This should be the most obvious entry on this list. Use strong passwords for your smartphone laptop, email addresses and social media accounts -- unlike most of the people's passwords online. A good password manager app ensures you only have one strong master key to remember in order to access any of your devices, while still keeping them secure. In addition, you can download apps that let you monitor a stolen smartphone and even wipe it if necessary. That¡¯s the sort of thing you should have before you have need of it.

Hoard your cards and contacts

When signing up with your email for an offer or a new service, make sure you¡¯ve vetted it properly. Make sure the organisation offering it is legit, look at FAQs for paid services regarding when and how you can cancel or get refunds. And speaking of money, make sure you¡¯re not saving your debit or credit card details anywhere. In certain cases, like with the App store on iOS, there¡¯s no way around it. But no matter how often it becomes more convenient, do not save your card details on your favourite food ordering app or anything of that sort.

If a hacker ever manages to get into that company¡¯s the servers, the best thing they could do is use your card to buy a bunch of expensive stuff. The worst: someone could use your data as authentication to steal your identity. After all, the weakest link in a security chain is always the human (especially a humans answering the telephone at your bank or a government office. And armed with a few key pieces of data gleaned from your credit card details and spending habits, someone can talk circles around that human on the phone, pretending to be you.

Tape your cameras and microphones

This is a tactic right out of the FBI handbook, but taping over your laptop camera and microphone is a great precaution. No matter how advanced your security will be, it will never be infallible. Tape here is instead a low-tech way of restricting access in a way a hacker has no physical capability to work around. Now, this would have worked really well even a few years ago, but we have cameras and mics everywhere now. They¡¯re in your phone, your smart TV. Maybe you have the Google Home or Amazon Echo? Those are vulnerable too obviously. And as we trade in our privacy for convenience in baby steps, we don¡¯t realise the leap that was already made.

The ¡°Ok Google¡± and ¡°Hi Siri¡± voice commands? They work because your phones are technically always listening for them.

Use Incognito Mode and Mask IP with VPN

Incognito mode is the go to option when you don¡¯t want people around you to know what you¡¯ve been doing on the Internet. Unfortunately, that doesn¡¯t hide you one bit from either your ISP or advertisers online. For that, instead try using a VPN service to mask your IP address. or , maybe soon, you¡¯ll have the new DNS system at your fingertips, automatically making your browsing sessions safer and more private.

Preferably keep your social media activities private.

If you¡¯re job doesn¡¯t depend on social media, you really shouldn¡¯t be sharing your details and activities with anyone that¡¯s not a friend. Not only is your name and phone number or email address on there, but a person could discover a lot more just by looking up your profile. Depending on how much of your life you share on social media, it could be very easy to figure out your workplace, where you live, your political affiliation, the bars and restaurants you like to frequent, even the names of your pets (which is a very common backup security question, and one you likely even use right?). And all it takes to get all of that is a simple Google search.

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