The more someone knows about you, the more vulnerable you are! Personal data plays an important role in knowing about a person. If the personal data is stolen, it can affect an individual’s reputation. It is a tool which can shape our behavior and give control over us. Therefore, Privacy is important. As the advent of technology has provided us with tools of convenience, it has also provided tools to hackers. Hackers attack our privacy and steal our personal data for their benefits. Due to the increase in these attacks, online privacy has been stressed on!

In this post, we will take about online privacy and what can be done with the stolen data. Also, we have listed some of the tips to protect your privacy.

What Is The Significance?

Privacy is something which we yearn for. We have things to hide, which we don’t want to be seen such as banking details, credit card details, social security number and more. We would never want this information to be stolen or used without our permission. Therefore, we must aim to protect our data. It is your information; therefore, it must not be used without your permission. It is your responsibility to protect your privacy.

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How The Data Can Be Used?

If an individual’s data is stolen, it holds the power to fetch every last penny of the person, that too legally. There are several companies called data brokers which accumulate, maintain data of millions of people. They examine, package, and sell the data without the user’s permission. These companies sell this information to other companies for several reasons such as direct marketing, targeted advertising and more. However, this data is not specified and doesn’t include personal information.

But if the hackers could get hands on your data, then your personal information could be at risk. You will not ever want that to happen. So, to prevent them from happening, you need to take care of a few things.

• Secure Passwords

Passwords are very important, they are keys to our digital world. Hackers use a lot of tricks to hack them. To protect your passwords, you need to use complicated and strong passwords.

1. A strong password should always have a length of eight characters and is a combination of uppercase, lowercase letters, numbers along with symbols. Your name and physical address bits should not be used.
2. Wherever there is 2FA available, make sure you have enabled it. As it is another way of proving that you are accessing the account.
3. Never save passwords on your device. 

• Privacy Settings

Always make sure the privacy settings of all the apps are customized as per your preferences. Every app comes with privacy settings, which can be used by the user to limit the information that they want to share. Choose the least amount of data sharing option. Turn off your location services, when not in need.

You must be cautious while customizing privacy settings of social media accounts. You must cross-check what information is shared with whom.

• Protect Your Digital Footprint

When you post something online, it stays there forever, even if you delete. A digital footprint is similar to the digital paper trail. It can be anything including Forum registrations, photos, videos that you post, they all leave trails of information about you.

• Install Trustworthy Security On All Devices

It is recommended to install a good security program on your devices to ensure protection and security. A reliable security software safeguards your device from spyware, phishing, rogue websites, keyloggers and more.

• Create Backup Of Your Data

It is very important to keep a backup of your data to have an upper hand when under attack. If your system is influenced by Ransomware, then your data is kept, and you are forced to give ransom to get the data back. You can back up your data locally or use online backup storage as well.

• Always Keep Your Operating System Updated

Software updates are released to keep your system safe against all the vulnerabilities and bugs. Therefore, it is recommended to update your system operating system to not only keep your computer secure by fixing security holes but also get access to new features.

Now you know why privacy matters and how it can affect your reputation and day to day life. So, starting today being cautious of what you do online and make sure you know what is tracked and what is not!

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