8 Tips To Protect Your Personal Information Online

In 2019, U.S. users were spending an average of 5 hours per day on their mobile devices alone. When you factor in time spent on computers and other internet-connected devices, it’s clear that we’re spending a significant amount of our lives online. In this article you’ll find 8 tips to protect your personal information online:

As the number of time people spend online increases, it is becoming more important to be aware of how to protect your personal information from those who would misuse it – for example – debt consolidation loan scam companies. There are some simple steps you can take to help keep your information safe without impacting your normal online activity. 

1. Use Passcodes For Your Devices

Losing your smartphone is one thing, but giving the finder access to everything on it could have disastrous consequences. Make sure to set a passcode to protect your apps, accounts, and personal information. You should also do this for laptops and desktop computers.

2. Create Strong And Unique Passwords

It’s important to use different passwords for each of your online accounts. That way, even if one account is compromised in a data breach, your other accounts will remain secure.

There are a lot of different password managers out there, and it can be tough to figure out which one is right for you. Do some research and find the one that best suits your needs. With a password manager, you’ll only have to remember one password instead of a bunch of different ones.

3. Limit social media sharing

Your personal information is at risk if you share too much on social media. Be careful about the pictures and posts you share, as well as your privacy settings. It’s important to limit the number of people who can see what you’re posting. The Center for Identity at the University of Texas offers tips for managing social media privacy settings. If your kids are on social media, make sure to check their privacy settings too. Teach them about what is safe to share and what isn’t.

4. Be Wary Of Free Wi-Fi

Given that free public Wi-Fi networks don’t offer much in terms of security, would you want to log in to your bank account or enter a credit card number while on one? The answer is probably no. With the right tools, anyone else on the same Wi-Fi network could be intercepting your online activity. So it’s best to be cautious when using public Wi-Fi and only do so for things that don’t require sensitive information.

When using public Wi-Fi, it is important to be aware of the potential dangers to protect your personal information online. Although a password-protected network may seem secure, it is only as safe as the people who have the password. It is best to save transactions for when you are on a secure network, such as at home. If you must log in or transact online on public Wi-Fi, be sure to use a VPN (a virtual private network)

5. Close Accounts That You Don’t Use

There are a lot of online accounts that people open over time and forget about. If there is a breach involving one of those entities, hackers could potentially access any personal information that is associated with that account. It is important to take some time to identify which accounts are no longer in use and close them down in order to protect your identity.

There is nothing that can be done to one hundred percent prevent identity theft, but by taking these precautions, you can help make sure that your personal information remains more personal online. In this age where everything is digitally connected, that is something to strive for.

6. Consider Extra Protection

There is no single silver bullet when it comes to protecting yourself against cyber threats – you need to take a multi-layered approach. This means installing anti-virus and anti-spyware software, as well as configuring a firewall. But even this may not be enough, which is why you should also consider taking out cyber insurance. This will give you peace of mind in knowing that you and your family are covered financially if you ever fall victim to a cyberattack.

There is no single silver bullet when it comes to protecting yourself against cyber threats – you need to take a multi-layered approach. This means installing anti-virus and anti-spyware software, as well as configuring a firewall. But even this may not be enough, which is why you should also consider taking out cyber insurance. This will give you peace of mind in knowing that you and your family are covered financially if you ever fall victim to a cyberattack.

7. Protect What Really Matters

Security is something that everyone should think about seriously. No matter what situation you’re in, it’s always important to take steps to protect your privacy and safety. 

You should start by asking and answering these questions:

• What do I want to protect?
• Whom do I want to protect it from?
• How bad are the consequences if I don’t?
• How likely is it to need protecting?
• And how much trouble am I willing to go through to try to protect it?

8. Step By Step

There are a lot of ways to protect your personal information online but you don’t need to do everything at once. Just take it one step at a time.

You don’t need to make a list of all of your accounts to integrate into a password manager – you can just do each account as you log into it. Even just doing the basics – strengthening your passwords, turning on two-factor authentication, and watching out for scammers – can make your accounts a lot more secure. Then keep going: there are lots of other steps you might want to take, depending on your needs.

We’re going to be using the internet for a long time, so it’s important that we understand how our data is collected and used, and how to keep private what we want to keep private. By taking some time to improve our digital privacy and security, we can make our lives safer and healthier.

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