7 simple ways to protect your online privacy (3894 views, 18 replies)

While you may think your personal information is actually personal, you'd be surprised how much information about you winds up online.

That's because your personal information, including your email address, phone number and social security number, is worth a lot of money to legitimate businesses and bad guys alike. The bad guys just want to steal from you. Companies want to know as much about you as possible so they can sell you more products and services or serve you ads that are highly relevant to your demographics and preferences.


1. Don't fill out your social media profile.

The more information you share with everyone online, the easier it's going to be for someone to get their hands on it. The first line of defense is to lock down your social media accounts (TwoMovies is totally fine ).

Don't want to lock down your account? Then be choosy about what you share.
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2. Turn on private browsing.

If you don't want anyone with physical access to your personal computer to see where you're hanging out online (or watching porn ) you should enable "private browsing", a tiny setting available in each modern web browser (Chrome - incognito windows mode). It deletes cookies, temporary Internet files and browsing history after you close your browser.



3. Password-protect everything you can.

You may not think it's necessary to set a password on your laptop or a computer, but all your digital devices should be password-protected! That includes your computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones and anything other gadgets with your private data on them.

Turn on two factor authentication for any site that supports it, especially for most important sites, which protects your account even if a hacker does get your password.

Try using different passwords for different sites. If you think it's hard to remember so many different passwords, then use a software for it, or just create your own password formula.




4. Switch search engines.

Most search engines (OK Google!) keep tabs on what you're looking for so they can target ads to your tastes. If you don't like the idea of your search history being used to sell you things, DuckDuckGo is the search engine for you.




5. Don't fall for scams.

a) Do not open suspicious texts or emails – delete them.
b) Never send money or give credit card, online account details or copies of personal documents to anyone you don’t know or trust.
c) Beware of websites, phone calls and emails that try to part you from your personal information.
d) Verify the identity of the contact by calling the relevant organization directly.



6. Use software you trust.

Make sure anything you download comes from a trusted developer and a trusted source.
If you don't know where your software comes from, you don't know what it's really doing — and that means there's no telling where your information is going.


7. Only use secure Wi-Fi connections.

If you use public Wi-Fi, don't use it to convey private information. Browsing your favorite entertainment website is fine, but take extra security measures if you're logging into an account (PayPal or bank account). Use any VPN service to encrypt all of the data you send.


If you know more ways how to protect your online privacy - please share! :)
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Torrent Browsing. Vpn. Malwarebytes is nice to have. I agree with @EUNOIA , posting personal & 'immature' posts on social sites only ends up worsening things; more times than not.

Very good advice Dr. Evil.
All my computers are hard wired. WiFi is way to easy to intercept. Even a cheap scanner makes it ridiculously easy. With hard wire you would have to physical breach the shielded cable. That would be noticed. It changes the capacitance of the line, especially at the frequencies that modern computers use. I'm quite luck as it's hard wired in optical from my house to the government owned satellite dish. After that, well. That's when you see the slow downs depending on which servers your accessing.
Sorry Dr. Evil. No.7 There is no such thing as a secure WiFi. It's operation makes that impossible. It transmits and receives by electromagnetics. The very nature of which is easily intercepted. Even 128 bit encryption can be cracked by anyone bored enough to really try.
As said, very good advice.
I use Firefox as a browser. One of it's basic toggle settings is "Delete everything on closing browser". Might take a fraction of a second longer when opening well used pages in a new session.

Great tips, I use nearly all of them. Only thing I can add is perhaps a switch of browser. I've been using Waterfox since Firefox started using Chrome tactics of tracking use. Waterfox gives the flexibility of Firefox ie uses same addons, apps, and also lets users use earlier addons that have been disabled by current versions of Firefox. It's free, and I'm not connected in any way to them, but it's the best I've found.
Oh and Duck duck go is it's default search.

thank you, Dr, Evil, especially for tips about secure browsing.i too like Waterfox and avast secure browser has "stealth mode";and i followed yer advice about getting on newspapers,so I can get on and read.--it works!!

Very nice list! This will be a great help to a lot of users!

Everything you do online is up for public scrutiny for ever VPN's don't keep you safe even the paid ones(just read about what happened to the Dread Pirate Roberts and the silk road) if someone wants your information they can get it so don't waste your money on VPN's

Use multiple Email addresses and don't link them

Never use the email address you use for banking to brows general sites only trusted sites that you shop from

Never give out personal information online if someone says that they are from your bank or anywhere you make purchases from and you are unsure about an Email contact them by phone to confirm it is from them

Using Paypal to Purchase items gives you protection if things turn out wrong

private browsing is no different to normal browsing Metadata is still collected

Social networking sites are one of the worst places to make your security vulnerable don't add people you don't know. lock your profiles don't post planned information like going on holiday you may think that have just told your friends but possibly the local thieves too.
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don't do surveys

don't fill in unnecessary forms

Basically if you want to keep anything private don't put it on the internet because no matter what browser you use or what security software you run if its online someone will be able to access it
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