Being diligent in protecting yourself and your personal information online can help reduce the risk of identity theft or any form of online violence.
How do you protect your personal information online?
Here are 10 helpful ways to assist you:
- Don’t ever share your password. Update your password regularly and use different passwords for each of your online accounts.
- When messaging, encrypt your data. WhatsApp is a good messaging app to use for encryption purposes.
- Don’t connect your webcam to third party apps. Apps often ask to access your camera – don’t allow!
- Don’t share more than necessary. Relationships, whether personal or work-related, can become volatile very quickly. Be careful of sharing personal information, gossip & images with co-workers, colleagues or even loved ones. Reveal only what is needed and disable geotagging and location services on your devices.
- Be careful of online dating – ask a LOT of questions before deciding to meet in person. When meeting, let someone know where you’re going and meet in a public space. Be on the alert for impersonators.
- Ensure that you have the appropriate security installed and maintained on all your electronic devices. Install anti-virus software, anti-spyware software and a firewall and update these protections as often as prompted.
- Don’t always believe what you read online and NEVER re-share an article that you have not fact checked.
- Read the fine print when downloading offers, games, etc.
- Block people who you don’t want to interact with & report those that harass you.
- Know your apps so that you understand which ones can protect you and which ones are dangerous. Knowledge and awareness is key to your safety!