How to protect your digital privacy

In the last article, I told you about Amazon and its quest to mine as much data as possible. Data mining is gold in the world today. From targeted ads to robot vacuums data is everything and everything is data. With that in mind, you may be worried about your data and what companies can take from you. You might wonder just how much of your data is being taken already, who collects it, and for what purpose.

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According to digital data privacy laws in the United States, data privacy depends mainly on consent, but often people are not fully aware of how much access they’ve given to outside third parties.

This article is a guide to a few easy changes you can make to secure your digital data privacy, availability, and security.

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Protect yourself on the web

One of the first places people are mined for data is while browsing the web. Everything online is tracked, every keystroke, every search, every advertisement you’re shown, even your location. Companies want to know you and your habits to better understand you and sell products. One way to protect your data is to simply opt out of data collection. One way to do this is to install an ad blocker. Ad blockers help you opt out of interest-based ads and the data collected by these ads.

Another way to protect yourself online is to reduce the use of third-party software and visiting unsafe websites. Install a VPN from a company you trust to add an extra layer of security to your web visits. A VPN is especially useful when browsing on public networks where you’re especially vulnerable and it can protect your data from others sharing the same network.

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Securing your wireless network with a password can also prevent piggybackers who hop on free wifi and inadvertently have access to your private data shared on the network.

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Securing your passwords by getting a password manager and enabling 2-factor authentication is one important tech security tip to remember. Password managers help generate and store complex passwords for your accounts. With everything operating digitally in today’s words creating, remembering, and storing passwords becomes increasingly difficult. Password managers have been created to help tackle this problem for users. Once installed, these apps collect and store your passwords on every site and automatically pull them up when you want to browse on trusted devices.

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2-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security to your online access by preventing external parties from logging in without a second code. Apps like google authenticator generate a second code for you when you try to log in. After a password is imputed on a site with 2FA, google authenticator, or whatever app you’re using sends a code with numbers to a trusted device, and access to a page or profile won’t be granted to an individual unless they have that code.

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Protect yourself on your device

Get Antivirus and firewall protection. Firewalls and antivirus are useful protection against viruses and spyware. Firewalls monitors web traffic and security they are hardware-based and built into network routers. Antivirus protection also prevents malicious software from destroying your device and mining it for personal information. Most devices come with an inbuilt antivirus system which you need to update but there are several external antivirus programs for those who want extra protection.

Most applications on your devices let you manually set your data privacy and accessibility limits. Always check app data and sharing settings on your devices and opt-in to share as little data as possible. You can also opt out of data sharing for interest-based ads on Apple devices manually in your security settings. This prevents Apple from sharing your data with any third party.

There are so many little tweaks and changes you can make to secure your digital privacy all of which cannot be covered in this article but all these little tips contribute to providing not only safe access to data but preventing data theft.

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