The Internet is a beautiful thing. It allows us to find information about anything and everything within seconds, it lets us reach out to friends and family thousands of miles away, and it provides us with the means and knowledge to tackle every single obstacle we come across in our day-to-day lives.
The Internet has a lot of positive sides and most of us could not see our lives without being connected to the World Wide Web, however, there are a lot of drawbacks and negative sides of it as well. Unfortunately, when we are online and when we share our personal information, it can be pretty easy for bad people to target us.
You should always be extra careful when you are on the Internet, and here we’re going to give you some Internet privacy tips. Keep on reading to find out how to protect your identity and personal information when you are browsing the World Wide Web.
Be aware of what you are opening
You should always be aware of which websites you’re visiting. Most of the phishing sites and links that can potentially harm you, look pretty legitimate and they are difficult to separate from things that are safe for you to open. You have to pay attention even to the smallest detail and you need to be aware that not every website is safe.
As you can see if you click here, there are a lot of different ways to protect yourself and your information, and using VPN is one of them. Take your time researching how legitimate websites look and what are the things you need to pay attention to when browsing the Internet.
Always create strong passwords
The passwords you create are going to make a huge difference when it comes to your safety and privacy when you are on the World Wide Web. You have to be aware of the fact that it is easy for some people around you to crack your passwords. Because of that, you need to create a good combination of letters, numbers, and special signs that don’t necessarily have any connection with you or with your loved ones.
Using passcodes including the name of your pet, child, their birthdays, or anything significant in your life will lead to a lot of potential issues. In addition to this, never write the password down and keep it somewhere in sight. If possible, have a different password for every single site or social media platform that you use.
Don’t share personal info with anyone
Some of us tend to be extremely open and trusting with many people around. This means that we are not too shy about sharing our phone passcode or our laptop pin or anything similar. We tend to believe that the people we share things with are trustworthy and have our best interests in mind.
The issue is, even if you trust someone you cannot trust the people around them or anyone else that might just overhear your conversation. If you need to share your pin with someone, it is better to show them what you are doing on the screen than to say it. It is best if no one knows your pins, passwords, or security questions.
Change your passwords often
If you want to be safe online, then you should change your passwords and security questions often. Yes, we understand that remembering a dozen of different word and number combinations is not easy, and once we find a good password, we tend to use it for anything and everything, however, if you want to be safe then you should not use the same password for everything and you need to change it at least several times per year.
The same goes for security questions and pins, and it is best if you do this frequently and if you don’t share the updates with anyone. This small thing is going to make a huge difference when it comes to your safety and security online.
Don’t overshare on social media
Most of us have hundreds of friends on social media, and some of us have thousands of friends on every platform. When the number of people that are following you exceeds 2 digits, it means that chances are, you don’t know at least a fraction of those people. The people that you don’t know may be fake accounts and they may be trying to gather information and use it to steal your identity, or personal information, or to just leave your bank account empty.
This is much easier to do than you might assume, and because of that, you need to be extremely careful on what you share online. No matter how much you want to share that you have gotten a new driving license, a new passport, or anything similar, it is best not to share that at all, especially not with images of the new document that you have received.
Don’t click on every link you see
Many of the threats come packed in a link, and when we see a naïve looking clink that can lead us to something that we are interested in, we click it without thinking. You need to be aware of what kind of messages and emails you are receiving, and if you don’t trust the sender 100% you should never click it.
Keep in mind that you can never trust anyone 100% online. Our friends’ accounts get compromised daily, so if you get a random link from a random profile or even a random link sent by your friend, you should always confirm that what you are about to open is safe.
In addition to this if you get an e-mail stressing out that your bank account has been breached, that you have to update some data, or that there is something you absolutely have to see, you should never click on it. If you are worried about the safety and security of your bank account or anything similar, it is always best to open their website from your browser or just reach out to customer support in a separate window without using the e-mail that you have received.
Try to keep as many things as private as you can. This means that if it’s an option for your e-mail address, phone number, address, or anything similar to not be shown on social media, you should use that option. Limit the information that you share with others, and if you are unsure of the validity of any information, e-mail, or website, you should just ignore it and continue browsing without clicking on anything and everything. Using the World Wide Web securely is extremely possible; however, you need to be aware of everything that you’re doing and everything that you’re sharing.
