How to Secure your Private Life
by Elena Barnes
People’s online presence grows as the number of social media platforms and other online services people use in their daily life does. With that comes the worry that people will steal and sell your personal information and your private life will no longer be private.
Smart Devices
Smart devices like Alexa and Google Home drag up much needed questions about privacy and while the companies pride themselves on securing your privacy a hacker has little problem getting in if they wanted to and without securing your devices it is the legal equivalent of giving your permission to use them. Smart devices people don’t think about are things like their fridges and smart lights which pose little risk of recording you can allow hackers control of your home and need to be secured to do that check the security and privacy settings on the device and make sure if they allow updates and patches to keep up with them.
Internet Accounts
People practically manage their entire lives through the internet however rarely realize how much we have come to rely on it. However, making sure you control what you do on the internet and how dependent you are on it is one of the few ways to keep your privacy secure the more you put yourself out there the less privacy you retain. To make yourself more secure delete accounts that you no longer want or need and you have separate passwords for any thing that contains your financial information, medical files, or other identification that could be used for identity theft.
Social Media
Social Media is not as private as most people think it is even with privacy settings anything you post can and almost enviably will be found and made public so not posting anything you wouldn’t want anyone else to see is the best way to protect your privacy a good second choice though for the accidental drunk post or mistake is to use a service that will show you how to make your social media the most secure.
For most people you don’t need to have the security of the pentagon or NSA but by simply making it harder to get into your privacy you derail most hackers since they are looking for easy targets and by changing your straw house to brick you ensure your own security.
“Digital freedom stops where that of users begins… Nowadays, digital evolution must no longer be offered to a customer in trade-off between privacy and security. Privacy is not for sale, it’s a valuable asset to protect.” – Stephane Nappo
Password and security Questions
Is your password a phrase and between 8 and 14 characters?
Do you use the same password for different sites?
When do change your passwords?
Do you use symbols numbers and capitalization in your passwords?
Do you save your passwords? And Where do you save them?
Personal security is something that must be taken seriously. Most people unwittingly give out more information to people than they mean to and the only way to combat that is to educate the public on how to secure their lives online. This is such a complicated topic it is hard to cover every aspect.
I learned that even with the knowledge I posses I follow very little of it so that I can have convenience and that is something I actively have to fight myself over and most people do the same thing convenience matters more than the trade off of not being safe since we so rarely see if something happens until the consequences have come back to bite us
References
https://thehabitstacker.com/cyber-security-quotes-that-will-blow-your-mind/
