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Episode 21: Internet Privacy: Protect Yourself Online
Episode Air Date: August 07, 2009
Episode Summary
The question about your privacy on the internet has been brought up again and again…today we're going to really hash through Privacy Awareness and steps you can take to protect the information you want to keep private.
Your Personal Information is Valuable—Let's Keep it That Way
YES! You should take steps to protect your privacy. The websites you visit should protect any and all personal information that you submit. When a website collects information like your full name, address, phone, email, username and password (like when you sign up for an account); that information should be handled delicately. When a website collects information like your credit card number, bank accounts and social security number; that information should be protected like it's in an armored truck. And lastly, when you delete an account with a website, that website should immediately shred your personal information from your account beyond recognition.
The unfortunate thing is not all your favorite websites live up to this "perfect world" standard that, for most of us, ought to be common sense.
All said, you can still be smart about protecting your privacy! Here are some online safety tips to help you protect your personal information, secure your computer and minimize your chance of internet fraud.
Online Safety Tips
Software Can Will Help
Use up-to-date anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall software for a huge home-field advantage.
We say "home-field advantage" because your home computer should be the safest computer you have access to. Why? Because you are the sole control of what goes on your computer. You have an uncertain level of protection when using public computers (like at internet cafe's, public libaries, schools, etc) because someone else set up those machines and decided what needed to be installed for software.
We've talked about Anti Virus, Anti Spyware (here) and Firewalls (here and here) on previous episodes of TechDish, so we won't rehash the beef of why you should use these. The big thing to take home for today though, in regards to Internet Privacy, is to install them, use them, and keep them up to date. Many viruses and spyware will monitor your online behavior, record your keystrokes, send pop-up ads or redirect your computer to certain web sites. Keeping your AV and AS software up-to-date will allow the software to catch this type of activity and allow you to remove it from your computer before doing any harm. Firewalls help keep hackers from using your computer to send out your personal information without permission. Again, keeping this software up-to-date with the latest security patches protects any new-found vulnerabilities from being exploited.
Browsers: IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and more!
Configure your browser to manage pop-ups, cookies or to block specific web sites
Did you know? There are two kinds of pop-ups. Legitimate pop-ups originate from and advertise for the website you are visiting. Adware and Spyware pop-ups originate from an external source, or an add-on to your browser software. All of today's leading browsers offer pop-up management and prevention for the first type, while anti-spyware software will help manage and prevent the second type from displaying.
Cookies are small text files that are downloaded from the websites you visit and help us website administrators track usage of a given site. Cookies are usually a good thing—they help us see how many hits our site receives, what pages are most popular, etc. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to a computer; BUT, they can deliver very specific information to a given website about your browsing habits. Most websites explain their intentions and use of cookies in their Privacy Policy (you can view ours here). All major browsers offer management tools for how to deal with cookies, such as what cookies to accept, what cookies to reject, whether you should be asked before downloading a cookie, etc. In most cases, whether or not you accept or reject a cookie has little or no impact on how you can use the website.
Phishing websites are sites designed to look like something they're not (read: a wolf in a sheep outfit). For example, a phishing site may be designed to look exactly like PayPal, allowing you to log in, then prompting you to re-enter your bank account or credit card information—this would be considered BAD. Today's major browsers offer anti-phishing tools, which categorize and restrict access to known offending websites.
Protect Your Personal Email Address
Reserve a separate email address for online accounts and transactions
This has been covered before as well but keeping your personal email address "personal" will keep your inbox free from SPAM.
Your separate email address should not contain personally identifiable information
For websites you don't know or trust, feel free to omit personal information that is not required for a transaction. If you're asked for personal information, find out how it will be used by checking out that website's privacy policy. And the Golden rule: if you don't feel safe, there's always plenty of other websites you can visit and use (and they probably offer the same or similar thing!).
Be Wise About Your Login Information
Don't let your browser save your password, unless you are aware of the risks
If your system is compromised (eg. you get a virus, if your laptop gets stolen, etc.), your usernames and passwords could easily be recovered by unauthorized people or software. Never save your password on a public computer. The next person to use the computer will have full login access to all the sites you just visited!
Change passwords on a regular basis
In case your login information is compromised, changing your password offers further protection against unauthorized access.
Don't use the same password across multiple sites
This should be an obvious one, but one that is often overlooked (even by this writer!).
Privacy Policies & Awareness
Privacy policies will tell you how your information is being used and protected. READ THEM!
The key word here is AWARENESS. Knowing what and how the websites you visit use cookies and handle the information you submit helps you gauge whether that website is worth your time and involvement. Check out a website's privacy policy (or statement; usually found in the footer) for full disclosure on how your information is being collected, what it is being used for, and how it is being protected. If a website's privacy policy makes you uncomfortable, and especially if a website doesn't have a privacy policy at all, consider going elsewhere!