You lock the door. You look both ways before crossing. You notice shady characters and stay in well lit areas.
These are all basic safety practices that allow you to engage your world without harm. But there are online privacy and safety practices you should be aware of as well, especially as you navigate Facebook in light of their data gathering scandal.
Here are our top 5 online privacy tips for Facebook and beyond.
Online privacy tips:
- Check your Facebook privacy settings. If you haven’t had a chance, make sure your account is secured to your comfort level. Though Facebook gleans information about you from your clicks and activity, you can prevent other users from learning too much about you by controlling the types of information you publish and who sees it. Here’s a good tutorial.
- Be aware of unsavory Facebook users. If you receive a friend request from someone you’re already connected with on the site, it may be a hacker. Always verify your friend has created a new account before accepting a redundant request.
- Learn about user data gathering and Like farming. In the same manner you don’t want to trust every friend request, you also can’t trust every page. There are thousands of pages created purely to farm likes, followers, and even your password clues. Don’t trust pages you aren’t deeply familiar with, and don’t answer quirky queries like, “What was your first grade teacher’s name?” or “What city were you born in?” that are also common password retrieval questions.
- Install Firefox plugins. To protect your online privacy while emailing, browsing, and making purchases, check out these add ons. Then get our other tips for safe online shopping here.
- Turn off your GPS. This is the same thing as turning off your location services. You’ll find this option in your mobile phone and tablet settings, and it will keep a great deal of your private life off the record — and it will extend your battery life too! Here are the hows and whys of hiding your whereabouts.
The internet is a great (and necessary) tool, but your data is a precious asset. It’s worth adding that your email is another door that needs to be secured. Make sure you and your employees stay aware of current email spear phishing scams. They can be remarkably tricky.
Even the City of El Paso got duped out of $3.3 million in a sophisticated phishing scam in which a criminal used emails to impersonate a legitimate vendor.
Here’s a post to get you started on developing safe email practices.
Take the fear out of maintaining your online privacy
Varay stands with you as a trusted partner, securing your business from the inside out. Our managed IT services and cyber security trainings will take the pressure out of keeping your business safe.
Contact us today to set up a free visit to determine your IT score and learn more about securing your data.
