When it comes to online shopping, most of us do it. In fact, the recent pandemic has turned a lot of in-person shoppers into online shoppers. However, when you’re making purchases online, it’s important that you take some extra measures to keep your information more secure.
Don’t Post It
Social media sites are one of the easiest places for identity theft criminals to gather information about you. They can use this personal information to answer security challenge questions on a multitude of sites to get access to your credit card and store accounts. Do yourself a favour and keep your posting to a minimum. Also, be careful who you add as viewers to your social media pages.
Don’t Use Default Browser Password Savers
When you log into an account for the first time on any browser, it will likely ask you if you’d like it to store your login data for future visits to that particular website. While this may seem super convenient, it’s not super safe. Rather, you should opt for using a password guru software that stores all of your personal information in a secure platform using data encryption.
Ensure You’re on an Encrypted Page
It can be very easy to just start inputting your personal information when you land on a website form. However, you need to stop and look for the lock. Most internet browsers will have a lock icon that appears to the left or right of the address bar. When this lock is closed, it means that you’re on an encrypted page. When the lock is open, it means that the page is not encrypted and should be avoided.
Always Wipe Data from Any Device You’re Disposing Of
One of the best things that you can do to protect your privacy is to completely wipe out all the data from any technological devices that you’re getting rid of. This includes smartphones and laptops. With one look in the owner’s manual, you should be more than capable of finding out how to perform a factory reset. Once you have all of your necessary data from the device, wipe it clean before disposing of it every single time.
In this day and age, you need to take more steps than ever before to protect your personal data. The above are four great habits to start getting into. As time goes on, you’ll want to continue to add more secure habits to your lifestyle to protect your personal information from getting into the wrong hands.
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