In association with Reclaim Your Privacy

If you think patience is a virtue, then try spending a day without the internet. 

To say that the internet is crucial to our survival would be an understatement. We’re living, breathing, thinking and now even socialising in the digital world. And as we walk hand-in-hand with technology, what we often forget is the alarming side to how much of ourselves have we exposed to this unforgiving world. It’s scary, but for all we know, there might be a second party secretly tracking all our moves online. 

Our personal data privacy should be our personal mission! Which is why we’ve listed down 7 simple things you should keep in mind to be safe online.

1. Avoid using free Wi-Fi

This might be hard, especially when your mobile data is frozen and you need to send that mail out immediately. But unless you want your personal information and location details to be public knowledge, you don’t use public Wi-Fi. 

2. Change your social media passwords from time to time 

And do it now if you’ve been using that same ‘rockstar_<your name>’ password everywhere since high school! Ideally, you should be changing your passwords once every year, and never use the same one for all platforms (very bad idea!) If you’re the one who’s always forgetting their passwords or not sure if they are strong enough, Reclaim Your Privacy, suggests using a password manager. Also, check out its smart tips and tricks to keep the passwords safe and even check if they’ve been leaked.  

3. Browse in incognito or private mode

This is one great tip to follow if you don’t want your computer to save your browsing history, temporary internet files, or cookies. In Chrome, it’s called the incognito mode. Firefox has the private browsing feature, while Internet Explorer uses the name InPrivate browsing for its privacy feature.

4. Turn off location detector on your browser

You may find a pop-up box asking to switch-on your phone’s location on various occasions after downloading an app or visiting a particular website. Take a judgement call for yourself to see if asking for your location has anything to do with you visiting the page. If the answer’s no, you know what to do. Check out just how easy Reclaim Your Privacy with their super helpful tips has made it for us to minimise the infringement of our personal data by our phones, laptops and PCs. 

5. Use a virtual private network 

A virtual private network (VPN) can bolster our online privacy game like no other. It not only gives us online privacy and anonymity by creating a private network from a public internet connection, but also veils our IP address so our online actions are virtually untraceable. 

6. Be careful where you click

One of the favourite ways of hackers to scam us is through phishing attempts. Here, they get us to provide them with valuable financial or personal information by sending fake emails from banks, credit card providers, or other financial institutions. In either case, your first step should be to call up the bank and verify the mail/message before inserting your credentials or clicking on any link. 

7. Use quality antivirus software

This is the most basic precaution we can take to ensure safety from the latest malware, spyware, and other viruses. A strong antivirus software will protect our information from being hacked and keep our location also discreet. But make sure to keep updating the software from time to time for the best results. Learn the easiest hacks to turn off targeted ads on social media that may be of any threat to us on Reclaim Your Privacy. These tips are really helpful!

This world is full of risks. But the last thing we really want is to invite trouble for us when we’re doing something as fundamental as being on the internet, which is always! Reclaim Your Privacy understands our needs and is providing us with all the right solutions to keep every internet threat at bay. Check out their Instagram handle right here. 

So you must be curious to know how devices collect a ton of data without you even realising? Check out this video right here to know.

So trust Reclaim Your Privacy to enlighten you on how to safeguard your privacy online and you’re good to go! Visit Reclaim Your Privacy now and learn to be safe.