Protect your peace by protecting your digital privacy.

Strategizing your privacy

In our daily lives, we often see technology as the norm and don’t even think twice about how revealing it is to our privacy. When riding public transportations, how many times do you punch in your phone password in front of strangers?

The first step to protecting your data is to be aware of your surroundings. Be mindful of your personal digital privacy by asking the following questions:

• What information or data do you want to protect?
• Who do you want to protect it from?
• How likely is it that you’ll need to protect it?
• What will happen if you fail to protect it?
• How much effort are you willing to put in to protect your personal information?
• What presents risks to your ability to do so?
• Are there tools/ technology to help you protect your information?

Once you have the answers to these questions, you can conduct the right strategy for optimum cyber security. Find the most important items for your digital privacy here .

Habits to stay cyber safe

Cyberattacks can happen anytime anywhere, and it takes only a blink of an eye. Develop better online security defenses to shield your data from the risks of cybercrimes by adopting these 8 habits:

1. Think twice before clicking on links or opening attachments.
2. Verify requests for private information.
3. Protect your passwords.
4. Lock your stuff especially in public.
5. Keep your devices, browsers, and apps up to date.
6. Back up critical files.
7. Delete sensitive information when it's no longer needed.
8. If it's suspicious, report it.

These 8 habits should already be incorporated into your daily routines. If you’re not used to doing any of these items yet, learn more about them here .

Threats and types

Digital privacy is the practice of using the internet privately without leaking or compromising information. To secure private information from unauthorized access, digital privacy could be divided into three categories:

• Communication Privacy

This is the concept that individuals ought to communicate digitally with their communications secure and private. In some instances, the communications can be intercepted without the sender’s knowledge, leading to a privacy breach.

• Information Privacy

This is the relationship between how data is collected and disseminated between entities. Information privacy intends to protect data shared online from malicious access.

• Individual Privacy

This privacy is all about ensuring individual information remains private. It may include health, financial, or even location information. Internet users can proactively use tools such as VPN and routing to remain anonymous.

If you are using the internet and have been using it for a whole, your privacy may have been endangered by browsing activities you’re unaware of. Some of these threats include:

1.Cookies Proliferation

Ideally, cookies submit potentially sensitive data fetched from your surfing behavior. They pose a threat as they send personal information without consent.

2. Cell Phone GPS Functionality

Applications that demand ‘always-on location’ are a big threat to your internet privacy. Sharing location details may expose you to illegal tracking.

3. Phishing Attacks

Cybercriminals often trick people into clicking on malicious emails intended to collect their personal information. It mostly targets financial information.

4. Unsecured Browsing

Mostly, websites without HTTPS encryption are less secure and can share your information with other third parties.

Read more about the definition of digital privacy and the best practices to maximize your internet privacy in the full piece here .

Have you done any of the mentioned-above cyber-safe habits today?

Don’t forget to share today’s Monday Mavens edition to your friends and colleagues to keep them safe, too!

While you guard up on your digital privacy, we’ll go back to producing another helpful edition your way.

We’ll see you again next Monday.

Cheers!