Privacy is power. 5 things you can do right away to protect your online privacy

For people predisposed toward spending too much time with devices (like all of us lately), achieving online privacy can be incredibly challenging. We juggle with apps and websites from morning till dawn to check the weather, social media channels, email, pay the bills, shop online, chat via video, access a school portal or workspace, read the news or watch a movie. 

Protecting your privacy can take time and effort: research, editing settings, then monitoring news to avoid (or at least find out about) the latest vulnerabilities and data breaches. But if you don”t have the time and energy to do this every day, what can you do? Where do you start and how do you secure your personal information?

We”ve tried to make it as simple as possible to help you find a balance between your privacy concerns and your need to be online most of the time. You”ve probably heard them before, but ignored or postponed acting. Many people do the same, until they discover that they had been exposed. That”s why we”ll continue to emphasize that, even if your privacy efforts are not perfect, doing something is better than doing nothing. 

1. Keep your accounts safe with strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication.  If you reuse passwords and hackers get the email/ username and password for one of your accounts, they can use these credentials to break into your other accounts. 

2. Say and share less about yourself online to minimize your digital footprint. Be sparing with the personal information you share on social media and user accounts on websites. The less the internet knows about you, the better. 

Curious to see what data about you is there online? Check it now with Bitdefender’s Digital Identity Protection.

3. Delete as many old, unused accounts as you can. You might sign up for new accounts to use some random service, then forget about it. The more sites that have your data, the greater the chances of seeing it exposed. 

4. Edit privacy settings. Pay attention to the services you use most frequently and be extra attentive to the privacy settings. Opt out of those that ask for permission to use your location, data, contacts and so on. 

5. Stay up to date with breach alerts and what happens with your online data. You might have things to do other than continuously monitor your digital identity for suspicious events. The good news is that specific tools can do that for you, saving you time, worry and money. 

We”ve created one, too. Digital identity protection is the result of our expertise and knowledge from 20 years of providing award-winning security to customers around the world. Find out how it can help you here.

Since we cannot avoid technology altogether, the least we can do is protect our privacy and our digital selves. We all have the means to do it, it is still within our power.

Use it and stay safe! Take back your privacy!