In today’s society, it can be really difficult to stay on top of things without using technology such as your smartphone or the internet. In fact, far too many of us rely on our smartphones for everything from paying for groceries to keeping in touch with our friends and family members. It’s no surprise that almost everyone owns a smartphone these days, and virtually everyone uses the internet in some shape or form.
However, more and more people are starting to talk about security issues and the internet. After all, we’ve all heard stories about people getting their accounts hacked or credit cards stolen. While it’s not likely to happen to you anytime soon, you can always take precautions to protect yourself. So in this post, we’re going to discuss why everyone’s talking about internet privacy and why you should care.
Hackers are starting to get smarter and more devious
There’s a constant invisible war going on between hackers and companies. In the past, hackers could easily fool people with fake emails and websites that imitated real companies. But these days, websites like Google and web browsers such as Chrome and Firefox do a pretty good job of weeding out any obvious fakes and dangerous websites. However, that doesn’t mean that you can browse the internet without ever worrying about a hacker.
These days, hackers and criminals use two different methods to gain access to your account or details. The first one involves stealing passwords and other data from existing websites and services. These are known as data breaches and could happen to virtually anyone. In fact, there’s a good chance that your data is somewhere on the internet, and someone could use it to gain access to your account by just trying random passwords, usernames, and emails that you’ve used in the past.
The second method is through social engineering. This could mean impersonating someone that you know or fooling you with messages from seemingly legitimate links. There are loads of different ways for hackers to exploit you for information, so it’s important to be on your toes and be mindful of who you trust with your information.
Why should you care about protecting your information?
Practically speaking, you don’t really need to care. A lot of companies take your information and use it for things like advertising. There’s a reason why websites still start to advertise products you like–it’s because the advertisers can see the type of things that you search for. For example, if you start searching for side gigs or look for a job, then Google will advertise things like entrepreneurship, job searching, and online learning.
But with that said, there are definitely people out there that feel uncomfortable knowing this information. So if you’d rather Google or any other website not have your information, there are a couple of methods to consider.
First, consider using a virtual private network (VPN). These will mask your unique internet address and your identity from the internet, meaning no service can track you. You can purchase a subscription service to do this, or you could consider learning how to change IP address on iPhone or your device of choice. This will help cover your tracks and make it a lot easier to mask your identity on the internet.
Just keep in mind that protecting your identity is just one step. Many companies likely already have a bunch of information on you, but you can actually request this information and have them delete it. You can contact websites like Google and ask them to find and delete any information that they have on you, giving you a completely fresh start.
It’s also worth remembering that Google isn’t a company that will easily be hacked, so your data is likely going to be safe with them. However, the same can’t be said for smaller companies. If you’ve trusted other businesses and services with your data, then you might want to request for them to remove your data or at least be more mindful of it.
Some final words to keep in mind
While internet privacy is certainly an important subject, it’s worth keeping in mind that not everyone really cares about it. Some people don’t want to purchase extra subscription services and request for their data to be deleted. But with that said, there are also some people that would go the extra mile to ensure their data isn’t being saved. It’s really down to how comfortable you personally feel in regard to your privacy.
