Top Ten Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy
By Online Security Authority on Jul 2, 2009 in Privacy

- Image by Mikey G Ottawa via Flickr
It has always been the case that people are much more likely to be a victim of violent crime in their homes at the hands of a family member than on a city street being accosted by a stranger. And now, with the internet in everyones home, the chance of becoming a victim of crime at home has only increased.
Of course, internet crime is not usually violent crime, it tends to be more along the lines of destruction of property, through viruses and worms, and thefts through the use of scams and ID theft. But these crimes are highly destructive to people’s lives, as well, and need to be taken just as seriously as any other.
The good news is that, although you can never be completely safe, by employing a few simple practices you can greatly improve your online security. Use these top ten tips to protect your online privacy and help make your home a safer place to be.
1. Use separate accounts for personal and work e-mail. There is no telling who may be able to gain access to your work e-mail. Keep private stuff private by having a separate personal account.
2. Clear you cache often. Anyone who gains access to your computer, with your permission or without, has a record of your browsing history through cached pages. Keep it clear and you can keep it confidential.
3. Only use secure online forms. Make sure that any personal or sensitive data you transmit on the internet is encrypted. Never use non secure sites to transfer your private data.
4. Teach you kids to use the internet safely. Its not enough that you now what to and not to do on the internet. Make sure your kids are well informed as well.
5. Look for privacy policies. Every site you visit can collect information from your computer. Make sure the websites you visit have privacy policies that clearly state what the will and will not do with the information they might collect.
6. Reject cookies. Cookies enable sites to store information about you on your computer and access it at a later time. Unless you need cookies enabled for a specific reason, disable them in your internet preferences.
7. Opt out of information sharing. Many websites you visit will give you the opportunity to opt out of information sharing. This keeps them from distributing information on you and your browsing preferences to other interested sites. Always opt out when it is offered.
8. Never click on links in IM from people you don’t know. If you get an instant message from someone you don’t know well, leave any links contained in them alone.
9. Use e-mail filtering to prevent receiving spam e-mail. You never know what those e-mails might contain or what information might be compromised just by opening them. Filter out spam and don’t open e-mail if you don’t know the sender.
10. Password protect your e-mail and bookmarks. Password protect everything on your computer that has the option,. The more obstacles one needs to overcome to get your information, the less likely they are to try. Put these practices into use and make sure you are as safe as you can be.
Also, if you have not seen our first series Top 10 Ways List… Go Now The Best 30 Of The Top 10 Ways
As Always Be Safe Online, and if you find you have topic’s or ideas on other subjects that you would like us to investigate or create a list please email us our use our contact form.
Thanks for all the support and please Learn IT, Teach IT, Share IT…
Your Online Security Authority
Bill Wardell
Related articles by Zemanta
- Privacy Requires Security, Not Abstinence (technologyreview.com)
- Email, IM, SMS Use Vary By Country; Spam Universal (marketingvox.com)
- Tech Today: Cable vs. the Internet, Web Privacy Efforts, More (blogs.wsj.com)
- 8 ways to protect you and your family online (techburgh.com)
Written by: OSAblogger / Bill Wardell - Please Read Our Latest OSA eZine Edition
Other Places You Can Find Me…
Digg - LinkedIn - OSA Community - Facebook - StumbleUpon - MyBlogLog
If you're a concerned parent, you may want to subscribe to the: OSA~RSS while your here, please JOIN our: OSA Forum... also Follow Me On Twitter Thanks for visiting!
OSA Related Posts -
IT’s Better The Second Time Around With CHWradio In creating my last post for CHWradio.com which covered the last four months of our "Guest List". I stopped and listened to the show we had with Ed McGarr. The information Ed shared with us is good enough to charge admission. Seriously, Ed explains with clarity just what we are...... -
Being tracked down by long-lost foes, is only one risk you take when you join the site Facebook. Canada's privacy commissioner is launching an investigation into whether Facebook is breaking the law when it passes on sensitive personal information to advertisers and other profit-making companies without securing meaningful consent. photo credit: abusx The complaint, filed Friday by law students interning at the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest...... -
SAFETY FIRST ONLINE CONNECTION A NECESSITY The Internet is a powerful and modern means for communication. It breaks down global barriers, it connects people, expanded the scope of our knowledge and itâs time saving. We can get all the information we need with just a click of the mouse. It is amazing...... -
Internet Security - Maintaining Your Privacy on the Internet Five Things you can do To Protect Yourself Protecting yourself from predators on the Internet is very important for your teenager or child as well as yourself. Many people will try to get your personal information so they can have access to everything about you. If they can get your personal information, they can access...... -
Get More Info About Free Dating Online in this Blog Publication Each knows how vital personal information when it comes to online dating. This is the first impression you have from of the person, appearance and their identity within a lonely page summary, which will either turn the viewer off or turn them on.But the important thing when you sign up......
OSA Related Websites -
Information Marketing - Use It To Super Charge Your Online Business Yesterday I was stationary on a train running into London when I assumed I'd have a look round the carriage just to view what everyone was practising. I wanted to take in a psychological note because my 5 year old child invariably asks me 'what happed at your work today...... -
Has Technology Gone Too Far? There are so many fabulous technologies available to us to make our lives simpler, and many of those technologies keep advancing and are becoming smarter. One new technology that a friend recently showed to me is one that in the next year (maybe less) will give us a great...... -
Learn How To Control Your Computers Privacy Did you realize that every time you use the internet or delete a file off your computer you leave a footprint that can still be traced? Unfortunately these files don’t just disappear like most people hope they are. Instead they are still saved on your computer, leaving little footprints that...... -
Online Information Marketing-How Online Information Marketing Helps In Generating Income Recently, the business of online information marketing is gaining popularity among masses as a profitable way to make money.Information marketing is a concept that can be utilized in a number of ways to sustain a steady flow of income. Nowadays, the most common and effective tools that can be used...... -
Determining Sports Card Values If you are serious about collecting sports cards of any type, then you are going to want to have an understanding of what you can do to determine sport cards values as well. When it comes to the sports card collecting hobby or past time, there are certain questions that......



![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=7eab4873-7c4d-45cc-bf51-eebc920fd6b2)























1 Comment(s)
By Billy on Jul 14, 2009 | Reply
Thanks for tips. It'll surely help us all consumers to be safe online. Nowadays, most of us purchase or have our subscriptions (like online games or any services) online for convenience. I'm sure this article will be beneficial for us, you may also want to check this out for additional information: http://www.articlerich.com/Article/Safety-in-the-...