28th January was marked Data Privacy Day 10 years ago by the Council of Europe in 2007. It is a day dedicated to raising awareness of data protection and privacy and promoting the importance of keeping the internet and its users safe.
Taking precautions when it comes to privacy is very important as identity theft and breaches result in the loss of billions to the consumers every year. This year’s emphasis was an upgrading privacy programmes and ensuring safe storage and sharing of personal data.
First let’s not confuse the terms privacy and security. Privacy is referred to the keeping safe of personal information which is not meant to be accessed by other people. On the other hand security is protection of your data from exploitation and exposure. These days when everyone tends to keep their data online, chances of someone spying on that information is higher than ever. Following are some steps you can follow to make sure your data is safe and secured.
1. Review the privacy policies and make sure that they have provided solid plans, supporting backups, restrictions for access and detecting loops and threats.
2. Always choose your passwords to expire after a certain amount of time so that you can change them and decrease the probability of someone guessing them.
3. Review and keep yourself updated with the permissions and sharing. Free services usually contain threats and loops so always go with security rather than convenience.
