In our previous article, we discussed about online privacy and how it is changing for us every day. Here, we will explore much more about maintaining and securing our privacy in the digital world. As technology progress, comfort is brought down to us.
With just a click, we can shop from anywhere in the world, pay our bills, send a letter to a loved one, connect with the long lost friend, cherish old memories with family, complete our degree and much more.
There are unlimited prospects offered to us in this world of internet and connectivity but as we say, there is a price for everything. Online accessibility allows us to save our data and personal information on Internet servers thus putting us at risk.
Let see which online activities can put you at risk and how you can avoid them:
Online Banking and Its Security Issues
No doubt, internet banking is way easier than tradition one. Firstly, you don’t have to visit the bank to make any kind of payment or withdraw money. Secondly, you save big with online banking; so, at the end of the day you are not empty-pocket. But with all these benefits comes a few perils which might make you think twice in banking online.
The biggest concern is the confidentiality of the information that you share with bank authorities.
Banks’ systems can be close to perfection but they can never be absolute. Not only this, banks are always a center of attraction to criminal and this puts you at a greater risk. These loopholes can be exploited and your information can easily be accessed. As most online bankers use mobile apps for payments and card readers.
But as suggested by online security expert, Winston Bond, the reverse engineering in app can modify and alter its function while giving away your username password and bank credentials.
Not only this, spyware and malware in your apps can also breach your online privacy. But then how to protect yourself from such threats – well, the easy way is to use unique username and password for each of your online account. Never keep your email account or social media account name and password similar to your bank account.
Social Media and Its Online Privacy Settings
Social media, in itself is world that informs you, connects, and updates you about anything and everything. Not only this, social media is a platform that analyzes your habits, preferences and exposes it to the corporate world for targeted marketing. Well, in a sense it is a good thing as you won’t be seeing ads from every Tom, Dick and Harry.
But then it is conflicting with the core definition of privacy that an individual is entitled to. The story doesn’t end here; social media also divulge your identity to complete strangers when you post something and a contact of yours reacts (like, comment) to it.
According to a study by Pew 60-70% posts on Facebook are not private and 90% on Twitter which leave us open to a world of strangers. There is a lot more on social media that can broadcast our information like third party applications, behavioral advertisers, bugs, electronic trackers, law enforcement agencies and also creditors.
All you can do to keep your information private on social media is just by not posting it. Also, avoid using third party apps as they bring bugs as well they track the database even on their own.
However, over the time internet has developed and certainly the online security scientist have also paced up. Earlier, it was SSL that added “s” with HTTP to ensure the users that the website is safe to visit.
This technology guarantees that the users’ information is encrypted and rendered to hackers. The SSL provides a layer of protection by encrypting your email address and password but the subsequent pages that the user visits on the same site are not secured.
And as the time progressed, social media was developed for convenient communication and connection. Well, it made life easy but it also posed malicious online attacks that can put one’s information at risk.
To cope with that, OTA (Online Trust Alliance) demands the upgradations of internet security technology by implementing AOSSL (Always-on SSL) on all the web pages. Internet giants such as Facebook, Google, PayPal and Twitter have integrated the system thus providing it’s users a safer way to interact.
