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Easy tips for Online Privacy Protection

June 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Most people around the world use Internet for various reasons. It has now become very important to protect the online privacy. Online protection is very important for anyone who wants to protect their identity. There are many malicious programs and people online that can harm, delete, and damage any content in the computer. Here are few steps to protect online privacy.

Forums and Minerals, the new Internet tools

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First important and basic step is to create password that cannot be easily cracked by malicious codes or hackers. A good password is one that is a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. Often, hackers cannot crack a password like this. It is better to avoid name or personal details as password and passwords should be changed periodically.

Some people tend to save their passwords in files. This is not a good practice and it is always better to hide passwords. Additionally, an individual should not share their passwords to anyone, even to their close friends or family members. If a person has shared the password, then it is better to change it immediately.

Email is another section where most hackers try to attack systems. The users should not open attachments from the malicious or unknown emails. Email protection programs should be enabled. While browsing, people should share their private information only to the trusted and reliable website.

Firewall program and trusted anti-virus should be installed on the system. Today, there are many programs available that helps the user to browse the Internet anonymously without sharing any personal information. Finally, it is a must for the computer users to do regular scans.

 

 

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Common Sense and Knowledge Best Protection Online

March 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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The best way to protect yourself online is to use common sense and to understand the ways in which others can use certain information you provide, against you.

McAfee, Symantec, and other programs can help you to prevent harmful viruses from attacking your computer. Protecting your personal information is your responsibility. Knowing what to do, and what not to do online, can prevent others from acquiring private information they can use against you.

Monitor Yourself

Always remember that once you post a photo or text on a social networking site or on other online communities, it is fair game. Even if you decide you want to remove the photo or delete the post, several people may have already saved it to their computer. They may distribute it all over the internet.

  • Think before you post. Do you want the world to see or read it? If the answer is no, do not post it.
  • Remember who can see what you do on social networking sites and where what you do can be shared with others.

Getting Personal

When signing up to become part of an online community, whether it is a message board, social networking site, or chat rooms, use common sense when sharing information:

  • Always read the site’s privacy policy to find out who has access to any information you post
  • View the privacy settings that you have control over and if you have no control, limit what you share
  • Set up an additional free email account you can use for these sites. This will limit the amount of spam and junk mail you receive in the email account you use for work or business
  • Try to use an online screen name that does not give clues to your real name or any other personal information about you
  • Do not accept bribes or promises of rewards, in exchange for your personal information
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Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy

January 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Internet has really made an impact on people’s lives. It has become such an important part of their lives that people rarely give a second thought to their privacy. They share personal information, their real names and fill out forms without even thinking about where it is going or who is getting the information. The problem is that there are a lot of people on the Internet that are looking to use your personal information for their gain. Luckily, there are many things that you can do to make sure that you keep your online activities private.

The first thing you can do to make sure that your online activities are private is to delete all history and cache files. Anyone who has access to your computer can view all the websites that you visited and what you did on those sites. With just a few clicks of the mouse you can delete your browser’s internet history and prevent people from gaining access to this type of information. To clear the internet history with Internet Explorer click Internet Tools at the top of the screen and then choose Preferences and Clear Internet History.

The second thing you can do to make sure that your online activities are kept private is to make sure that you are sending emails and contact forms that are encrypted. Encryption takes the information that you are sending and scrambles it. The only person that can view the unscrambled version of the information is the intended recipient. Encryption of materials is so popular that it has become a basic feature on most websites. Almost all email servers provide encrypted emails and websites that are encrypted show a tiny little lock at the bottom right of the screen that notifies computer users that their information is being encrypted.

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Online Privacy: Is It A Myth

December 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

We can see that the number of internet user’s increases and kids are the ones to use more for their projects and homework or for collaborating with their class mates. Online privacy becomes necessary while browsing and using internet. There are several measures taken to make sure that your privacy is maintained when you are online. The first and foremost step is to check whether the web page you are surfing is a secured one or not. Do not provide any kind of personal information about yourself such as name, address, contact number etc.
Privacy statements are the most effective tools you can use to protect yourself while online. There are four basic elements in the privacy statement. First one is “notice”, the web page you use should mention clearly how they are going to use your private information. Second one is “choice”, the website should allow you to choose whether they can collect and use your information. Next element is”access”, website should allow you to access your private information if any inaccuracy occur. “Security” is another element which all the web pages have to keep up to protect your information from loss and misuse. The Web Pages should also include privacy policies about how they are going to deal with our information. Do make sure to read out this privacy policy before agreeing it to any kind of statement. Reject unnecessary cookies while browsing and try to delete your cache memory at regular intervals. The web page can also give out registration process to enter information. Some websites also use seals such as privacy seal, security seal, and vulnerability seals. These seals give an idea about the web page you are dealing with thus helping you to keep your private information to yourself. In case of kid’s privacy, parental control software’s can be included and they can be taught not to share any kind of info with anybody whom they don’t know personally.

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Methods Behind Phishing

December 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

One out of ten online shoppers has been a victim of some or the other kind of Phishing attack. And almost every one has been to a site which pretends to be the original one and asks for credit card details. Not many fall for this promises, but the very few who do, end up losing a lot of money. This causes the trust on online shopping to go away and people stop stopping online altogether after one such experience. Phishing earlier was known as a way to obtain personal information about the person from his personal belongings such as the mail and the trash. This personal information can include social security number, address, birth date, credit card details and bank account numbers. But today times have changed and fraudsters have internet at their disposal. Knowing about the techniques that fraudsters use to cheat people of their private information is the best way to deal with them.

Link manipulation is one of the most common methods of Phishing where the fraudster uses a domain name that is slightly different from the genuine sites name that people trust. This misspelled domain name belongs to another spoofed organization that makes its web-site look exactly as the original one. Websites such as www.orkut.com could be named as www.orukt.com. The human mind has the tendency to read the first and the last word to read things faster. To find out if a website or an email is a fraud, you can look for various signs like the requirement to verify ones account. A genuine site will never ask anyone to verify their account. This is a technique that spammers use to get unsuspecting users to click on wrong sites. Another common threat by these Phishing sites is to respond within 48 hours or the account will be permanently closed. Mails do not contains names in the beginning.

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