Everyone faces an increasing array of attacks on their security and privacy.  Banks, lawyers and accountants have installed firewalls to keep hackers out. Everyone is constantly reminded to change passwords and update security; bar the doors to keep out the enemy.

Privacy was once a simple thing: closing your bedroom curtains when getting ready for bed, or visiting your doctor and/or accountant behind closed doors. In the digital world, the whole complexity of privacy has become skewed.

Online privacy has everything to do with protecting who you are AND what you are doing. On the Internet data has high value. It is stolen, sold, collected and analyzed.

Take a moment to think about what you are doing: the searches you perform, the websites you visit, the articles you read, and what you buy online. Individuals are inadvertently creating a huge digital paper-trail of data about themselves.

7 TIPS TO SECURING YOUR DATA:

  1. Secure your passwords. Passwords are the keys to our digital lives and should be long and unique.
  2. Be conscious of all privacy settings. Most social media sites will give you options to select who you are sharing your information with.
  3. Be aware of your digital footprint. Whatever you post online is there forever, even if it is deleted.
  4. Get reliable security for all of your devices. Know that most software is as holey as Swiss cheese, making software updates just temporary patches for the holes that have been discovered so far. More holes will be discovered later. Updates are basically red alerts to hackers, pointing them to the holes.
  5. Back up your data. Protect yourself in case hackers hold your data hostage for a ransom.
  6. Keep your operating system up to date. It fixes security holes that have been discovered.
  7. Wise up to Wi-Fi. While most home Wi-Fi connections are encrypted, some public Wi-Fi connections are not.

There you’ve covered all your bases! 

OOPS!!! Maybe not. 

First you opened yourselves up to the world on Facebook, then you invited Siri and Alexa into your homes. It is so delightful when Alexa can answer all your questions without having to look it up, privately, in the encyclopedia.

Amazon ‘reportedly’ employs thousands of people to listen to your Alexa conversations!

Yikes! Really?

Yes, really. Everything you do and say is being recorded, stored and analyzed. But does anyone really care? We have moved into an era of sharing. The concept of sharing has become pervasive in the 21st Century with digital data (e.g.Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). Popular self-help literature emphasizes developing healthy intimate relationships through sharing/disclosing our innermost thoughts and feelings.

So, on one hand, humans are baring the doors;

on the other they are throwing them wide open.

It’s all a bit confusing.

“Linda has published sixteen books. She blogs about the publishing world, posts useful tips on the challenges a writer faces, including marketing and promoting your work, how to build your online platform, how to get reviews and how to self-publish.”