Limiting the amount of immediately available information about you can not only help prevent you from becoming a target to hackers, but it can prevent other types of dangerous cybercrime, like doxing, identity theft, financial crime, and more. Data privacy is extremely important – being informed and aware is the first step to keeping your data safe.

“Potential employers or customers don’t need to know your personal relationship status or your home address. They do need to know about your expertise and professional background, and how to get in touch with you. You wouldn’t hand purely personal information out to strangers individually—don’t hand it out to millions of people online.”  – Kapersky

You may innocently make a post on your Facebook about the anniversary of a beloved pet’s passing – and suddenly, a financial hacker knows the answer to one of your bank’s security questions. Same goes for other typical security measures, so it’s good to ask yourself; “Am I over-sharing online?” and “Am I making myself a target?” Be honest with the answer – it could save you a lot of trouble.

“Major websites like Facebook also have privacy-enhancing settings available. These settings are sometimes (deliberately) hard to find because companies want your personal information for its marketing value. Make sure you have enabled these privacy safeguards, and keep them enabled.”   – Kapersky

Here’s some advice to keep yourself safe, and to help limit the data you broadcast over the internet.

• Check your that your personal information on your commonly used websites (social media, email accounts, etc) is hidden as much as possible behind privacy settings and filters.
• Even in an email or social media post that looks legitimate, it’s better to type in familiar websites rather than follow convenient links – especially if you are in a professional field that makes you a data theft target.
• Broadcasting data from your device over a public network is always a risky gamble – you never know who is listening in, or joins the network specifically to act as a net for stolen data.

^{SEPTEMBER 20 2020
Authored here @ hello internet.}