If you follow social media and social media antics then you know how invasive each of these media platforms is. But recently, this intrusion of privacy reached a new low when Facebook was found asking new users for their password to their email accounts.

When the users clicked upon an email verification link, some new Facebook users were asked for their private email password – one of the first “DON’T’s” covered in cybersecurity.

Why do we need to safeguard our privacy?

Surveillance is now the daily reality of our lives. Privacy is in danger because organizations and governments across the world no longer think of it as an intrinsic right.

Right from your web browser to mobile devices, and IoT products – almost every digital touchpoint has the potential to obliterate your privacy and security. And as recent news has shown, you cannot trust vendors, applications and social media sites to safeguard your data.

Having “nothing to hide” is no longer a good enough reason. Everyone must do whatever they can to protect their personal data and privacy. You deserve to be safe and secure online.

Here are some steps you can take to be protected and safe online:

Data Management is the core of privacy

While data may be a vague concept and may mean different things to different people, here is a good start to break down different sets of data to examine how each aspect is relevant to your security.

PERSONALLY, IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION

Personally, Identifiable Information is also known as PII and includes things physical home address, email id, birthdate, phone numbers, marital status, Social Security numbers or National Insurance numbers. This can also include information relating to your medical status, family members, employment and education.

This type of data, when lost in various kinds of breaches and or perhaps stolen, can provide the attackers with adequate material to steal your identity, take out loans in your name and compromise your online accounts where the only security is answering some questions correctly.

Essentially, your seemingly innocuous personal data is a ticking time bomb ready to blast when in the wrong hands.

Browsing habits and online behaviour

All your internet activity is tracked by the Internet Service Provider(ISP). Unfortunately, this too can be hijacked. The web pages you visit, store information in the form of cookies which are small bits of text downloaded and stored by your browser.

Even the addons and browser plugins you use can track your online activity across websites.

This matters because all this information is collected to create an online persona of you, to deliver tailored ads and influence your online behaviour. Many times online monitoring goes too far and is also considered intrusive.

Email Privacy

Email and email messages are the quickest and easiest way for people to access personal information. Email accounts provide a quick pathway to all your other accounts and information and also contain a record of your communication with friends or family.

Since email is a single link for many services, just a simple break in can snowball into a hijack of all your accounts and data.

What can you do?

You can start by using private email service as a security measure.

A private email is a secure email service that keeps your emails private. Right from email security and encryption, some of the best private email service promise anonymity.

Worried that you might need to switch over from your existing id to a new one, causing a lot of confusion and loss of communication? Some of the premier private email providers don’t require you to change your id. In fact, there are some helpful criteria that will help you select the relevant provider:

How to select the best private email service?

  • Some of the best private email services secure your existing email address.
  • They don’t add a new account, neither do they store emails.
  • They provide physical email security and not just digital email security.
  • They offer full encryption and enable full sender-control for both cloud and recipient devices.
  • Ability to archive and privatize past emails

These features provide a good starting point for you to consider a new private email service provider. While some of the best private email services are not free, the price is low compared to your privacy.