Protecting Your Privacy When Shopping Online

Be careful when doing your online shopping!

It seems protecting our online privacy has never been more difficult. Should you be concerned? Yes, you should be. But there's no need to panic just yet. There is still a lot you can do to protect yourself from identity theft by safeguarding your personal and financial information.

Here are five things you can start doing right now to protect your online identity.

1. Use strong passwords - Creating a strong password is the easiest thing you can do to protect yourself online. Your ideal password should be random, and it should include a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as at least one number. Your password should never include personal information, like your social security number, address, date of birth, your pet's name, etc. You should also avoid reusing passwords, and you should change them regularly.

2. Safeguard your digital files - Most people know how to store their personal and financial paper documents in a safe, secure manner. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to do that with their digital documents. If you store financial documents on your computer, there are steps you should take to secure them there as well. Protect your computer with a strong password. If possible, encrypt your financial documents using one of the many popular encryption software programs. Use a firewall―most operating systems have them built in nowadays. And, never email documents with sensitive information in them. If you need to share a document over the internet, use a secure cloud sharing service, like Apple's iCloud, Microsoft's OneDrive or Dropbox, just to name a few.

3. Post online cautiously - Communicating with friends, family or colleagues on social media can be fun, and that can sometimes cause you to forget that you are communicating in a public forum. Just like with your passwords, you should never post anything that contains personal information, like your phone number, address, date of birth, social security number, etc. You should also avoid sharing too much information about any planned vacations or other extended stays away from home, which could signal to someone that your personal property might be left unattended.

4. Know your phone and apps - Mobile phones have become an indispensable part of our lives, as have the apps we download onto them. The conveniences they provide come at a price, however. the apps you use often have access to information you might not have considered, like your calendar, contacts, location, even information within other apps on your phone. The way that information is stored, secured and used by the app varies with each example. Take the time to understand your phone's privacy settings and what information your apps access. Don't download apps you don't need, and only download apps from a source you know you can trust.

5. Learn to spot phishing scams - The easiest way for someone to steal your personal information is for you to simply give it to them. While that might should like an inconceivable scenario, it happens all the time. Criminals send out fake email messages that appear to be from a trustworthy source―like your bank or credit card company―that ask you to click a link to confirm personal information, like your password or account number. These messages have become known as "phishing" scams, and they're easy to avoid once you know how to spot them. For starters, don't open suspicious emails. Mark them as SPAM and delete them. More importantly, never respond to an unsolicited email with personal information about yourself. If you have doubts, call the institution in question to confirm whether they are attempting to reach you.

Follow these steps and you’ll be in good shape for all your online shopping!

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