5 Tips to Avoid Digital Privacy Breach

Jibran Khan
3 min readJun 13, 2022

Do you feel helpless about your online privacy? This helpless feeling causes depression which can cause serious health problems. A study submitted in the International Journal of Human-Computer interaction states that the helpless feeling about your online privacy can lead to anxiety and depression.

We can avoid all these troubles by making simple changes to our online accounts and gadgets. You can protect your digital privacy by following the below-mentioned 5 practical tips. Let’s dive right in.

1. Secure your passwords

Numerous data breaches have occurred in the past decade and they have battered companies including Facebook and Yahoo. You must use complex passwords to avoid violations. You can make use of password managers for generating and remembering complicated passwords for your accounts. To be on the safe side, you must keep updating your password at least once a month.

2. Be vigilant in Web browsing

Data brokers secretly buy and sell your personal information on the internet. Every time you click something on the internet, it leaves traces of your activity. The collected data is provided to the advertisers who run targeted Ads.

This is how you see products and services related to your interests in your Facebook feed. For this purpose, you can use Privacy Badger and uBlock Origin. These extensions bar the websites from collecting your personal data and selling it onwards.

3. Must have anti-virus software on your device

You may think that malicious software is not expected these days, but that is not the case. If you click unsafe links every now and then, your device and data are more vulnerable to getting infected. These viruses can have catastrophic consequences if they start scanning your personal data.

If your device runs on Microsoft Windows, you can turn the Windows Defender on. It offers a good deal of options and, it should be your primary option for restricting malicious software. For an additional layer of security, you can use Avast Anti-virus software. It is free to use, user-friendly, and won’t annoy you with useless notifications like any other software.

4. Update your software and devices

Always update your devices, apps, and web browsers to the new version as soon as it becomes available. The updates have new features and security improvements. These updates can perform better than any anti-virus software in resisting spammers.

Although all the authentic software updates automatically, however, you should regularly check for updates in your device’s settings menu.

5. Avoid installing dubious software

You should always download software and extensions directly from its source. Keep a check on what apps have access to your data. Visit the “App permission” option on your device and audit the permission options regularly.

Closure

The above-mentioned tips can help you keep your digital privacy if religiously followed. You should make a habit of protecting your online data and having good online behaviors.

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