Internet Security Guide - How to Guard Your Privacy - Internet

The sobering fact is that targeted hacking is on the rise - cyber criminals are getting increasingly clever at gathering personal details online to create bespoke malware attacks. From dodgy marketing companies who secretly store your browsing habits and buying choices, to true cyber criminals who use your personal information to send infected emails that they know you'll open or in the worst case scenario steal your banking details, it's become more important than ever to guard your online privacy.

The following guide will outline some of the top ways you can step up your internet security peace of mind by ensuring your personal data is kept private.

Opt-out

Some of the larger search engines and many online retailers give you the choice to opt-out of targeted advertising and cookie tracking - this is always a good idea. Another important step is to opt out of search engines displaying personal information such as your phone number and physical address. Google Street View is a cause for concern - it allows potential criminals to virtually walk up to your front door to see what the best method of entering the premises is! Google allows you to opt-out on making your house fully viewable to the public in the Google Maps Privacy page. Further major opt-out resources can be found using these keywords:

. Google Phone Book Name Removal. Google Privacy Centre - Ad Opt Out . Bing Privacy. Yahoo Phone Number Removal Tool

Disposable E-mail Account for Purchases and Registrations

There's nothing more irritating than suddenly getting loads of spam after you've listed your e-mail address while registering for something online. Every time you give out your e-mail address you risk having it sold to spammers or used for annoying marketing e-mails. For this reason it's a good idea to open a free throw-away e-mail account devoted purely to site registrations and online purchases.

Facebook Privacy Settings

While most people will have setup their privacy settings when they originally signed up to Facebook, the social networking site has since evolved to develop more robust privacy settings. Keep an eye on this as these updates are often done in response to security weaknesses that have been exposed. Vigilance is important because you don't want strangers to be able to access too much of your personal information. Here are some top tips to keep your internet security on Facebook up to scratch:. Set most items as viewable to "Friends Only".. Check your application settings to make sure the apps listed were chosen by you - remove any that seem dodgy as well as those apps you don't frequently use, since the more Facebook apps you have, the more risk you run that one of them will be malicious and able to steal your personal information.

Router Stealth Mode

Many home network routers have a feature called "Stealth Mode" - this great feature allows you to make the computers within your house virtually invisible to hackers. The way it does this is it prevents your router from responding to "pings" from hacker scanning tools which scout for unsecured ports and services on computers. By not responding to these requests, your router makes it look like your home network is inactive. Be sure to check your router's setup guide to see if it has Stealth Mode.

Web Browsing Proxy Service

One of the easiest ways to prevent the websites you visit from identifying and thus tracking your computer's IP address (unique ID) is to use an anonymous browser proxy service. This acts as an intermediary between you and the website you're visiting. The way this works is that every time you try access a website, a proxy sends the access request through the web proxy service, onto the website, and then the proxy relays the web page back so you can view it. With the proxy as your middleman, the website sees their IP address information rather than yours.It might sound complicated but it's really not - there are loads of both commercial and free anonymous web proxy services available for download. Be careful to choose a reliable one however, as in effect you're relying on them to protect your privacy. Also check their privacy policy to see how your identity and personal information is safeguarded.

Conclusion

While the above guide gives you some of the top ways to protect your privacy online against hackers or shifty marketers, don't forget that for true Internet Security , you'll need robust antivirus software.

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