We’ve noticed an increasing number of clients who are concerned about the amount of information available about them online. For too long many people have freely shared information via social media, press releases and their own websites. Now we know that organisations are using some of this info to snoop on us, many people are getting really worried about their online privacy. Just a quick google search of your name can often show up surprising results.
Need help? We are now offering clients help with cleaning up their online information but you can do it yourself.
Here are our tips and suggestions for how to regain and protect your online security:-
1. Delete all your social media accounts. If you really must use social media consider setting up a new account using a fake name which is just known to your closest friends and family. This approach isn’t ideal if you love to collect followers but it is one way of preserving your privacy. Its a popular approach with celebrities and members of the Royal family.
2. Google your name and go through all the results carefully. Contact the website owners to ask for information to be removed.
3. If you cannot get information removed try to edit it to show fake information.
4. Set up Google Alerts to let you know every time your name or domain is published. The only downside is that there will be plenty of other people with the same name so the Alerts won’t be able to decipher between them. Prepare to get a lot of alerts!
5. Delete all cookies from all your devices that you use to access the internet.
6. Change your IP address. Some internet server providers change your IP address regularly anyway. For others it is simply a question of turning off your modem and turning it back on again. You can google ‘what is my IP address?’ to find out.
7. When you are searching try Duck Duck Go instead of Google. They don’t track your search activities and its a pretty good search engine.
8. If you want to make sure you are visiting a website anonymously you could try visiting via a proxy. You can find proxies at http://proxy.org/. Its not ideal as some are slow or want you to set up an account.
9. Monitor your online presence regularly by googling your name.
10. Turn off your webcam. Disconnect it if you can. If you can’t put some tape over it. Make sure you do this if your tv has a webcam too.
One final thought. We believe smart tvs are the next source of security concerns. If you have upgraded to one of these televisions you need to be aware of the risks. Please read this newspaper article to learn more > Is Your Tv Spying On You?
