Online privacy and internet security are essential and crucial as they determine what kind of personal information can be accessed by prying eyes and other third-party entities. Privacy and security also determine how vulnerable your information is against malicious attacks and breaches.
为什么要保护网络隐私
Prying eyes, cookies, advertising companies, and tracking organizations are all after your sensitive personally identifying data and other related information. Mining and profiling agencies are also busy putting together your fragments of data that you thought can’t be used against you or which you gave away freely. There are also digital footprints that you leave online when you visit any website, do some shopping and even what you search on various search engines.
Putting together this information and with the help of AI, companies and agencies may profile you and track you everywhere on the internet, know your browsing behavior and in turn sell this information to advertising agencies. They will, in turn, bombard you with intrusive retargeting ads with increasing accuracy.
It’s even worse if this information is breached or fall in malicious hands. You might be blackmailed, or be a victim of identity theft and fraud. And this is why you should protect your privacy and online security.
隐私工具和最佳做法
To safeguard your privacy and online security, you need the right privacy tools and also adhere to the best online practices which minimize sabotaging your privacy and online security. Below are some basic but ultimate tools and online practices that you can apply and protect your online privacy and internet security from cybercriminals and other prying eyes.
Use a reputable VPN – IPBurger VPN
A VPN protects both your online security and privacy. For security, a VPN uses strong encryption standards to encrypt your online traffic and tunnel it securely via a VPN server. The encryptions render your data unreadable as it scrambles it into some gibberish form. The secure tunnel is also hard to hack into but in case prying eyes manage to intercept your data; they won’t be able to read it let alone decrypt it.
This makes a VPN a suitable tool to use when surfing the internet. Due to the secure connection tunnel, you can use a VPN to protect your online traffic on public Wi-Fi hotspots, and you won’t worry about malicious actors getting their hands on your data.
Besides the encryptions, the VPN server also hides your actual IP address by assigning you a virtual IP address. This also masks your actual location with a virtual location. This combo makes you anonymous when you surf the web.
VPN 还能带来其他好处，如绕过审查制度和地理限制、访问受限内容、避免 ISP 节流，VPN 还能帮你解除对网站的封锁。
使用安全浏览器私密浏览
After setting your VPN connection, the next thing is to ensure you browse privately. This starts with getting a secure browser that can protect you against online privacy injustices such as online tracking. Besides this feature, your choice of browser should be able to delete cookies after your browsing session or even better block them. It should have other various privacy features such as enforcing HTTPS everywhere for encryption, block pop-ups and intrusive ads, block scripts, and other malware.
A secure and privacy-focused browser won’t help you much if you don’t adhere to the best online privacy practices. Use search engines that are privacy-focused, avoid clicking on ads, and most importantly don’t be a victim of phishing scams. Lastly, visit legitimate sites only as this practice reduces your chances of landing on a spoofed site and getting phished.
控制你在网上分享的内容
You might have the best security and privacy tools in place but still, sabotage your online privacy by what you share online. AI-powered data mining tools can be aggressive in collecting what you share, and after an analysis, these tools can create your profile and use the data to track you.
此外，在填写表格时，有必要省略一些个人身份信息，除非您必须提供这些信息，而且一定要有可用于各种在线活动的一次性电子邮件和账户。
Be careful of what you share on social media platforms and always practice the best online privacy behavior when posting in social media – don’t include location, check what information your photos might be revealing and scrutinize people who tag you and check whether they have the best online privacy practices. They can also sabotage your privacy.
使用信誉良好的杀毒软件和反恶意软件
Your privacy can easily be breached if your security has been breached, an antivirus can help you block and remove all known malware, and even phishing attacks when surfing the internet.
