Technology is penetrating our lives more speedily than ever. Technology has become an indispensable part of our lives, with never-ending scrolling through social media. However, the biggest downside of developing technology is a higher security risk.
Cybercrimes and threats have taken a significant toll over the last decade. The IP address continuously exposes your online identity as it corresponds to your location. Any hacker or third party with ill intentions can misuse your online information and harm you.
Why Is It Crucial to Protect Your Digital Identity?
Our lives have taken a massive shift from physical connections to virtual ones as the use of social media increased around the globe. We have WhatsApp and various social media platforms for all our communication needs.
People use these communication platforms to share information, from bank details to personal chats. Moreover, almost all the websites and apps collect information about you that you do not necessarily give them directly. Instead, they collect data from the sites you often visit your preferences on social media, your online shopping history, etc.
The information above forms your data and should be unique to your identity. However, if any of this information gets into the wrong hand, it might be used in evil ways. For instance, credit card thefts are relatively common these days, as most of us have our card info saved in different online shopping apps for ease.
Therefore, your online identity must remain private and secure from online threats. It is not fair to ask you to choose between having the freedom of using the internet and compromising your identity. Thus, you need to take some crucial steps to secure your online identity. Also read razer blade 15 2018 h2
Protecting Your Digital Identity in New York
The Internet is heaven for marketers. The consumer information that was so hard to collect previously is now served to marketers without hassle. Given the wide variety of ways users consume the internet, including online shopping, openly discussing their preferences, only supporting the causes they advocate, etc., provide a holistic view of a personality to marketers.
Problems arise when this information about users is sold to third parties that misuse it. Similar to any other cosmopolitan city in the world, New York is also buzzing with marketing campaigns. If you are a resident of New York or planning to travel there, consider the following crucial steps for securing your online identity.
1. Using Strong Passwords
The most common way anyone gets hold of your personal information is by cracking your password. As it is the preliminary requirement of accessing any account on the internet, you must have a password that no one can guess or crack.
Using a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols as your password is the best. Also, most importantly, set a password that you can remember.
2. Use a VPN
Accessing the internet – be it public or private – exposes your IP address conferring to your location. So, a primary step in protecting your digital identity in New York is to use a reliable New York VPN. It will secure your internet connection and hide your original IP address. Suppose you wonder how and why you must take such steps to protect your online identity. In that case, you have no idea how many people and shady companies or organizations are interested in your digital footprints.
VPN is short for a virtual private network, and as the name suggests, a VPN hides your IP address as soon you connect to the internet if the VPN app is installed or its browser extension is enabled. Anyone with ill intentions who knows your IP address can easily track all your online activities and monitor your website visits.
Thus, the key player is your IP address. Therefore, a good VPN service provider such as Ivacy VPN lets you choose a virtual IP address from a list of locations worldwide. It masks your actual location and helps protect your digital identity. What a VPN does is misguide anyone trying to trace your online activities via your IP address – resulting in no vigilance by anyone on the internet, including your ISP. Also, VPN encrypts your data so no one can intervene and steal information.
3. Payments on Encrypted Websites Only
The Internet is more than only social media these days. From a needle to big electrical appliances, people buy everything off the internet. One essential step to protect your digital identity is ensuring that the website you purchase from is encrypted. You can do this by checking if there is a trusted lock symbol in the URL address box or when the HTTP, in the beginning, changes to HTTPS when entering your credit card information.
4. Have Security Suites Installed
It is vital to keep your computer and digital identity protected from dishonest people or harmful programs that infect your computer and subsequently steal data. These apps include Norton Antivirus, Ad-Aware Pro Security, McAfee Virus Protection, and AVG Internet Security.
These, and numerous other security suites, help keep spyware, viruses, phishing scams, and other harmful programs at bay.
5. Timely Update Your Software and Devices
While trying to match technological advancements, our phone software and computer updates also send us updates. It is essential to timely update your devices, as these updates contain security patches to protect our data and digital identity.
6. Install Only From the Trusted Sources
Even if you are tempted to install some different apps from sources other than your official app stores, it is not worth the risk of exposing your online identity. Every app or browser extension you download from a sketchy source other than the official app store of your device carries the risk of leaking your information.
It Is Important to be Prudent
With excessive digitization, it can be challenging for naïve people. If you do not know how to protect your online identity, you should not make purchases online or use social media without proper guidance. There are countless guides, such as this one, that help protect your identity and ensure the security of your data.
