On a daily basis we are constantly interacting with an endless amounts of websites and services. From your smart watch, smart phone or that cool new website you’ve just found. Through interacting with these websites we are leaving foot prints in the sand, forming part of our online identity. Your online identity is who you are online and the information you’ve shared.
In this article I will help you discover what it is, what can someone do with it, and how to protect it.
What makes up your online identity?
Through interacting with websites and services we are leaving behind our data like footprints in the sand. To protect our privacy and online identity, we must first understand what it is.
First of all, think of all the websites you use from everyday to once in a blue moon. It’s almost certain they know something about you. Most likely they have your email address, if you’ve made an account. In fact below we have listed all the kinds of information you may have given to websites you’ve visited.
General Information
- Email Address
- Name
- Nickname
- Gender
Social Media and Dating Apps
- Images
- Date of Birth
- Location
Shopping Websites
- Home Address
- Credit Card
- Phone Number
But what about the hidden data that we can’t see, such as buyer behaviour or the websites we visit. This is information we provide voluntarily (sometimes unknowingly) to websites as we use their services. That being said it’s not all bad and you can still do things to protect yourself.
You can always find information on how a website collects and uses your data by reading their Privacy Policy
What can someone do with this information?
Now we know some of the information that can be collected from us, the next best logical step is to discover what happens next?
The Good
Most websites and services aren’t out to get you and they use their data to provide their goods and services to you. For example the information shopping websites collect, are predominately there so they know where to send your package. Most of the time they won’t even ask for it until they need to send you that new car part you just bought for your pride and joy, or your new outfit for hitting the club next week.
They also may want to send you emails with deals and may even use your past purchases to customise their service and give you a better experience overall.
Social media (like facebook) and search engines (like Google) in particular run their business predominantly around showing advertisements to viewers. Not only does it help businesses get their message out to the world, the argument can be made it also works for you too. No one likes seeing ads they’re not interested in, and your data helps these companies show you what you want to see.
The Bad and the Ugly
- Identity Theft
- Steal Money
- Blackmail
- Attack Friends and Family
The biggest one you may not know is how it can affect your professional career, through sending emails and other ways of pretending to be you.
Like many things your information can be used for good and bad, which is why you need to take ownership and protect your online identity.
How to protect your online identity?
All accounts should be protected, even if it's just used to login to the laptop at work.
1. Consider whether you can trust a website or service
You still have to be careful, but these go a long way to proving you can trust a website or service.
Look for the Padlock
The padlock in the address bar of your browser tells us the connection between you and that website is encrypted (to stop prying eyes), while also telling you that the server you are connecting to can be trusted and there less chance of someone trying to “listen in” to what you are doing.
Make sure you can trust a link
Links allow us to easily share websites and get to different pages quickly, but sometimes in may take you somewhere you don’t want. Looking for things such as https:// and understanding where the link has come from are important steps to determining if it can be trusted. Especially when the link is hidden in text like this, or hidden with a url shortener like https://bit.ly/3frpumX. Many websites use these techniques for your benefit, but their also people with ulterior motives.
Poor grammar
This is not always a red-flag, but if a website has several spelling mistakes and looks like it was written by a drunk squirrel. It might be an idea to take stage left and go somewhere else.
When the link is hidden in text like this, web browsers like chrome will show you the link in the bottom corner if you hover over it. Or you can righ-click to copy link, then paste it into something to see where it wants to take you.
2. Read the websites privacy policy
Most websites have a privacy policy with the goal of telling you what information they collect and how they use it. By reading and understanding this, it can inform your decisions when using their website.
3. Delete accounts on website you don't want to use anymore
The easiest data to protect is the data that doesn’t exist. If you’re not using a website or service anymore you should be able to delete your account, which will destroy your data on the site. If this isn’t an option there’s usually a way to contact their support and get their help.
4. Create strong unique passwords
For the accounts that remain your password is the key to that data. Making sure it is strong (stay tuned on how to make the perfect password) and unique should be your #1 priority when using sites. Strength reduces the chance of someone getting into your account and making sure it’s unique ensures that they can’t easily get into other accounts you have if attackers do manage to get in.
5. Understand nothing is truly FREE
As I’ve mentioned before many services like facebook earn money largely to advertisements and use your data to target you with ADs. Facebook is free to use but in return they are able to use your data to show you ADs. Some may even offer things in return for your email address for example. Your data is worth something and may be what you’re allowing them to use in turn for using their free service. Understanding the cost of using these “free” services or accessing these “free” products is something you must consider to protect your data.
The decision is yours
In using the internet we are leaving footprints in the sand. By understanding how our data is collected and used, we can make better decisions to protect our data as we see fit. At the end of the day it is your data, and it’s your decision on the lengths you will go to protect your data.
To your success,
Peter Harvey