How to stay safe online ?

Everybody, is online in this generation with a lots of data with them about their life, credit cards, bank ATM, personal details, location and a lot. So that has to be secure or anyone with some knowledge of technology can SPAM, or use your personal data for benefit. That also includes Google, Facebook and other social networking sites via advertisements.

So now the question arises, How to be secure online and stay safe ? but before that we should know how this all works , how can anyone get our data at the first place.

How advertisement works ?

What ever information you give online is used against you, for the advertisement and targeting ads. For example your gender , age , profession is used for advertisement targeting in GOOGLE, FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM. Your interests are used for giving you ads in Facebook, what you search and browse is used by Google for suggesting you things via ads. If you browse for some watches , you’ll see watches all over then, if you search for cookies , everything will suggest you about cookies later on. So how to get over with this,

• DuckDuck Go is a browser that keep the tracking away.
• Brave Browser is also another option to keep.

But this also have some other side effect, your history won’t be stored for ease of access. You’ll see random advertisements that isn’t even related to you. You’ll not be able to save passwords and will not be able to use auto-fill features.

How to do secure transactions ?

We do a lot of online transactions and some of us are still afraid to do so. But if you know how things work then you’ll be more confident about financial transactions. Transactions cannot be done without your consent but your consent could be forged.

• Our card can be used without OTP for international transactions only, so we can block the International transactions by contacting customer or the Bank application or online Bank portal.
• Our card can be used without OTP only when we use the ATM pin. Using ATM pin for transaction is not recommended until its really urgent and using government websites like IRCTC and Income TAX websites.
• Never share your card photo with anyone as they can misue the card number and cvv at later stage if they want to. Intentions can change any time 🙂 .
• Never shop online from any website that looks new and tricky with many offers. (I trust Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm only) as they have a lot to loose if their data is breached. Though never save the card details in any website for safer side.
• If you have a NFC enabled card then buy a wallet that blocks the signal for the purchase. The max amount for transaction is 2000.
• Use UPI id for payments as they are much more secure than ATM cards as only you can have the application installed in your mobile phone which has your sim card in it.
• Sharing your account number and IFSC code is secure but make sure not to share card details to anyone.

How to stay secure in social sites ?

We share a lot of details online in social networking sites. If you are worried about what that can be used for then you should check everything before sharing once.

• Make your profile private if necessary in Facebook and Instagram.
• Do not share your location history with Facebook settings as nearby people can see if you’re there or not.
• You reveal a lot about your lifestyle online via photos, like friends , family, weekend plans, where do you go often, who are you with most of the time. If you feel that this is not good then you can share post only to friends in Facebook privacy settings.
• If you use Google maps then you can disable the location after using it as it tracks you all the time. ( https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols ) ( https://myactivity.google.com/more-activity?restrict=waa ) ( https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols/location )
• If you rate things on google , then that is also publicly visible to everyone. With just one click all your ratings are visible on your profile. You can disable that in maps settings.
• Never try to accept friend request from a newly created profile, as it might be a spammer.
• Hide your email address and phone number from social networking sites.
• Use double authentication where ever possible with mobile number.

How to safeguard hardware you use ?

Your laptop, Smartphone , personal computer could be used to spam you a lot. So that is also a point of contact.

• Laptop camera should be blacked out and be used only when you need. (by a paper or a black tape) Flap closed always when not in use.
• Install applications only from google play store or apple store.
• Use applications which are from trusted source and always enable the google play protect settings.
• Try not to use much of camera applications as their policies can use your image in any way.
• Disable location when not in use in Laptops and even in Smartphones.
• Update your applications at regular interval of 1 month at least for safety features.
• Before installing any software or application check if it is from trusted website or not.

Stay safe online. Stay Happy. Contact for any help regarding online security issues.

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