Top Five Privacy Tips

Stay private on Wi-Fi networks

Public Wi-Fi networks usually do not encrypt traffic, and that means anyone on the same network can try to snoop on your traffic. Avoid transmitting any sensitive data — logins, passwords, credit card data, and so forth — over public Wi-Fi, and use a VPN to encrypt your data and protect it from prying eyes.

Disable lock screen notifications

Protect your phone with a long, secure password, but leave notifications on the lock screen? Now any passerby can see your business. To keep that information from appearing on the locked screen, set up notifications correctly.

Disable lock-screen notifications or hide sensitive information from the lock screen. Here’s how to do it on Android and on iOS.

Use secure passwords

Using weak passwords to protect your private information is as good as shouting that information to passersby. It’s nearly impossible to memorize long and unique passwords for all the services you use, but with a password manager you can memorize just one master password.

  • Use long (12 characters and more) passwords everywhere;

  • Use a different password for each service;

  • Use a Kaspersky Password Manager to make using secure passwords easier.

Keep your main e-mail address and phone number private

Your reward for sharing your e-mail address and phone number? Tons of spam in your e-mail inbox and hundreds of robocalls on your phone. Even if you can’t avoid sharing this info with Internet services and online stores, don’t share it with random people on social networks. And consider creating a separate, disposable e-mail address and, if possible, a separate phone number for these cases.

Create an additional e-mail account and purchase an additional SIM card to use for online shopping and other situations that require sharing your data with strangers.

Check social privacy settings

If you have social accounts, those networks have a lot of information about you, and you might be surprised how much of it is visible to anybody on the Internet by default. That’s why we strongly recommend you check your privacy settings: It’s up to you to decide what info you want to share with complete strangers versus your friends — or even nobody but you.

Change your social network account privacy settings. Here’s how to do it in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat and VK.com.

Kyle Lott