Abine

In light of the recent Facebook privacy crisis, protecting your personal information online is more difficult than previously thought. Worried about what information anyone can see about you from a simple Google or Facebook search? Here are five ways to protect your privacy online without having to go completely off the grid.  Mindfully Protect Your Personal Information Think of the difference between purchasing something in a brick-and-mortar store versus buying an item online. If the cashier asks for your phone number or email, you’re definitely not as likely to give it to them. However, if it’s part of a computer form, you likely will hand it over because it’s “a step in the process.”  If personal information is not required for a purchase or other service, don’t freely provide it. Personal data like your purchases, birthday date, email, reviews, credit scores, job applications, home addresses, and other information are constantly collected by data br

If you’ve never heard of data brokers, they are the wheelers and dealers of information—personal information—about you and, most likely, everyone you know. If that isn’t terrifying enough, these miscreants are bound by few regulations. They fly under the radar, buying and selling information, and it isn’t really known how many of these companies exist. Think about how often you interact with the internet throughout the day; shopping, social media, work,if you use the internet at all, you are at risk.While there are companies that remove personal information from Google , it alone is not enough to ford the data mines that exist.   In North America, 95 percent of the population utilizes the internet, a 219 percent growth from the year 2000. Any interaction with the web has the possibility of divulging information about you, and data brokers are lying in wait to buy and sell that data, while you remain entirely unaware.   Your name, address, age, religion, usernames, per