How to Protect Your Privacy Online
Privacy matters. Keeping our digital lives safe from prying eyes is one of the most important and critical issues that we all face in an age defined by a full-frontal assault on our right to privacy and the proliferation of mass surveillance.
Every day, as you browse, type, and talk online, your activity is being monitored, tracked, and analyzed at every turn. Your personal information is being siphoned off, pooled together, and sold from company to company, with treasure troves of aggregated data sitting on the servers of tens of thousands of companies all around the world.
It’s all there: your name, address, relatives, education level, marital status, employment details, purchase history, interests and habits, court records, and financial data. Your entire history, from your identity to the most intimate details of your life, is exploited by credit bureaus, data brokers, and marketers for financial gain.
Violations of privacy pose even more of a fundamental threat to the most marginalized and targeted peoples and communities; immigrants, welfare recipients, dissidents, activists, journalists, and anyone else who is perceived to pose a threat to the status quo.
Mass surveillance has never been easier or more ubiquitous than it has become in the digital age. We’ve been sold on the trade-off between privacy and digital convenience, that in order to enjoy all the benefits of a better-connected world we must relinquish our right to privacy. Not all hope is lost though, you can fight back! Just as surveillance has become ubiquitous, so too has end-to-end encryption.
By taking a few simple steps and making some basic changes to how you interact online, you can begin to take back control of your digital privacy. It doesn’t even require deep technical know-how, everyone can do it, all it requires a little bit of time and effort. It shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg either, there is an abundance of free tools available online that can help you protect your privacy.
Follow the steps below to get started:
- Protect Your Accounts with a Password Manager
- Stay Safe on Public WiFi Networks with a VPN
- Browse the Web Anonymously with a Private Browser
- Browse the Web Securely with HTTPS Everywhere
- Block Ads and Trackers with an Ad Blocker
- Search the Web Anonymously with a Private Search Engine
- Protect Your Messages and Emails with Encrypted Messaging
- Protect Your Home WiFi Network
- Update the Privacy Settings on Your Social Media Accounts
- Be Wary of Smart Devices
- Check Your Phone’s Location Sharing Settings
Protect Your Accounts with a Password Manager
With so many passwords to juggle in the digital age, it is nearly impossible to remember them all. Eventually, most people end up with hundreds of passwords written up and strewn about all over the place, on post-it notes and refrigerators, in note apps and screenshots. It’s no wonder that most end up simply being “123456” or, well, “password”. Because of this, credential stuffing, where attackers take massive databases of stolen or leaked usernames and passwords and stuff those credentials into logins on other websites, has proliferated and account takeovers are on the rise.
The most important thing you can do to safeguard your privacy is to use a password manager. Password managers make it easy to generate strong, unique passwords for every account you have, track and manage all of your passwords in one place, and prevent one account compromise from cascading into an all-out security meltdown.
Using a password manager to prevent password reuse is one of the easiest ways to protect yourself against credential stuffing attacks. Setting up a password manager for the first time can take a fair amount of time, but the increased protection is well worth it. And once you’ve set it up, a password manager ends the headache of forgotten passwords and locked-out accounts. There is a wide range of password managers to choose from, from free and open-source managers to highly-rated paid providers.
A dedicated password manager, instead of a browser-based manager, is highly recommended. If you are willing to pay, you don’t need to look much further than 1Password. 1Password is a favorite of the security community. It syncs your passwords between your computer and phone, provides pretty much unbeatable security, and can double as an authentication app. While not free, it is only $3 per month for an individual plan. If you’re not quite sold, they offer a 30-day free trial period so you can try it out to see if it is right for you.
If you looking for a free option, LastPass is one of the most popular free managers out there. Like 1Password, it works on nearly every platform and offers syncing across devices. If you are looking for an open-source option, check out Bitwarden.
Once you have a password manager set up, it will show you which passwords are weak or duplicates. Use the manager to generate unique, random passwords for all of these accounts. Then, as you log in to accounts online, you can quickly save the credentials to the manager. You will also want to install the password manager on your phone and web browser, many offer both mobile apps and browser extensions. Over time, slowly update your old passwords with newly generated ones. You’ll never forget a password again.
Stay Safe on Public WiFi Networks with a VPN
When using public or unprotected WiFi networks, you should use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to connect to the internet. Unprotected WiFi networks at coffee shops, airports, or other venues that offer free public WiFi can be used to commit identity theft.
Much of the web traffic on these networks is transmitted in plain text, making it easy for thieves to intercept browsing activity, emails, login credentials, and credit card information. In some cases, hackers have even set-up fake wireless access points at busy public locations, so-called “WiFi honeypots”, with the sole intention of intercepting data or installing malware on connected devices.
VPNs help protect your privacy by sending information over the network in an encrypted manner, using a kind of virtual tunnel, making it nearly impossible for hackers to intercept or snoop on your activity and making it difficult to track your activity based on your IP address. There are all kinds of VPN services, some paid and some that you can set up yourself.
Browse the Web Anonymously with a Private Browser
If you are looking to browse online anonymously, either to prevent online tracking and targeted advertising, circumvent government censorship, or to defend against surveillance, there is a wide range of tools and browsers that you can use.
The Tor Browser (The Onion Router) is a free browser that routes your web traffic through the Tor network, which consists of entry nodes, relays, and exit nodes that effectively mask your location and activity. You should use Tor without any plugins or extensions installed, which can easily be exploited. Using Tor is pretty much the same as using any other browser, though a major drawback is that it can be significantly slower at times, so you might want to only use it when privacy is a must. It is available on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. You can download desktop versions for free from the Tor Project website.
Brave is another browser that is built with privacy and security in mind. Brave comes with a bunch of tools and settings that make it easy to browse privately, from a built-in ad blocker to default settings that block malware. The company touts itself as “not in the personal data business”, their servers don’t collect nor store browsing data and it doesn’t sell your data to third parties. Brave’s desktop browser is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and their mobile browser is available on iOS and Android. You can download it here.
If you use Firefox and want to stick with it, Firefox’s Multi-Account Containers are a good place to start. With Multi-Account Containers, you can browse the web with multiple accounts using color-coded tabs that separate cookies by container. This allows you to keep your browsing activity separate and helps prevent tracking scripts from following you across your accounts. You can find out more about Firefox’s Multi-Account Containers on their website.
Private browsers help you stay anonymous online, they are often effective at hiding your location and preventing your activity from being tracked, but they aren’t infallible. Using a private browser is just one part of a comprehensive privacy toolkit, so you will want to make sure that you use it together with other privacy tools in this guide, such as connecting to a VPN before opening Tor, to maximize your protection.
If you’d rather continue using a major browser like Google Chrome or Apple Safari, there are still some steps you can take to help minimize tracking and protect your privacy while you browse.
Browse the Web Securely with HTTPS Everywhere
HTTPS Everywhere is a free, open-source browser extension for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, and Brave that automatically forces a secure, encrypted connection between your browser and the website you’re visiting, if available, to help protect you from data theft and man-in-the-middle attacks.
You can also use the extension to quickly block and unblock all non-HTTPS connections. HTTPS Everywhere is a joint project from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Tor Project. You can download and install HTTPS Everywhere from the EFF website or by searching for it in the Chrome Web Store, Mac App Store, or Firefox Add-ons directory.
Block Ads and Trackers with an Ad Blocker
Adware has become the plague of the online world. While it may seem that adware only serves to bring you personalized ads, adware will often track you across the web, siphoning up location data and browsing history as it builds and refines your digital profile. Chances are that are hundreds of trackers are following you every day.
The good news is that there are quite a few free and easy-to-use tools for blocking intrusive and malicious ads. They also have the added benefit of speeding up page load times and decreasing battery usage.
If you’ve set up a VPN you can see if it comes with a dedicated ad blocker. If not, you can try one of the private browsers mentioned above. You can also install a browser extension if you use Chrome, Safari, or Firefox. For a free, open-source extension, check out uBlock Origin (available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera). uMatrix is also a great free, open-source option for Firefox users who want more granular control over their privacy. However, when installing an ad blocker extension make sure that you are getting the right one, there are quite a few scams out there that will collect and sell your data, not protect it.
If you want to double down on blocking, you can also use Privacy Badger along with one of the extensions mentioned above. Privacy Badger is a free, open-source browser extension from the Electronic Frontier Foundation that blocks trackers that do not respect your browser’s Do Not Track setting. You can download Privacy Badger for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera from the EFF’s website.
For the more technically inclined, the most effective way to block web tracking and advertisements is at the network level. PiHole blocks ads network-wide, protecting all of the devices that are on your network. With PiHole you can also quickly blacklist or whitelist domains, as well as view in-depth stats on the total number of queries and see how many have been blocked. PiHole is available for free for Raspbian, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and CentOS operating systems.
Search the Web Anonymously with a Private Search Engine
Google effectively owns the search market, it is where the vast majority of internet users go to search the web. However, Google is notorious for tracking and saving search history to better target advertising, which accounts for the bulk of its business. The good news is that private search engines have exploded in popularity in recent years. There are a couple of good, privacy-first alternatives for those interested in searching the web anonymously.
DuckDuckGo bills itself as the “search engine that doesn’t track you”. According to its privacy policy, DuckDuckGo never collects or shares any of your personal information. DuckDuckGo also offers extensions for Chrome and Safari, as well as mobile apps for Android and iOS. You can search privately directly from DuckDuckGo.com or download their apps here.
SearchEncrypt is another good privacy-based alternative to Google that locally encrypts your search terms using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to help keep your searches private. Search results expire after 30 minutes of activity. Like DuckDuckGo, SearchEncrypt offers extensions for common browsers.
Private search engines are a great way to keep your search history private and prevent third-parties from linking you to your search activity, while also preventing targeted search results based on that history.
Protect Your Messages and Emails with Encrypted Messaging
Many emails are still transmitted in cleartext without encryption, making it possible for others to eavesdrop on your private communications. Encrypted email keeps your messages private. Gmail is one of the few services that encrypt emails at rest and in transit, but only when the sender and recipient are both using Gmail. Microsoft Outlook also offers native encryption, but messages must be read from Outlook.com, the Outlook mobile app, or the Mail app in Windows 10.
For a more robust, secure option use ProtonMail. ProtonMail is an open-source, private email platform based in Switzerland that offers an iOS app, Android app, and webmail. Everything about ProtonMail was built with privacy in mind, including end-to-end encryption, anonymous account sign-up, and servers located in Switzerland (which has some of the strongest privacy laws in the world). With end-to-end encryption, no one can read the contents of your emails except for you and the recipient. ProtonMail doesn’t keep logs of IP addresses either, so there is no record of who logged into an account from where, making it difficult for your email address to be traced back to you.
Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is a must if need serious privacy protection, the kind favored by journalists, dissidents, activists, and the like. PGP is used for signing, encrypting, and decrypting emails. It works by encrypting a message with the public key of the person you are communicating with, who then decrypts the message with their private key to view it. You can also sign a message with a private key so that the person receiving the message can verify that the contents have not been altered. If you need to send a highly sensitive email, PGP is the way to go.
While the underlying security mechanism may seem complicated, it is quite easy to send a PGP encrypted email. Think of PGP as a set of two different keys: one key (the public key) locks the box and the other key (the private key) unlocks the box. Only the person with the private key can unlock the box, no one else can. You give out your public key to anyone who wants to send you an encrypted email and use your private key to open encrypted emails that you receive.
To set-up PGP, the OpenPGP website has a list of tools that you can use. On a Mac, you can use GPG Suite to generate and manage PGP keys. GPG Suite integrates directly in Apple Mail to easily encrypt and decrypt email messages. When sending an encrypted email message, the recipient will initially see a garbled mess of random characters. Before they are able to view the message they will have to decrypt it with their private key. It is important to note that PGP does not encrypt the subject line, only the message body.
For encrypted messaging beyond email, Signal is the go-to for secure, encrypted communication. It is the most popular and well-respected messaging app in the security and privacy community. And is the top-choice of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. With Signal, you can securely send text messages, files, notes, images, and videos, as well as make secure voice and video calls. All communication is end-to-end encrypted so that no one other than you and the person you’re communicating with, not even Signal, can see your messages or hear your calls. Signal is free, open-source, and extremely easy to use. It is available on iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Some other popular messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram also offer end-to-end encryption. However, major security flaws have been found in both. WhatsApp recently disclosed a vulnerability that allowed hackers to remotely install spyware on users’ phones. Meanwhile, Telegram has come under scrutiny for account takeovers, rampant scams on the platform, a fake version that made its way onto the Google Play Store, and DDoS attacks. Just as important, Telegram doesn’t encrypt messages by default so users have to select the Secret Chat feature for end-to-end encryption. Given these concerns, if privacy is your top priority, stick to Signal.
Protect Your Home WiFi Network
When setting up a new home wireless network, most people simply set a simple network name and password and forget about it. If you haven’t revisited the security of your home wireless network in a while, now is a good time.
1. Update Your Firmware
Some wireless routers, like Eero, allow you to set your device to update automatically. Others will require you to manually update the firmware. Whatever the case may be for your device, make sure that it is running the most up-to-date firmware. If you are having a hard time figuring out whether your device’s firmware is up-to-date, check the user manual. If your router requires manual updates, you should check for updates pretty regularly, at least every month or so. Firmware updates often include patches that protect the router from known vulnerabilities, so staying on top of updates is the easiest way to keep your network safe.
2. Change Your Password
If you used a simple password, or never changed your router’s default password, change your password to something long and random. The safest and easiest way to do this is to use a password manager to generate and save a strong, unique password for your router. If your network’s name (known as the SSID) includes the brand or name of the device, change that too, as hackers can use that information to find out if there are any vulnerabilities they can exploit or common user names they can try in a brute force attack.
3. Use WPA2 Encryption
All new routers come with WPA2 encryption, which is far more secure than the old WEP security standard. Make sure that your router is using WPA2 by checking your network settings. If your router doesn’t support WPA2, it’s probably time to upgrade.
4. Setup a Guest Network
If you often have a lot of guests on your network, be that friends or family, you might consider setting up a guest network. You can also use a guest network for internet-connected devices, helping keep them off your main network and thus walled off from your other devices. Most routers will have the option for setting up a guest network, which will create a second SSID with its own password so that you don’t have to hand out your main network password. This will keep any risky activity, or malware-infected devices, on the part of your guests from compromising the security of your own devices.
Update the Privacy Settings on Your Social Media Accounts
These days many people share some of their most private thoughts and moments on social media. And yet nowhere has our privacy been violated and invaded more than on social media.
It is integral to your digital privacy to regularly review and update your privacy settings on the social media platforms that you use. Here are some quick guides to locking down your privacy as best as you can on some of the most popular platforms.
How to Protect Your Privacy on Google
There are some simple tweaks you can make to your privacy settings on Google that can help protect your privacy. To access the privacy settings for your Google account, navigate to myaccount.google.com. From the My Account dashboard, you can edit your personal information, decide what personal information is visible to others, resolve security issues, and manage your activity.
1. Turn Off Activity
Google collects and stores an enormous amount of data about what you do online. To turn off data collection (as much of it as you can), click on Data & Personalization in the left-hand menu. From there, you will see which activity is currently being saved under Activity Controls. For any data that you don’t want to be collected, click on the type of activity and then click on the toggle button to pause it.
You can choose to pause Web & App Activity, Location History, Voice & Audio Activity, Device Information, YouTube Search History, and YouTube Watch History. Ideally, you should pause as much activity as you can. At the very least you should turn off Location History.
Delete your Web & App Activity: First click on Web & App Activity, then Manage Activity and finally click on the three dots on the right side of the search bar to choose what activity to delete. You can also choose to have your Web & App Activity deleted automatically so that you don’t always have to manually delete your browsing history.
Delete your Location History: First click on Location History, then Manage Activity to have the map pulled up, then find and click on the trash icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the map.
If you are interested in seeing just how much activity Google tracks and data it collects, scroll down and click on My Activity. If you have an Android device or use Google Maps and want to see just how much location data Google collects, click on Timeline. From the Data & Personalization page, you can also download a copy of your data.
2. Remove Connected Apps
Next, navigate to the Security page. From here, click on the box for third-party apps with account access. This will show you all of the third-party apps and services that have access to your Google data, including what data they have access to. You should remove any apps that you don’t recognize, no longer use, or don’t want to share data with.
From this page, you will also be able what apps you have set up for logging in with Google. You should remove any that you don’t recognize or that you no longer use.
3. Review Your Sharing Settings
Finally, click on People & sharing in the left-hand menu. From here you can manage real-time location sharing. You should check to make sure that you aren’t sharing your location with anyone. You can also choose what information others see about you. Make sure that you are comfortable with the information that is publicly visible and that it doesn’t include unnecessary personally identifiable information.
You should check and review these settings regularly to make sure that you aren’t sharing information with apps, services, or Google that you don’t want to be.
How to Protect Your Privacy on Facebook
If you're like most people, your Facebook account is a labyrinth of personal information, with photos, posts, and events dating back years. It can be an overwhelming privacy nightmare to tackle head-on. Luckily, there are few quick steps you can take to close up some of the worst of the privacy leaks.
1. Remove Connected Apps
The easiest way to tame the Facebook beast is to head right into the privacy settings. From the mobile app, tap the three horizontal lines (hamburger menu) in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. From there, scroll down and tap on Settings & Privacy and then Settings. Then scroll to the Security section. Tap on Apps and Websites and then Logged in With Facebook. Remove any apps that you don’t recognize, no longer use, or don’t want to have access to your account.
2. Turn Off Face Recognition
From the Settings screen, scroll down and tap on Face Recognition under the Privacy section. When asked if you want Facebook to be able to recognize you in photos and videos, choose no.
3. Turn Off Location Services
If you’d rather Facebook not have access to your device’s location and want to delete your location history, tap on Location under the Privacy section of the Settings screen (a couple of items below Face Recognition). From here you can turn off Facebook’s access to your device’s location, turn off location data collection, and delete your location history.
4. Control Who Sees Your Information
To control who sees your information, such as posts, pages you follow, and friends list, as well as how people can find you using your email address or phone number, tap on Privacy Settings under the Privacy section (just above Face Recognition). Here you can choose to limit who can see your posts to just your friends. You should also change who can look you up using your email address or your phone number to Only Me to prevent fraudsters from using leaked information to find out more information about you or link your email or phone number to your full identity.
5. Minimize Your About Info
You might also take a look at your About information and either delete or hide any sensitive information from public view that could be used to commit identity theft or poses a threat to your privacy. For each piece of personal information, including your work history, education, places you’ve lived, contact info, and basic info, think about whether that information should be publicly visible or not. Personally identifiable information, such as your birthday, phone number, and email address should be set to private.
As with anywhere, always be aware of what information you are sharing on Facebook and who can see it. Don’t make it easier for identity thieves or fraudsters to target you, try to minimize the amount of personal information you share and keep it to friends only. If you want to be a privacy maximalist, you can always go all in and delete your account.
How to Protect Your Privacy on Twitter
Along with Google and Facebook, Twitter has some privacy settings that you can quickly change to help protect your privacy on the platform. To get started, head into Twitter's privacy settings by tapping on Settings and privacy in the left-hand menu from either the mobile app or a desktop browser.
1. Remove Connected Apps
Just as you did with Google and Facebook, you should check which apps have access to your data on Twitter. Start by tapping on Account and then Apps and sessions. From here you can see what apps are connected to your Twitter account. If you see one that you don't recognize, no longer use, or no longer want to have access to your account, click on the app and choose to Revoke access.
2. Delete Location Data
If you've shared location data with Twitter in the past and want to delete it, you'll first need to login to Twitter from a desktop browser. Once you are logged in, from the main Settings screen, tap Privacy and safety and then tap Location information. From here, toggle off the option for adding location information to your tweets and delete all location information associated with your account.
To stop sharing your location with Twitter you will also need to turn off location information directly from each device you use Twitter on. To do this, open up the mobile app on your phone, navigate to the main Settings screen, tap Privacy and safety, and scroll down to Precise location. If Precise location is enabled, disable it now.
3. Turn Off Discoverability
To prevent people from looking up your Twitter account using your email address or phone number, turn off discoverability. From the Privacy and safety screen, scroll down and tap Discoverability and contacts. If the radio boxes next to email address and phone number are checked, uncheck them. From here you can also delete any contacts you've previously uploaded to Twitter.
4. Turn Off Personalization and Data Collection
Finally, you should turn off personalized ads based on your tweets, inferred identity, and location history, tracking across the web, and third-party data sharing. You can turn all of these off with one click by scrolling down to Personalization and data from the Privacy and safety screen and tapping on the toggle at the top of the screen.
If you're a privacy maximalist, you can also choose Protect Your Tweets to make all of your posts visible only to the people who follow you.
Be Wary of Smart Devices
Smart devices pose a serious threat to your digital security and privacy. Many Internet of Things (IoT) devices are highly insecure and vulnerable to a wide array of attacks. Hackers use internet-connected devices for everything from botnets and cryptocurrency mining to mass cyber-attacks and malware trojan horses.
To make matters worse, almost every kind of consumer gadget comes with internet connectivity these days: refrigerators, televisions, printers, security cameras, locks, thermostats, and more. Many vacuum up boatloads of personal data. Most quickly become outdated and are rarely patched. There is even a website that streams 73,000 different live video feeds from security cameras from around the world that have been left unprotected. Some feeds show bedrooms and living rooms.
To help protect yourself, do NOT connect random, cheap smart devices to your main WiFi network. Set up a guest network on your home WiFi and connect any smart devices you have to it. Lock down your home network by updating your router regularly, changing the default password, and using WPA2 encryption. You might want to also consider turning off any device that is "Always Listening," like those that use Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant.
You should also change the default password on any device that connects to the internet, especially home security cameras. Use a password manager to generate a strong, unique password for each device.
Think about whether you really need any of these smart devices in the first place. After all, while the purpose of many of these devices may be to enhance your security or make your life more convenient, in the end, they may simply make you even more vulnerable.
Check Your Phone’s Location Sharing Settings
Your phone tracks you everywhere you go, collecting precise GPS coordinates and associated timestamps as you make your way about the world. What some don't realize is just how many of the apps on your phone have access to this location data as well.
Most apps don't really need to have access to your location, especially at all times. The more that do, the greater the chance that your location data will make its way to a data broker, marketer, or an even more nefarious third-party. Here is how to manage your location settings on Android or iOS.
Managing Location Settings on Android
You can manage your location settings on Android from the Location screen in Settings on your device. From this screen, you can turn off location accuracy, manage location sharing, and control Bluetooth and WiFi scanning.
To Turn Off Location Accuracy
- Head into Settings on your Android device
- Tap on Location
- Tap on the Use Location button
- Tap on Google Location Accuracy and disable it
To Delete Location History
- From a web browser, go to myaccount.google.com
- In the left-hand menu, click Data & personalization
- In the Activity Controls box, click Location History
- Click Manage Activity
- In the bottom right-hand corner of the map, click on the trash icon
Managing Location Settings on iOS
- From your iOS device, open the Settings app
- Scroll down and tap on Privacy
- Tap on Location Services
From here you can see which apps have access to your location and when they have access. Most will give you the option of Never or While Using the App, some will have the option for Always. There is almost no reason for any app to always have access to your location, so make sure you choke down access for any that are currently set to Always.
If you don't want any apps to have access to your location, you can tap the toggle at the top of the screen to disable location data for every app on your phone. You can also turn off Apple's Share My Location feature if you don't ever plan on sharing your location with family and friends. By giving fewer apps access to your location you'll minimize how much location data is being shared and help prevent your location history from making it out into the wild.
While this guide doesn't cover every single step you can take to protect your privacy online, it should give you a pretty good start. As you implement these changes and get more familiar with these tools, you'll start to become more conscious of just how much data you are sharing and all the ways that companies track your activity, analyze your behavior, and collect your data.
Privacy and Identity Go Hand-In-Hand
Privacy and identity are inextricably linked. Which means, protecting your identity is an integral part of your privacy. If you've made it this far and want to take things to the next level, check out our guide on how to protect your identity.
If you do one thing to protect your identity, you should freeze and monitor your credit. It is simply the most effective way of protecting your identity. Freezing your credit helps prevent fraudsters from opening up new financial accounts or lines of credit in your name. You should also monitor your credit reports. By monitoring your credit for suspicious changes or new accounts, you can quickly identify any fraudulent activity as soon as it occurs and take steps to mitigate the damage.
As always, the best way to protect your identity is to stay vigilant and always be on the lookout for suspicious activity. Never click on links you receive by email or text message that you don’t recognize. Watch out for imposter scams and phishing attacks. Never give out personal information to anyone or any company you don’t know or haven’t reached out to directly.
Bloom: Take Back Control of Your Credit & Identity
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Only your private key, securely stored locally, can be used to gain access to your identity. And only you hold the private key to your encrypted personal information. Because you own your data, data which is protected by the latest in digital security protocols, the risk of your data being accessed by hackers or stolen in a data breach is greatly reduced, providing the peace of mind that your information is safe from prying eyes.
It’s time to take back control of your data and unlock the power of a secure, reusable identity today. Download the Bloom mobile app to build a cryptographically secure identity and get free data breach alerts with Radar!