Introduction

Whether you are checking your email, making a purchase, on social media or in a chat room, it is quite likely that you have left personal information online.

Here are several important points to keep in mind before entering personal information online.

Social media accounts

Your social media profiles, like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, probably have most of your personal info. It’s important to learn about the privacy settings on your accounts. You can change these settings so only your friends can see your personal information.

Bank details

You can buy a wide variety of things online, but before you type your card details into a website, you should make sure that the site is secure.

Look out for a small padlock symbol in the address bar (or elsewhere in your browser window) which will confirm the security of the site.

Scams

A scam is an illegal activity which aims to trick you into handing over personal information. This is called ‘phishing’ when it occurs online. Be extra cautious when opening attachments or responding to emails which request that you hand over personal information, such as passwords or bank details.

Passwords

Many websites will need you to make a password. You can decide what you set as your password, but you must make sure that it cannot be easily guessed by someone else. For maximum security, we recommend that your password should be a combination of numbers, symbols and lower and upper-case letters.

Anti-Virus

Make sure your computer has an up-to-date antivirus program. This helps protect your device from software that tries to steal your personal information.

Also, never download files from websites or people you don’t trust, because hackers might try to trick you into installing a virus.

If a file ends with .exe (for Windows) or .dmg (for Mac), it’s an executable file, which means it can change things on your computer. Sometimes that’s ok, like when you download an app from a trusted site, but if you’re downloading a movie or song from an untrusted website and the file has one of these endings, don’t open it.