5 methods Ladies can use to protect their online information from being misused
Usually the articles that i do are technical and not understandable to everyone, but i have been alot of requests on my page and emails from people mostly ladies asking how to protect their personal information online. ( Well, they ask me to hack their spouse accounts, which i refuse). I request everyone to read this thoroughly and attain proactive measures so they can secure their digital fingerprint. “Digital Footprint” is a collective showcase of your online profiles and social media.
In this post, we are going to be referring to three platforms, Facebook, Whatsapp and Snapchat
1. Ensure your information is private and out of reach
Information is mostly misused when it is excessive and abundant, To start off with it is very important that you distinguish between what information is to be kept private and what is to be kept public. Here are a few pointers
- Strangers should not to view your personal information
- Strangers should not be allowed to see who your friends are
- Strangers should not be allowed to see your posts
In face book, you can setup your privacy settings by clicking in the upper corner and Clicking Settings. Then Click privacy. The above configurations are adequate to prevent Strangers from harvesting information from your online profile
2. Turn off Location Services when posting online
When posting posting or chatting online, it should be strictly noted that social media platforms utilize the assets that are enabled on cell phones. We take the example of Location Services. If you have location services enabled all the time on your cell phone. There are two ways you can disclose your location when posting or having location services turned on
- Your location will be shown to people when you are near them or in their area
2. Your location will be disclosed when you post or upload pictures
Keeping creepy stalkers away would be a hard job if you have location services turned ON.
3. Use Two factor Authentication and strong passwords on your social accounts
Half of the people reading this post have facebook passwords that are their names, their spouse’s names, their date of births or one of the names of their family members. This is a very poor practice and should be avoided.
Your passwords should have the following characteristics
More than 8 characters
Must have numbers
Must have one special character
Must not be your date of birth, your partner’s name
You should always have two factor authentication enabled on your online accounts. In facebook, you can connect your phone to receive login alert codes when you or someone else tries to log in to your account
Alternatively, you can enable 2fa using Authy or Google Authenticator.
4. Keep your Snaps and Stories friends-only
Snapchat sets your account options to friends-only by default. This means only people you’ve added as a friend that have added you back can send you Snaps or view your own.
I strongly recommend keeping it that way so you know at all times who is viewing what you create. In other words, don’t change your settings to ‘everyone,’ as that means literally anyone with a Snapchat account can send you messages or see your Stories.
It all boils down to who you allow to see your online data, you can only control or be educated so much, but the people that you share information with should be trusted.
5. Use Watermarks when sharing pictures
We have all heard that pictures can be edited and made to look inappropriate, This method is called “Morphing”. It is hard to prevent morphing, but it is possible to make it difficult for malicious personal. You can use water marks in your pictures or put smiley faces in pictures so that while sharing them via Whatsapp, if they end up in the hands of a malicious person, it is prevented from being misused
Securing yourself online is just a matter of sharing information with the people you trust. There is no magic tool that hacks your facebook passwords or some magic software to hack your data. It all boils down to the stupid stuff that you do, Keeping simple passwords and not securely using systems.
Social media was made for us to socialize, but it has become a tool for people to exploit others. So, don’t allow others to exploit you, Don’t reveal much about yourself.
Stay safe and thanks for reading it through
