Cookie 5 0 2 – Protect Your Online Privacy

  1. Cookie 5 0 2 – Protect Your Online Privacy Concerns
  2. Cookie 5 0 2 – Protect Your Online Privacy Fence
  3. Cookie 5 0 2 – Protect Your Online Privacy Screens
  4. Cookie 5 0 2 – Protect Your Online Privacy Screen

For years, experts have tried to warn consumers that if you’re getting something for free, you’re actually the product. And by “you,” experts generally mean, your “data.”

Your Web-based life is under intense scrutiny, as businesses, law enforcement officials, and privacy advocates battle over how to protect—or expose—more of your online data. Use these tips to help protect your personal information. Common Online Scams Learn how to recognize common online scams, and check out these 10 practical tips to help you stay a step ahead of scammers.

This means that the actual consumers of a “free” product are the companies that either pay to advertise to you, much like the old commercial TV model, or literally buy your data, often in the form of “customer profiles.”

F-Secure’s Chief Research Officer Mikko Hypponen often says, “Data is the new oil.” Personal information the lubricant that helps the Internet run, but the massive accumulation of data also threatens to create problems that will be difficult to contain or reverse.

Mikko notes he’d like to be able to pay Google for its services with money, but Google doesn’t even make that an option. It prefers your data. This may be because you’re worth so much to Google — $223 a year, according to a 2014 estimate — that the company doesn’t expect enough people would pay that much. Or maybe your data is priceless to a service with a parent company worth more than $600 billion.

Of course, Google isn’t the only one who wants your data. And at least anything the search giant does with your information you’ve already agreed to by accepting its terms and conditions, which you surely have memorized and discussed with your attorney.

What? You haven’t?

“It doesn’t matter what it says in the policy,” Mikko has said. “Nobody reads them.”

These sprawling documents are so ponderous that they’ve become such a joke that even some apps have been accused of not taking Apple’s terms and conditions seriously.

Over and over, you’ve been advised that you protect your private data.

That means that in addition to updated application and Internet Security software, you should use a trusted, VPN that doesn’t rely on ads and blocks online tracking. Be password smart and use two-factor authentication anywhere you can. You should also stick to trusted, well-reviewed apps from official app stores, refrain from posting personally identifiable information and pre-travel information on social media and lock up all your devices when not in use.

Unfortunately, complete privacy is difficult to attain online. But you should protect what you can and you should also know why you’re protecting your data.

Beginning with the most obvious reasons, here are five reasons you should do your best to keep your private data private.

  1. Identity fraud or theft
    Protecting your devices and your accounts is essential for maintaining the security of your privately identifiable data and thus your financial identity. Phishing scams that lure you into offering your private data — such as taxpayer identification, national insurance number or credit card information — can be used to access your accounts or create false ones in your name. The more information you make public online, the more vulnerable you are to such scams, which are often crafted to resemble legitimate communication from your bank or other institutions. Avoid clicking on links in emails, especially unsolicited emails. And if anyone asks you for your private data online, contact that institution directly by phone to follow up.
  2. Actual crime
    Posting your travel schedule in advance could make it easier for thieves to find an empty house to rob. Online stalking tied to actual theft is relatively rare, but what is increasingly common is cyberstalking with a criminal component — such as sextortion. “Sextortion cases involve what are effectively online, remote sexual assaults, sometimes over great distances, sometimes even crossing international borders, and sometimes…involving a great many victims,” the Brookings Institution reports. As the victims of this crime are often minors who may be scarred for life by being forced to share compromising images of themselves, law enforcement has began taking this sort of crime more seriously. Preventing this crime requires all the practical steps for protecting your data plus taking extra steps like covering up or disconnecting your webcam when it’s not in use and being extraordinarily careful about the sort or pictures you share online and store on your devices. The more personal information you make public, the easier it is for a stranger to ingratiate into your life and begin the process of harassing you online.
  3. You can’t be sure how your data will be used against you.
    Last year, The Guardian reported that one of the largest insurance companies in Britain was examining Facebook profiles to help set the cost of consumers car insurance. Twitter wants your phone number to help secure your account but it also helps them match your account to an advertising profile that lets their advertisers know what your favorite breakfast cereal is. And even information we don’t actively share, such as our browsing history, is used by ad networks to feed us advertising that makes us more likely to spend money online. That’s by no means a crime on par with identity fraud or sextortion, but it is an example of how our private data can be used against us to diminish the control of our digital identities.
  4. You can’t be sure what you’re giving access to.
    Even if you don’t overshare with your friends on Facebook, you still may be shocked to learn what you’re actually sharing with Facebook itself. The world’s largest social network seems to track your geographical location through GPS, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi signals. Snapchat doesn’t just allow itself access to the photos and videos you post but the entire contents of your device’s media library. And you agreed to this when you agreed to their terms and conditions. These giant corporations likely won’t use that information for anything other than their business, but this information could potentially be hacked and end up in the wrong hands. Or perhaps their are uses for it we can’t even imagine… yet.
  5. The future.
    Before too long your dishwasher will likely have a web server in in it. Your toaster will connect to the internet, as will most anything you can plug in. This will provide manufacturers amazing abilities to track how their products are used for their benefit if not yours. And that data may end up being an asset that could be used to sell to another company looking for information about how to market to you a little better.

Your digital identity is tied to your data. Getting into the practice of securing it now will help protect you and your family now while preparing you for a future we cannot yet conceive.

One of the best ways to protect your privacy online is to use a virtual private network (VPN). See our VPN reviews to find the best one for you.

What's a cookie?

If you've been anywhere on the internet, you've probably heard of cookies (also known as computer cookies or HTTP cookies). These are small files that websites want to put on your computer and store in your web browser.

But should you accept or block cookies?

Cookies don't infect your computer with malicious software or viruses. They're basically just text files to be read by whatever website or third party put them there. They have a range of uses, some you may like more than others.

The good news is it's not an all-or-nothing affair. Most browsers let you control which kinds of cookies are allowed. Here's how to manage them in Google Chrome, Apple's Safari, and Microsoft Edge – the Windows 10 default browser that replaced Internet Explorer.

But before you decide, you need to understand what each type of cookie does.

First-party cookies

First-party cookies belong to the website you're currently on and don't track what you do on other websites.

There are two kinds of first-party cookies:

Session cookies

These are short-lived and are usually deleted when your browser closes.

Without these cookies, every time you clicked a link – even to load a new page on the same website – it would forget you'd ever been there. For example, say you're shopping online and you add an item to your cart. If you then view another item on a different page, once the new page loads your cart would be empty because there'd be no way to track what you did previously.

Or perhaps a website asked you what language you'd prefer. Without session cookies, you'd have to re-select it with each new page.

Persistent cookies

These live on in your browser after it closes, but self-destruct after a predetermined time – usually within six months. If you ever asked a website to remember your login details, it did so with a first-party persistent cookie.

Persistent cookies may also be used to remember what you read or did while you were on the site, to avoid showing you the same content if you log back on later. While some persistent cookies are first-party, not all are.

Third-party cookies

These are also persistent. They're often used for tracking your movements to gain marketing or demographic data.

If you disable third-party cookies it'll make it harder for advertisers to get information about your online activity. You'll still see ads; they just probably won't be tailored to your interests.

Third-party cookies have also been blamed for slowing down web page loading times. Some browsers, such as Safari and Firefox, block them by default. Others let you opt-out in their settings menu.

How to manage cookies in Google Chrome

At the top-right of a browser window, click the menu button (three vertical dots), then Settings. Scroll down and click Advanced.

In the Privacy and Security section, click Content Settings then Cookies. Turning cookies off completely would disable all the features we've talked about so far, not just the tracking ones. So it's advisable to not block them entirely.

If you enable Keep local data online until you quit your browser, you'll still be able to add items to a shopping cart, but every time you close your browser you'll lose things like automatic sign-ins on your favourite websites.

Cookie 5 0 2 – Protect Your Online Privacy

Block third-party cookies stops the marketing-led cookies that track your internet usage and patterns, while leaving the more-useful cookies running.

If you'd like a fresh start with your new cookie settings, you can delete all your current ones. Click See all cookies and site data, then Remove All.

How to manage cookies in Safari (on macOS)

Since a Safari update in 2017, third-party cookies are blocked by default.

To manage your cookie settings, open Safari and click the Safari menu at the top-left (next to the Apple menu) and select Preferences. In the following window, select Privacy.

Prevent cross-site tracking should be enabled by default. This stops third-party cookies that track you across websites for advertisers.

Ask websites not to track me requests websites to not use both third-party and first-party persistent cookies. It's up to the website to respect your request.

Block all cookies will stop third-party cookies, but also the first-party cookie features mentioned earlier.

To delete the cookies you already have, click Manage Website Data and select cookies from individual websites on the list and click Remove, or select Remove all to delete the lot.

How to manage cookies in Microsoft Edge

Click the ellipsis (…) icon at the top right and select Settings. Scroll down and under Advanced settings, select View advanced settings. Scroll down again and under Cookies there are three options: Block all cookies, Block only third party cookies and Don't block cookies.

If you want to stop other parties tracking your online activity, select Block only third party cookies. This should make it harder for targeted advertisers and data analytics firms to get information about you.

If you Block all cookies then none of the functions we mentioned earlier will work (auto login, adding items to a shopping cart, etc.) and some websites may become unusable.

To delete the cookies you already have, go to Settings then under Clear browsing data, click Choose what to clear. Make sure Cookies and saved website data is ticked, then hit Clear.