Everything you do online generates data, but you can gain some control over how your personal information is collected, shared and used. During Data Privacy Week, Information Technology Services and the Office of Equity Assurance recommend employees and students follow four simple steps to maintain privacy online:
1. Don’t overshare on social media. Providing too much information on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram can help cybercriminals steal your identity. Attackers can use your high school, birth city or mother’s maiden name to change passwords on financial accounts. Avoid putting any information in the About Me fields in your profiles.
2. Browse in incognito or private mode. Change the settings so your web browser doesn’t save your browsing history, temporary internet files or cookies. Another alternative is to use anonymous search engines such as StartPage, DuckDuckGo and searX, which don’t collect your data like Google.
3. Only grant access to necessary personal data. Consider the risks when an account or app asks for access to your personal information and whether you get value in return. Be wary of providing information that is not directly related to the services they’re offering.
4. Actively manage your privacy settings. Be sure to set them to your comfort level with new accounts and periodically check older accounts. Each device, app or browser has different ways to limit how and with whom you share information. Get started with recommendations on the National Cybersecurity Alliance’s Manage Your Privacy Settings page.
ITS has more tips to Defend Your Data. For real-time outage updates and other important announcements, follow @WVUITServices on Twitter or “like” WVU Information Technology on Facebook.