Your entire digital presence creates a pathway of information. And that information narrates a tale. Your unique story.
The online platforms, applications, and utilities you utilize daily accumulate information. They could gather data concerning your actions, preferences, and transactions—along with your engagements, duration, and locations, largely unbeknownst to you. They might also compile personal details, information you furnish, such as medical records, your Social Security Number, financial details, your driver’s license information, and more. This might encompass additional health details, like the ones documented by a smartwatch or wearable tech.
“Why does it matter?”
Many individuals have expressed this query regarding information compilation. And numerous others merely come to terms with the prevalence of data collection. “What’s public is already public.” They feel powerless to affect it. If at all. Does it hold significance, though?
It definitely has significance.
In essence, it matters if you despise unsolicited calls and messages. If you fear identity theft. If you are anxious that essentially anyone can purchase a detailed dossier of your personal data from an internet data broker and manipulate it as they please.
Undoubtedly, your data weaves the fabric of your narrative. And many others are keen on your tale. Businesses and advertisers primarily, to tailor their offerings to suit your most specific requirements and interests. But also hackers, swindlers, unsolicited senders, and thieves—and in extreme cases, harassers too.
Certainly, you may not determine how each byte of data regarding you and your household is distributed and processed, but you are not defenseless! In numerous instances, you can regulate how you divulge your data by implementing a few measures. Your data holds value, and you warrant being discerning about who you share it with.
This is the rationale why you’ve observed McAfee introducing numerous safeguards for your privacy and identity, with more to follow. As there are countless tools for data gathering nowadays, there are also tools for you to seize command.
Reviewing our own McAfee+ internet protection packages, they deliver identity theft and fraud defenses such as Personal Data Cleanup, identity surveillance, in addition to credit monitoring, a VPN to enhance the privacy of your online ventures, $1M in identity theft indemnity and assistance from an identity reclamation expert … and many more. These are resources that everyone can gain from amidst the current risks out there.
The transformation of McAfee+ mirrors the essence of online hazards today. Increasingly, the target is you—your privacy, your identity, and all the things that they unlock.
Three actions you can take now to enhance your online privacy
1) Utilize a comprehensive security suite encompassing a VPN, password manager, and internet protection
An additional straightforward yet potent stride is to shield your devices with comprehensive online protection software. This can help safeguard you against the latest viruses, malware, spyware, and ransomware attacks besides fortifying your privacy, and diminishing web tracking (think advertisers) with a VPN. Additionally, it will generate and securely store robust, distinct passwords, and provide web protection to steer you away from dubious websites that may aim to filch your data.
2) Assess your privacy configurations for the devices, platforms, and apps you employ
Initiate with the devices and apps you utilize frequently. Various devices and apps possess distinctive privacy settings, so delve into them and examine what choices you have. You might be taken aback by how you can restrict the information advertisers can employ to serve you ads. You might uncover that some apps have GPS tracking activated, even though it’s unnecessary for their functionality. All of this builds up to data that companies might amass, transmit, or vend—contingent upon their privacy policy. Start with the devices and apps you use the most then expand from there. It’s also a prime opportunity to uninstall apps you no longer use—along with the associated data.
3) Remove the personal information published about you online
A significant privacy divulgence occurs through online data intermediaries, companies that accumulate and resell substantial precise personal details about multitudes. Indeed, they constitute a multi-billion-dollar sector spanning globally. Additionally, there are what are termed “White Pages” and “people finder” portals that exhibit info like names, addresses, and other public records that anyone can reach. With all this data compiled in a central repository that’s effortlessly searchable and accessible, these portals can be an ideal resource for hackers, unsolicited senders, and thieves. McAfee’s Personal Data Cleanup can assist you in taking charge. It scans high-risk data intermediary sites and informs you of those who are trading your data, and depending on your McAfee+ plan, it can eradicate it on your behalf as well.
Yes, you have the capability to oversee your privacy
Yet you can exert even more authority over your privacy. As part of our McAfee Safety Series, we present a complete guide dedicated to the subject of online privacy, the McAfee Digital Privacy Guide. It furnishes you with methods to take charge of your digital privacy, awareness of the information you might be generating, and how you could be disseminating it—whether knowingly or unknowingly.
In essence, your privacy is within your control. We uphold that what you disclose and withhold, who you reveal it to and who you don’t, and for what purpose … should be your prerogative.
It constitutes your tale. Assume command. And we’re here to offer assistance.
The post Methods to Secure Your Personal Information arose on McAfee Blog.
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