What types of personal information can be found online?
Surfing the Internet used to be one of the last bastions of privacy and security. After all, since you have to dress up, take your car and drive anywhere to shop or meet new people, you could build any kind of profile you want for yourself. You might have a name and be a person you wanted to be (theoretically) and nobody would be able to uncover your identity if you do not want them to have.
Unfortunately, things have changed. Today, most people tend to be naive and ignorant of the many ways that their personal information may be stored online. They are even less likely to know how companies and individuals to access these data.
Just because you may not be aware of all the different avenues that exist to collect personal information about you, that doesn 't mean that your information is safe!
Even the most apparently innocent or harmless activities can lead to sharing personal information with anonymous sources across the Internet. The more you are aware of this information, the better you'll be able to yourself, your family, and all this valuable information protected.
The types of personal information you involuntarily Share Online
If you have something on your own writing online, or shopped or visited websites, there personal information about you floating in the ether. Some of the most common treats personal information that someone might find out you can include:
- Your full name
- Your home address
- Where you you went to school
- where you work
- Your social security number, its last four numbers, or other identifying information
- Where you shop
- favorite websites that you visit
- general research information and settings
- IP address of your computer
- personal banking information
After a quick review of the list, there should be a few things that stand out and give you reason to pause. Your Social Security number? personal banking information?
Maybe you have not already bought something online, but you probably have accessed your online bank account to check your balance or make transactions. So how could anyone have access to this personal information?
The key one is through the IP address of your computer. Once someone has your IP address if you do not have a firewall and other security features installed, he or she could - theoretically - to gain access to your computer " observe "your activities while you are connected to Internet [
This would give these hackers to access almost all personal information they want from you. It sounds scary, but there are many tools and resources available online that teach aspiring identity thieves how to hack another computer using the IP address alone
This is not legal - . Not by any stretch - but it highlights the ease with which businesses and individuals can access your computer.
But let's step back for a moment and discuss some of the other types of personal information that someone could find about you online ...
do you have a social media profile ? Have you set up an account on Facebook or Twitter, for example? If so, all you share online through these sites has the potential to be found by others. Even if you set your profile to "private", you can not guarantee that everything you share online will remain hidden forever.
For a little education, we will visit all the major search engines. Type your name and see what happens. You can have a common name, and the need to scroll down a few pages of results before you find something about yourself, but most people will find at least something about themselves online.
Although these factoids seem harmless by themselves, remember that they can be high in safety issues that you have configured for your accounts. If hackers or identity thieves access to your e-mail address, they can use this information to recover "lost" the passwords to your accounts by providing the answers they have been able to source your Internet footprint.
And this is just information in the public domain. This is what is out there and readily available, and it can include white pages, your university course, or any number of other references to different aspects of your life.
That said, the most common way that your personal information may be source is through cookies and your IP address.
cookies are?
cookies, also known as Internet cookies are small files that are downloaded to your computer from different websites. These cookies can track personal information such as your name or other data that you can enter in either browsing or online shopping.
Most companies use cookies to help make your shopping or more enjoyable web experience for you (and more profitable for them). Most cookies are harmless and in fact, some sites will not even open properly if you allow cookies.
However, no personal information about you that is stored by the use of cookies has the potential to be recovered by anyone who knows how to access this information.
your IP address
Overall, the most essential piece of the puzzle when it comes to your personal information available online is the IP address of your computer. Your IP address is the unique address of your personal computer and is provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
When someone has this information, they can potentially access the rest of your computer -. Including all of the personal information you have stored there. - When you're online
many websites and web services take your IP address as part of their standard operating procedures - for example, in order to serve content that is based on your geographical position. But even if you chat online with someone through a secure site like a dating site, the person on the other end may have the ability to find your IP address when the chat window is open.
How do you protect your personal information online?
There are steps you can take to protect your personal information online. The first is to disable cookies in your web browser. This is done by going to "Tools" features of your particular browser (if you use Safari, Firefox, IE or Chrome, to name a few). Be aware, however, that disabling cookies does not mean that you might not be able to access some Web sites.
Another step you can take is to retain any personally identifiable information from social media sites. Do not share your name, where you went to school, that you are married or dating, and so on. This may seem drastic, but when safety is your primary concern, it is a reasonable step.
In addition, consider using a virtual private network (VPN) service for Internet access. This is a secondary Internet company that provides a virtual IP address (one from a bank of IP addresses) that will keep your hidden real IP address from prying eyes (or chat windows).
Overall, a VPN service is one of the most efficient and effective means to protect your personal information online in the modern technological world of today. Give Hotspot Shield - VPN or any other of your choice. - A test today and keep your most personal pieces of secure information
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