Data security has become a growing concern in the United States. A 2023 Pew Research survey found that 81% of American adults worry about how companies use their data, with 42% expressing deep concern over their personal information being sold and 38% fearing the possibility of data theft^[1]. 

Given the increased risk surrounding data privacy and security, it’s essential to know how to protect personal information online. This guide will show you some practical measures to boost your data's security, whether you’re shopping, communicating, or browsing the web.

Why Should You Keep Personal Information Private?

Keeping your personal information private helps protect you from various risks, such as:

• Identity theft—If hackers can steal your personal information, such as your name, address, Social Security number, or credit card number, they might be able to use it to impersonate you and commit fraud.
• Financial loss—Hackers who steal your credit card information can also steal your money. With additional personal information, they can open new lines of credit or obtain loans in your name and damage your credit score.
• Personal data breaches—If hackers can access some of your data, such as your name and email address, they can leverage it to commit phishing attacks and access more valuable personal information.
• Online tracking and targeted advertisements—Many websites and apps track your online behavior to gather personal information and create detailed profiles about you. They can use these profiles to serve you targeted ads, and some might share your information with third parties without your consent.
• Cyberstalking—Revealing personal information online makes it easier for potential cyberstalkers to track and harass you. They might also use the information they find about you to commit crimes like blackmail or extortion.

How Can Someone Get Your Personal Information?

There are legitimate ways someone can access your personal information. When you sign up for services or make online purchases, for example, you typically have to share sensitive details such as your name, credit card number, or billing address.

Even when you share your personal information for a valid reason, your data can still be compromised. If the service you shared the data with suffers a breach, cybercriminals might be able to steal your details.

Other ways hackers might try to get your private information include:

• Phishing attacks—Hackers can send you fraudulent emails or messages to trick you into revealing personal information.
• Malware attacks—Cybercriminals can use malware like viruses, trojans, or ransomware to steal personal information from your device, lock you out of it, or damage it.
• Theft over public Wi-Fi networks—Hackers can try to intercept and steal any information you share over an unsecured public Wi-Fi network.
• Exploiting poor security practices—If you use simple passwords and no additional authentication steps for your online accounts, hackers might successfully access your accounts and the information in them using brute-force attacks.
• Physical theft—Criminals can steal your laptop, phone, hard drives, purse, or wallet and get access to your personal information. They can also use methods such as card skimming to steal your payment card information. 

How To Keep Your Personal Information Safe Online

Here are some tips to help you keep your personal information safe online:

1. Limit what you share
2. Learn to recognize common threats
3. Secure your devices
4. Set strong passwords and enable two-factor authentication
5. Use a virtual private network (VPN)
6. Use virtual cards for online purchases

Limit What You Share

Filling out an online survey, participating in online quizzes or contests, and logging into third-party websites using your social media account may seem harmless. But these activities give away personal information that cybercriminals might use to steal your identity or target you with scams.

Before sharing your personal data, you should review the website or app's privacy policy to understand how it will use your information. You might be able to opt out of sharing some of your personal information, which is a good practice if you’re trying to limit your informational footprint. 

Other ways to help limit the amount of personal information you share online include:

• Enabling "do not track" settings on your apps, browsers, and devices to prevent websites from tracking your online activities
• Making your social media accounts private to control who can see your posts and personal information and only accepting friend requests from people you know and trust
• Avoiding posting sensitive personal information like your address, phone number, or Social Security number on social media platforms

You can also take steps to remove some of your personal information that’s already online. For example, you can send requests to data brokers to remove any personal information they have on you or subscribe to a personal data removal service to do it on your behalf. 

Learn To Recognize Phishing Attacks

Phishing attacks often try to mimic legitimate communications from services you might use. Some might be very sophisticated and hard to notice, but there are usually at least some warning signs that you’re being targeted for a scam. When you get an unexpected email or text, be on the lookout for:

• Suspicious email addresses—Hackers might send phishing emails from domains that look similar to legitimate ones but contain an extra character or slightly misspelled words.
• A generic greeting—If the scammer doesn’t have access to your name, they might start a phishing email with a phrase like “dear customer.”
• Spelling or grammatical errors—Phishing emails often contain typos, awkward phrasing, or incorrect grammar.
• A sense of urgency—Hackers might say your accounts are blocked and will be suspended if you don’t click a certain link or provide personal information.

Secure Your Devices

If a hacker can access your device, they can steal the personal information you store on it, install malware, or use it to gain access to your online accounts.

Here are three easy ways you can protect your devices:

1. Use antimalware software—This software can help defend against malware in real time and remove any malware already installed on your device. 
2. Keep your software updated—Software developers often include security patches for known vulnerabilities in updates. Enabling automatic updates can help ensure you always have the latest patches installed.
3. Enable access control measures—If your device supports it, consider enabling PIN or biometrics for device login or wakeup.

Set Strong Passwords and Enable Two-Factor Authentication

Because they make your accounts vulnerable to brute force or dictionary attacks, you should avoid using simple, short, or easily guessable passwords. Instead, create passwords that:

• Have at least 12 characters

• Contain a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters
• Are unique for each account
• Aren’t based on personal information like your date of birth or name

A password manager like 1Password, Bitdefender, Keeper, or Dashlane can help you generate, store, and manage complex and unique passwords for all your online accounts. 

You can also add an extra layer of security by enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) for your accounts. With 2FA, you'll need to provide a second form of authentication, such as a unique code sent to your phone, a time-based code from an authenticator app, or biometric verification to access your account. This makes it harder for hackers to gain unauthorized access even if they know your password.

Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN)

A VPN creates a secure and encrypted connection between your devices and the VPN’s server. This ensures that all the data transmitted between them is protected from third parties, including your internet service provider (ISP), advertisers, and cybercriminals. Using a VPN also masks your IP address, hiding it from potential hackers.

VPNs such as Avast VPN, Private Internet Access, and Turbo VPN can help keep your online activities private and secure, especially when using public Wi-Fi networks. 

Use Virtual Cards for Online Purchases

Virtual cards are randomly generated card numbers that allow you to shop online without revealing your actual financial information.

You usually link virtual cards to a primary funding source, such as your bank account or payment card, and use them as you would a regular card for online purchases. The difference is that your actual financial information isn’t shared with the merchant and can't be compromised if their systems are hacked.

Popular banks like Citi^® and Capital One^® offer virtual cards, but you can opt for a specialized provider like Privacy for robust security features and advanced card controls.

Protect Your Financial Information With Privacy Cards

As a PCI-DSS-compliant provider, Privacy employs strict security measures similar to those used by your bank to protect your personal information. It uses the AES-256 cipher to encrypt your data and firewalled servers for secure data storage. Privacy also supports two-factor authentication to fortify your account against unauthorized access.

To further protect your data and your funds, Privacy also leverages:

• Password hashing using PBKDF2 with 100k iterations to reduce the risk of rainbow table attacks
• Real-time transaction alerts that notify you when your virtual cards are used or declined, helping you spot suspicious transactions quickly
• Regular third-party security audits to ensure compliance with high security standards

Privacy Cards—Types and Their Features

Privacy offers three card types:

All Privacy Cards come with the following spending controls that you can set at any time without impacting the underlying funding source:

• Spending limits—After you set a spending limit on your virtual cards, Privacy will decline all transactions above the limit, helping protect you against hidden fees and sudden price hikes.
• Pause, unpause, or close cards—Privacy will block further transactions on a paused or closed card, helping you avoid unwelcome charges such as those that might occur when stopping a subscription service. 

Privacy Convenience Features

To make virtual card management seamless and online shopping more convenient, Privacy offers additional convenience features:

• Privacy App—You can install the mobile app on your iOS or Android device to create new virtual cards, set spending limits, and monitor virtual card use on the go.
• Privacy Browser Extension—The browser extension enables faster and more secure online transactions by autofilling your virtual card details at checkout. It's available for Edge, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari, including Safari for iOS.
• 1Password integration—Privacy integrates seamlessly with 1Password, allowing you to create and manage virtual cards within the 1Password browser extension.
• Shared Cards—This feature allows you to share your budget with close friends and family without disclosing your actual card information.
• Card Notes—This feature lets you attach notes to your virtual card, helping you track when and where your card will be used next.

How To Use Privacy

Getting started with Privacy is straightforward—follow these four steps:

1. Create a Privacy account
2. Fill in the required Know-Your-Customer (KYC) details to verify your identity
3. Provide a funding source (debit card or bank account)
4. Request and generate your first Privacy Card
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Privacy offers four plans you can choose from:

References

^[1]Pew Research. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2023/10/18/how-americans-view-data-privacy/, sourced October 8, 2024

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