Control is Canadians’ top priority when it comes to personal information online, according to an Interac poll released as part of Data Privacy Week. While many are concerned, far too many people still have unsafe practices, hence the importance of continuing to raise awareness regarding data protection and thinking regarding how to strengthen your online security.
Every year, Data Protection Week is celebrated during the last week of January to raise awareness of the challenges of preserving our privacy on the web.
For the occasion, Interac conducted a survey whose results show that a majority of Canadians are concerned regarding the lack of control over their personal information online.
However, the survey also shows that “the chops don’t always follow the boots”, and that a lot of awareness remains to be done while a worrying number of respondents admit to certain unwise practices.
Data that proves negligence
The vast majority of responses to the survey conducted by Interac illustrate the respondents’ contradiction quite well.
The first finding is that the time of logon is considered crucial by users, who consider it proof of trust in a provider.
On the other hand, 58% say they use their social media accounts to access their online services, while only 11% trust these accounts.
And it goes on and on:
Surprisingly, 78% of people questioned consider adopting good behavior to protect their personal information online. Odd…
Solutions to stay in control of your information
It’s one thing to worry regarding our personal information online, but we still need to take the steps available to us to protect ourselves.
Afraid that your data will be sold? We acquire Incogni, a software designed by the cybersecurity company Surfshark which allows us to erase our personal data circulating on the web.
In the protection category datait is a good idea to have a VPN if we often use public networks like the one at the café, at thehôtelat theairportetc.
When we browse on a public connection, anyone can intercept our data, such as our first name, nom, address, number phone number or even our credit information.
However, as soon as we activate our VPNeverything becomes encrypted and inaccessible.
Obviously, we never sleep on a good antivirus, whether it’s for computer or for mobile, while unfortunately, several viruses and phishing attempts want to steal our personal information.
Since it acts as a detection and suppressionif we make a mistake and click on a link or an attachment infectedthe antivirus will block everything and protect us.
Rather than repeating your passwords from site to site because you have no idea which ones you created to be strong and unique, get yourself a password manager.
It allows you to avoid racking your brains for nothing, but also to be a victim of “credential stuffing”, the technique that has been used to hack into thousands of Norton accounts and nearly 35,000 Paypal accounts.
In the same vein, we activate two-factor authentication on our accounts as soon as possible to add a layer of difficulty to an intruder who has gotten his hands on our master password.
