. All of them are looking to obtain personal information (PI) for exploitation or benefit. Every day, there are more and more regulatory and internal safeguards, since these intrusions have become highly sophisticated.  

Your digital footprints stay everywhere. Any time you visit a website, sign up for an account, enter your debit or credit card information, post on social media, or even store images in cloud storage, you are revealing your personal information to cyberspace. In order to protect yourself, you need to know who will, other than the recipient, have access to the information provided. 

But, if you find yourself in a situation where you feel like somebody has violated your online privacy and data, there are a few things you can do. In this article, we have prepared some advice to help you overcome a situation like that. 

First things first – the legal aspect

Here’s the thing, if you feel like someone has violated your online privacy and your data has been compromised to an extent that has wronged pretty much any aspect of your life, you have the right to contact the authorities. That being said though as experts on internet law explain, making sure that you come up with a plan in order to respond to a scenario regarding data breaches is definitely effective. But – it’s even better for you to have a plan in place beforehand in order to be able to prevent a breach.

Experts on this topic go on to explain that it is always better for you to practice having various safeguards already in place to prevent the breach in the first place. Now, there are a lot of ways for you to do so, but in order for you to come up with a comprehensive data security plan, you might want to consult with a Data Protection Officer.

In any case, if you are looking for ways in which you can make your online privacy more effective, we are going to discuss several ways for you to do so in the following text.

Stop using social media

In order to avoid unpleasant situations on social media while sharing your content, you can simply delete it and create a blog or a website. This way, you can express yourself without having to worry about cyber threats on social media. When you have your own website or a blog, you are the one who can control the privacy of your data. 

Try open-source software 

Open-source software almost never violates your privacy. This basically means you are fixing the problem at its core. You can even go as far as getting a totally new operating system. One of the open-source operating systems is Debian, which is Linux based. If your phone has an Android system, you can try deleting the version that came with it and then installing an aftermarket system such as LineageOS, or maybe disabling or removing all of the Google apps.

Use encryption

Most of the newer mobile devices encrypt your storage by default, and most of the operating systems provide you with an option to encrypt your storage. This can be very useful since you can protect all the data that you have on your device. As far as emails, for instance, Gmail encrypts your email data by default, but, if you are using another provider or you are worried that Google is reading your emails, you can use GPG to encrypt your emails. 

Make sure you are using HTTPS

Whenever you are browsing, make sure that you are using HTTPS. Chrome indicates these by showing the word “Secure” and a green lock in the address bar. Even though most sites use it, some still do not. If it is blocked, an extension called HTTPS Everywhere on Firefox and Chrome will force HTTPS if the website you are using does not default to it. Keep in mind that Firefox is better for privacy than Chrome. 

Tell others about these issues

Word can truly spread fast, especially if it is something negative. If you or even someone close to you have experienced an online privacy violation, make sure to let others know about it. Just imagine that you could have protected yourself if somebody has warned you. So tell others about these issues, so that they can benefit from your knowledge.

In the end, it all boils down to being and staying vigilant so that you can ensure that no breaches happen any time soon. By doing everything that you can do on your end, you are ensuring that your online privacy is way harder to compromise, and as we have explained in this article, there are a lot of easy ways for you to do so – all it takes is planning and taking action by making as informed as decisions as possible. And if you are looking to make informed decisions, never overlook the importance of doing your research and consulting with professionals!