Love your Data! :)

This Valentine’s day, what else will I the privacy warrior talk about? “Love your data”! 🙂

As the day winds down, here are some simple thoughts that will demonstrate your love for your data and keep it safe:

1. Since there can be no privacy without security, observe good password habits – that is the first barrier to safeguard your data
2. Enable 2FA on critical sites and sites having personal data like Facebook
3. If sharing personal pictures, it is good to set the access level to the most required circle and delete it after a while
4. Observe the fine print on all sites and apps(as an example, read the fine print on who else will have access to your data…for example will any diagnostic labs have access to your health data on a health site?)
5. Know your rights. According to GDPR and other privacy laws like CCPA you have the right to know what data is collected about you from an organization, correct incorrect data and even request its erasure.
6. Do not consent to collection of unnecessary data when signing up on sites(it is good to pause and think before signing up) Uncheck unnecessary check boxes.
7. Accept only necessary cookies(unwanted cookies can track you doing a variety of things)
8. Use privacy focused browsers(Brave) and search engines(DuckDuckGo) that collect minimal personal information and do not track your movements invisibly.