Online Tracking and Ways to Prevent it.

A recent article on http://www.abine.com about current online tracking practices highlights just how much information we may be giving out without our knowledge.

They have a nice infographic showing who may be tracking you, as well as some of the most common and simplest ways these companies track consumers.

Reasons for tracking are generally for advertisers to try and target people specifically and to build consumer ‘profiles’, but most people worry that these reasons are not always on the up and up.

In a questionnaire to Wall Street Journal readers, 60% said they worry ‘Tremendously’ about the loss of online privacy.

There are, of course, some simple steps you can sue to combat unwanted tracking and profiling. These include: Making sure your social networking sites privacy settings are set correctly, delete your information from companies that publicly sell it, running a free browser add-ons like DoNotTrackMe, and running a VPN like GoTrusted.

Running a VPN service will make you anonymous and prevent sites from targeting you by your geographic location as well as keeping you safe from sites that may try to view your browsing or buying habits online.

Tips For Protecting Data While Traveling

 

A recent article posted by Information Week from Eset has outlined a few strong tips for keeping your data secure while traveling.

The article was made in response to the FBI/IC3 warning to travelers regarding use of hotel Internet systems.

This is an excerpt from the IC3 warning.

"Recent analysis from the FBI and other government agencies demonstrates that malicious actors are targeting travelers abroad through pop-up windows while establishing an Internet connection in their hotel rooms."

The FBI recommends that all government, private industry, and academic personnel who travel abroad take extra caution before updating software products on their hotel Internet connection. Checking the author or digital certificate of any prompted update to see if it corresponds to the software vendor may reveal an attempted attack. The FBI also recommends that travelers perform software updates on laptops immediately before traveling, and that they download software updates directly from the software vendor’s Web site if updates are necessary while abroad.

Tips include: making sure your software is up to date prior to travel, backing up sensitive data on a encrypted external drive, and making sure you have password protection and inactivity timeouts engaged on all devices.

One of the tips mentioned is to use a VPN service when connecting to the hotel's Internet, something GoTrusted has always emphasized to its customers traveling abroad or simply to the local coffee shop. Using our secure tunnel while going through a connection that may or may not have your best interests in mind or simply lacks up-to-date security, ensures that your data remains private and secure.