Before submitting your email address or other personally identifiable information online, you need to be sure that the privacy of that information will be protected. To protect your identity and prevent an attacker from easily accessing additional information about you, be cautious about providing your birth date, Social Security number, or other personal information online.

If you use online meeting software for audio and video conferencing, it’s recommended to use their preview screens to ensure all your settings are right before joining. You can mute your mic and/or turn off your camera there. Doing so can help avoiding leaking information or making comments that you didn’t want others to hear.

Connecting your laptop to an external monitor gives you much more real estate for working and for viewing media like video. Positioning is important, though – since these monitors are so big, they can broadcast a lot of information in plain view. To avoid walk-by surveillance, position them somewhere where they can’t easily be seen, […]

Keep up with new technology and ways to manage privacy. Visit staysafeonline.org, our own Security Tip of the Day or other trusted websites for the latest information about ways to stay safe online. Talk about what you discovered with your family and engage them on a regular basis to share what they know about privacy.

During this global pandemic, be extra alert to the kinds of information being collected to complete any online transaction. If the merchant is requesting more data than you feel comfortable sharing, cancel the transaction. You only need to fill out required fields at checkout and you should not save your payment information in your profile. […]

Organizations such as insurance companies and banks may need your social security number in order to perform their services. However, this doesn’t mean you should give it out with no questions asked. Never share your Social Security number over email or text. If a trusted source is requesting it over the phone, ask them why […]