In this day and age, you can never be too careful online. With cyber threats on the rise, now’s the perfect time to put some protection in place to ensure your identity and data is secure.
Everything online is connected. If you browse an online store from your computer, that data is then shared with social media channels, advertisers, apps, etc. Modern technology can use cookies, artificial intelligence, and more to collect your data both online and offline. As this data is collected and shared, you can understand how easily a hacker may be able to infiltrate your private information.
Privacy by compartmentalization is a smart way to proactively protect your identity throughout all these different data transfers. The goal is to take control of who gets access to what information to ultimately prevent fraud. The same way you organize your drawers and cabinets at home based on the contents inside, we’re going to organize your online identity.
To best protect your identity, you are going to virtually compartmentalize where you separate data. We recommend three compartments:
- Professional Identity. This is your business/work identity. You should use business email only when completing tasks online related to your work.
- Social Identity. This is your persona for your social media apps. Consider using a separate email address for your different social, gaming, networking, apps.
- Private Identity. This is your identity used to purchase things, fill out medical forms, online banking, etc. You should use a third email address strictly for these tasks.
By creating your three different identities, you minimize the possibility of connecting one pool of data to another. So, in the event your data is hacked, they can’t access your “whole” identity but instead just one “compartment.”
For extra security, we highly recommend not repeating any passwords among these different identities. You can also consider using a different web browser per identity to really ensure there is no crossover of data.
Have questions about keeping your identity secure online? We can assist. At NSA, we have been helping people like you for over 25 years and offer a variety of security services. Contact us today to learn more.