How do you overcome privacy issues?

The internet is at a point where people heavily rely on it for everyday tasks. During the height of the Covid 19 pandemic, workplaces and schools used Zoom as the standard apparatus for communication. Many file-sharing platforms also emerged as key candidates for remote work. Needless to say, offices began utilizing a hybrid framework where working days are divided into working from home or at the workplace giving rise to a digital office environment. Therefore as we continue with our online life, privacy becomes an issue. 

What is online privacy?
You can gander at online privacy just as you would in actuality – being in the state of liberation from spectators. Unfortunately, the internet isn’t paradise on Earth when privacy is involved. In real life, having a home encircled by walls is a form of protecting our privacy. We apply curtains to windows not exclusively to block out sun rays but to forestall bystanders from peering inside our house. On the internet, there is the emerging threat of hackers and cyber thieves who will not hesitate to infiltrate a vulnerable account and expose the contents inside. 

Most common online privacy issues
Every time you go online, you are leaving trails of data and information for anyone to collect and use against you. Indeed, even by posting an image on Instagram and adding the location, you are verifying your physical location for everyone to view. 

Unsuspected location sharing
Most apps require that you initiate GPS for it to properly function. The issue is that these apps collect this information and sell it to 3rd parties. They’ll know that you’re in a specific location and will provide targeted ads based on the location. As previously referenced, sharing your location on social media opens an entryway for anyone to know your whereabouts and the precise location. Even though you consent to the policy by allowing the app to access your GPS, it is still a form of breaching your online privacy. 

Cookies
When opening a web browser, it’s sometimes surprising to know that the webpage you left a week ago still has the preferences that you inserted. That is the result of cookies. Cookies are little fragments of data that save information on the browser and websites. This information is automatically stored on the websites you visited assisting you with partaking in a smoother experience. The cookies also help the website proprietors distinguish how visitors explore the site so they can change any issues or spotlight on client inclinations and upgrade them in the back end. 

Online privacy concerns happen when cookies collect an insurmountable amount of information that will leave trails of your personal data on the internet. Cookies passively collect data, so it’s not easy to overcome this. 

Virtual scanning
There was a time when facial recognition technology seemed like something from a Sci-Fi movie. But in our current digital age, this technology has taken its toll to violate our privacy. Tagging people on posts creates a facial recognition database that memorizes our facial structures and sells that data to 3rd parties. Facebook has a feature to detect your face on a post you weren’t tagged in based on your location and the people around you who were tagged. It knows how to identify you and asks if you’d like to be tagged. This raises concerns about how social media networking companies handle our privacy and what data they log about us. 

How a VPN can help you? 
A VPN can secure your privacy by hiding your true IP address from your ISP and websites. Your inbound and outbound requests are secured with end-to-end encryption meaning that no one can see what you’re doing or which sites you’re accessing. Tracking apps won’t pinpoint your location since you are connected to a virtual server that shifts your location to somewhere else. 

A VPN does not alter your geo-location on the map. For example, if you’re using Google Maps, it will identify your mobile device’s location and not your IP address. You can expect extra privacy when a VPN is activated to protect your online identity and digital assets.