Digital Footprint Tips Online Shopping
As you do online shopping this holiday season, you’ll want to be sure you’re aware and safe at all times. Learn some digital footprint tips.
To learn how Julie can support you with professional organizing.
Take actions from today’s declutter podcast on digital footprint tips:
- Pay attention to your digital footprint
- Read any terms & conditions before agreeing to sign up for anything
- Log out of websites
- Use sites with an SSL certificate of the https
- Consider something like Last Pass so you don’t keep using the same password for sites
- Update your software regularly
- Delete cookies on a regular basis.
- Create a separate email for online purchases and use a write off phone number.
Certified life coach, author & award-winning professional life organizer Julie Coraccio shares steps and tips to support you in creating the life you choose, deserve and desire through decluttering your life, mindfulness and how to organize your life.
Don’t forget to check out all of the declutter your life podcast Clear Your Clutter Inside & Out episodes. Also available on YouTube.
About Clear Your Clutter Inside & Out
Clutter is stuck stagnant energy and prevents you from creating the life you choose, desire and deserve. We discuss clutter in all its forms: energetic, spiritual, emotional, mental & physical, relationships, health, finances and more. We share tips and take action steps for clutter free living and how to organize your life and death with end of life planning. We’re thinking outside the box on areas where people might not realize where clutter is blocking them. When we remove clutter from our lives we can discover our passions, lead the extraordinary lives we are all meant to live and share our gifts with the world.
TRANSCRIPT Digital Footprint Tips
Julie Coraccio 0:01
Today on clear your clutter inside and out. We’re talking about internet privacy. Dude, get a little freaked out when you’ve googled something, only to see it appear as an ad on another social media channel. Are you curious about the digital footprint you’re leaving behind? How is the information you’re sharing on the internet being shared with others? Learn how to keep your shopping private as we begin our month focusing on the holidays. Do you control your clutter? Or does your clutter control you? unclear your clutter inside and out. We’ll teach you awareness as well as action steps to create change in your life. Come on. Let’s get started. Today’s episode was inspired by my dear friend Cody. I signed up for an extension. I have Google Chrome extension that does a price search. So when you are online shopping, they can make sure you are getting the best possible price. And it also gives you reward money. The first thing Connie asked me when I was like, Hey, I found this was what’s the privacy policy? I hadn’t even thought to question it. I’m kind of upset with myself that I didn’t even think to question it. And when doing research for this episode, I was like, wow, you need to step up your game. There’s a lot more that you can do. And I truthfully hadn’t given a lot of thought, yeah, I get super annoyed. I have been looking for walking shoes for an upcoming trip. And if I googled it, it would then show up in Facebook, or Instagram or it would show me tons of shoes. I wasn’t Looking for, but the brand had obviously had a paid ad. With the holidays coming up, I’m sure a lot of you are going to be online a lot, maybe just searching for presents for yourself or others. And I thought this would be a good time to Hey, let’s check this out how private is what we’re searching for? I’m going to give you some information. Obviously, Google’s your best friend, research what you need to but I feel like we’re going to get a good chunk information today. Give you a lot to think about some actions you can take to make sure the private eyes aren’t watching you. In an article, my Thomas routers, and I took some information from them throughout that episode. I found that to be really valuable or two other sources I use, which I’ll cite. Their article stated that Pew Research Institute study found that controlling personal information on Online, it’s very important to 74% of Americans. And apologies, I know I have listeners and viewers in other countries. I just kind of went with what I could find. I think it’s probably very similar. I think the majority of us are concerned about online privacy. And another Pew study 86% of Americans have taken action to maintain their privacy, deleting cookies, encrypting email and protecting their IP address. Last month, I talked about wills and having a living well and advanced healthcare directive. And those numbers are less so people just based on again, it’s a small study, but in these two small samples, people are more concerned about internet privacy than having a will. So that should tell you that it’s pretty important. What’s going on. You leave a digital footprint wherever you go. When you visit a website, use your credit card online, join a rewards program, sign up for newsletter, post on social media, or stuff in the cloud. Whatever you’re doing, you’re leaving your mark. Your personal information may be shared in ways that you weren’t aware of or expecting. The example I use was shoes earlier that has become more prevalent. I’ve seen a definite increase in that. Like life, nothing is 100% guarantee. But we’re going to give you some tips today to hopefully increase your privacy. One of the reasons I have been hesitant to do more online is because I’m concerned that a cyber attack will happen. I’m going to share a couple of examples of something that happened to my business.
I’m not counting on the government, guys. By just, you know, it’s this big behemoth. They are going to do the best job possible, but I’m not looking to them to make it right. And another Thomas rooder article, they shared a few of the laws, there aren’t a blanket, really great federal law set up their patchwork of state and federal laws. So I’d encourage you to research what’s going on where you live. And it’s important because it affects your online privacy. And even with the laws in place, guys, I don’t expect them to solve everything and I’m going to share a few that are that we currently have that I thought were interesting. One is the Federal Trade Commission Act, FTC 1914, which regulates unfair, deceptive commercial practices. It FTC is a primary Federal regulator the privacy area and brings enforcement. Again, I’m not counting on this includes failing to comply with posted privacy policies and failing to adequately protect personal information. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act 1986, protect certain wire, oral and electronic communications from unauthorized interception, access use and disclosure. When we purchase a house we had run into some challenges. And so because we had purchased a house before sold ours and my father stepped up and took out a loan for us. And so when we went to pay him back, you know, I think they were more concerned about drug money, but because it was a transaction over $10,000 you know, we had him in a small town in West Virginia, Pittsburgh was a closest town we had routed all through that. But I think they’re more concerned about that. Then the internet privacy laws again, just My observation, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act 1986. Makes unlawful certain computer related activities. The unauthorized access of a computer to obtain certain information to fraud or obtain anything of value, transmit harmful items or traffic and computer passwords, you know, not happening. The Children’s online privacy protection act 1998 requires certain websites and online service providers to obtain verbal parental consent before collecting, using or disclosing personal information for minors under the age of 13. It also requires websites to post an online privacy policy, collect only the personal information necessary and create and maintain reasonable security measures. I think that’s probably rarely enforced. I look at my nephew who likes to play that fortnight and they have things you can buy and and all that And then like they’re totally taken all that information and I worry about children you know, my nieces and nephew are 1413 and 10. And I worried that they’ve already had all their privacy taken from them and I get my brother and sister in law are really good about stuff. But if the kids are looking at a site they don’t have all the controls in place, even if you were super on top of it, stuff can still get out so we have these laws that are really aren’t enforced and I want to share the last one because I know you all are going to chuckle controlling the assault of non solicited pornography and marketing Act, the can spam act that governs send governs sending unsolicited commercial email and prohibits misleading header information and deceptive subject line. What clickbait right in spam, who of us get spam, I get spam all the time if I sign up for something new, obviously so my email and that’s just another quick tip, especially if you’re doing a lot of shopping greatest Count, like create a Gmail account for your bills, I would do something like that, that keeps all that in one email. And if you want to sign up for something, and I never saw your email guys, if you sign up for my newsletter, I have big enough I wouldn’t do that ever. But you know, I’m not big enough for that. And then send set up a separate email if you want to sign up for things that are enter a contest. Now if you get spam, it’s controlled on email.
Unknown Speaker 9:28
It requires this can spam Act requires senders to disclose certain information, including a valid opt out mechanism. And you know, they’ve tried to get squirrely with that and make it really hard. And it creates civil and criminal penalties for violation. How many times you get spam and where do you ever hear about that? So I just wanted it’s kind of this patchwork. Those are a couple you might have known but again, I really don’t think it’s making a difference.
Julie Coraccio 9:55
Common thievery. So I found this from an article from December 29 2018 by Harris Shadi, what is internet privacy and why it matters so much in 2019. So I got some good information here and from Kaspersky, which I’ll have a comment on that later on when I get more of that. So here are some common internet privacy issues and threat tracking, right I’ve mentioned at the beginning of looking for walking shoes, and then they’re everywhere on social media. So these ads follow you where you go, and they’re based on your web searches or your visits to website. Your movements are tracked by website advertisers, literally like feels as I’m had been doing research on this, like someone’s here in the room watching me.
Unknown Speaker 10:47
Cookie profiling and other techniques are used to track your overall activities online and create a detailed profile of your browsing habits. Surveillance some Government spy on their citizens online to supposedly assist law enforcement agencies. Now I was surprised about this, the UK Investigatory Powers Act authorizes mass surveillance and allows the government to legally monitor the internet usage of its citizens.
Julie Coraccio 11:19
Internet companies telecoms and other communication services are required to retain customers internet connection records per year, which can be obtained by government authorities and use an investigation even if they’re not related to them and anyway, I know for a fact that we do have this going on and it’s just scary. You know, we joke we have a Siri not Siri, what was the other thing there’s the Google Home and oh, Amazon, Alexa, and we had it I love it because I could do my grocery shopping. Let’s be like, admin analysts to the list or whatsoever. forecast. And then we’re like, oh my gosh are hearing everything. And so then I would say things my husband’s like, please don’t I do not want the government knocking down our door. But we no longer have Alexa or google home because that’s a concern. Some people mistakenly believe that you’re either born organized or you are not true. getting organized and clearing clutter, as well as learning to be more mindful and aware is a skill that you can learn and will support you your entire life. Julie crotches, online classes, and online workshops are friendly and conversational. Each class also contains action items for you to implement once you’ve completed the class, visit reawaken your brilliance calm to learn more Good old fashioned theft. a staggering 17 million Americans have been affected by identity theft in 2017. I was shocked by that 17 million That’s crazy. cyber criminals use malware, spyware and phishing techniques to break into your online accounts or device and steal your personal information to engage in activities like identity theft. I add in a podcast and it was two years ago, I talked a little bit about that if you’re out shopping, so be sure to check out that episode. It’s got some more tips on that. practical tips like if you’re in the coffee shop, don’t join their network and use your credit card. Here’s some common practices that are costing you your privacy and I learned from this guys because I haven’t done a couple of these using the same credentials for multiple accounts. If a cyber criminal gets access to one of your accounts, then they will most likely get all them right. That’s why something like LastPass is valuable. Great pillar, strong password it’s the only one you need everything else gets autofill you could create one word that they can’t break Thank you thing log into websites raising him guilty guilty guilty leaves your online accounts and personal information vulnerable to anyone or uses or hacks into your device. And that’s usually when I’m thinking about something you know, I don’t like clutter so outside moons I really want to buy this let me think honestly bought using services without reading their terms and conditions. Guilty. Never Click Agree until you understand what you’re getting yourself into. That’s why guys like Jules, what’s the privacy policy. You wouldn’t want to legally grant companies and service providers access to all your data will then sell this information to whoever’s willing to pay the most. right because they don’t care about me. I’m just a faceless number. Opening suspicious attachments or downloading malicious files and I’m good about this guys I know can have been able to get better about sending or recognizing, I should say, suspicious attachments. You need to be really careful when you’re opening attachments and emails or social media. I know Facebook, it seems like at least once or twice a month. Some friend account has been broken into because it can contain malware viruses. Always download files from trusted sources because it may result in your computer getting attacked.
Waste to protect your privacy and security on the internet. Now use the two sources I mentioned as well. Kaspersky I kind of laugh Remember that? Probably, as I date myself the 90s that would seem to be the protection everyone the defense that people would buy from their computers while he’s Russian. And now that I read somewhere that believe that they have been spying on us for years. I don’t use that anymore. It’s been years, but that has been away. And truthfully, I think that that is definitely believable. I don’t think that that is a real thing that it’s what’s the word? I’m looking for that it’s paranoia. I think it’s probably a reality. So you secure websites. When I was updating my website last year, the web person’s like, you have to get the HTTPS encrypted web server. I’m like, Well, why? Like so people know it’s safe to buy from your website. I didn’t know this. That’s why you hire people that are experts that know more than you. Personally data flowing between a user’s machine and a website machine, just using The HTTP without es can be monitored by other companies or potentially intercepted stolen by malicious hackers. That’s where the Secure Sockets Layer SSL comes in. So you want to look for the HTTPS, or SSL when purchasing or entering personal information and check for an HTTPS, or a padlock I padlock icon in your browser’s URL bar to VeriSign verify that the site is secure before entering personal information. When you see the HTTPS instead of HTTP in your browser’s address bar, you’ll notice a secure site. Now apparently I’m gonna have to check my site but I remember I brought all that she was like you have to get this. Luckily, GoDaddy is a one stop shop. They drive me crazy on some other things, but at least I can get that in easily. Also threat from the cloud When you are storing stuff on the cloud, who are they? You’ve given up administrative and technological controls to someone else. The provider may not securely backup processes security practice employees control, you know, you can have someone that goes in and works for him for six months, get clearance and then steals everything. Especially if something’s a bargain. You want to think about that is that really where I want to have my business. So if you have something on the cloud, email them ensure that all your data is encrypted. Use a virtual private network a VPN. Using a VPN is the best way to protect your internet privacy. It changes your IP address and assigns you a new one based on the VPN server you’re connected to. But it also protects your incoming and outgoing to Traffic with the military grade encryption. As a result, your online activities and personal information stay secure and private for snoopers think I’m gonna have my husband. definitely get this for us. Keep your software up to date, how many like Yeah, yeah, new version, whatever. Keep your operating system browser as well as other software, like Java up to date to ensure that you don’t miss out on new features and security fixes. And remember, you can automate security updates. A strong antivirus program will keep your device free from all types of malware, such as spyware, viruses, Trojans, etc. You should also activate your firewall to keep unwanted network traffic at bay. The good news is most operating systems come with the ability to delete cookies at browser exit. You should delete cookies regularly as you’re using By websites, advertisers or other third parties to track you online. When you clear your cookies manually, you’re better off configuring your browser to automatically delete them at the end of a browsing session. Check your social privacy settings. You have social accounts, these networks have a lot of information about you. And you might be surprised how much of its visible to anybody on the internet by default, Ooh, that’s kind of scary. Check your privacy settings. It’s up to you to decide what information you want to share with complete strangers or just yourself.
Don’t use public storage is for private information. oversharing is not just happening on social media. Don’t use online services that are meant for sharing information to store your private data. For example, Google Docs isn’t an ideal place to
Unknown Speaker 20:56
store list of passwords. I’m now working with Bob antarian that everything on Google Docs and
Julie Coraccio 21:02
I don’t use that as frequently. And Dropbox, I have a Dropbox account when but a lot of other people listening do too. It’s not the best place to put your passport scam. Right. So just be thinking through, you guys are smart, you’ll figure it out. Keep your main email address and phone number private. I was talking earlier about setting up accounts specifically for online banking, or specifically if you’re going to sign up for a newsletter or you want to enter a contest. First, you’re gonna reduce the amount of spam and your email inbox and hundreds of robo calls on your phone. Now I have Google Voice guys and I have to tell you, some stuff gets through but when I was looking at Google Voice and I was like, Oh my gosh, I didn’t realize is I’m deleting on voices in Gmail. I have over 12,000 emails. The amount of robo calls that Google Voice has saved me from is phenomenal. And if you’re someone getting a lot looking at an option like that, but if you keep your email and phone number private, then it’ll be less of an issue. Don’t share it with random people on social networks again, just kind of use common sense. You can also consider creating an additional email account and purchase an additional SIM card to use for online shopping and other situations that require sharing your datum strangers. And finally, use messaging apps with end to end encryption. Most modern messaging apps use encryption, but in many cases, it’s what they call encryption and transit. messages are decrypted on the provider side and stored in its servers. But if someone hacks those don’t take that risk, especially if you’re a big messenger user. And my husband and I message all the time. It’s kind of boring, though. Nothing that’s important. But choose an end to end encryption. That way, even the messaging service provider can’t see your conversations. What app is my understanding has end to end encryption. Note that by default, Facebook Messenger, telegram and Google Allo don’t use end to end encryption. To enable it manually start a secret chat. So those are just a few tips as you are surfing the internet this holiday season and it’s good to do not just for the holidays, but keep your information keep your life private cut down on the robo calls and the spam that you’re getting. take actions from today’s podcast, a attention to your digital footprint. Read any terms and conditions before agreeing to sign up for anything. Log Out of websites. Use sites with an SSL certificate or HTTPS. Consider something like LastPass so you don’t keep using the same password for sites. Update your software regularly. Delete cookies after each session. Create a separate email for online purchases and use a write off phone number. Use a VPN On our next episode we’re talking about why less is more. Go out. Clear your clutter to create the life you choose deserve and desire. When you clear your clutter, you can share your gifts with the world. Sign up for our free newsletter at reawaken your brilliance calm. If you’ve enjoyed clear your clutter inside now, please rate review and share us
Transcribed by https://otter.ai