5 Essential Online Safety Tips For Women

The world is a dangerous place for people of the weaker sex – women. Women are always threatened everywhere. Rape, sexual assaults, discrimination in the workplace, and many other crimes that are seemingly not related to gender are issues that women have been facing, and will continue to face. And if you think that women can be safe behind the hood of internet, you have another think coming. Women are also vulnerable to crimes that are committed through the internet. We call these cybercrimes, and they range from hacking of online accounts, leaking of private photos, withholding a woman’s files for ransom, compromising sensitive data such as bank account and other financial information. In surveys, there are more women than men who fall victim to cyber crimes such as those mentioned above. However, this does not mean that women should stop going online. All these online threats against women should not stop them from enjoying the world of internet. Women can still continue posting selfies and private moments, updating their status, shopping online, among others. They just have to exercise some caution, and follow some tips that will enhance their security and privacy. Here are five essential tips for the online safety of women. Following these tips can lessen the risk of being victimized by cyber criminals.

Five Online Safety Tips for Women

Everything you share online has the potential to be seen by other people, even those who are not on your friend list. This could be harmless at a glance, but when the wrong person takes notice and starts stalking you, they can get all the information they need to start harming you. Take heed of the following details before posting anything on social media.

Take advantage of your social media accounts’ privacy settings

Set the privacy of your posts to “Friends only”, but keep in mind that the friends of your friends might still be able to see your posts. Alternatively, you can customize your privacy setting and have your post visible to specific people only. Also, women can do well if they become “choosy” in terms of accepting friend requests. Don’t accept everyone or anyone who sends you a friend request. Make sure that you know the people you are adding in your social media accounts. When using a specific hashtag, bear in mind that the post will be visible to people who will search for that particular hashtag or word.

Be aware of the website or social media’s privacy policy

Check out the privacy policy of Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and other social media platforms you are using, and find out what information they retain, and who has access to this information. Instagram’s privacy policy, for example, accesses a lot of your information such as your email address, phone number, the last time you logged in to your account, and even your other social media accounts, just to name a few. This is also true when creating online accounts for, let’s say, a shopping network or an email account. Make sure you know what information the website accesses and who they share it with. Most of the time, when opening an account, you are given the choice to opt out of sharing more information that is needed.

Turn off geolocation services

When you allow your social media accounts to access your phone’s location, your posts will include the location you are currently at, at the time of posting. Stalkers like this feature very much, while cybercriminals love it. It gives them the idea of where you are. They can locate your home or office address all because of one tiny feature in your phone. The good thing is that you can turn this feature off, especially when you really don’t need it. Perhaps you can turn it on when you are trying to locate a place, but make sure to turn it off by default.  

Remember the basics of privacy and security

The basics of privacy and security are those that are being repeated over and over again by experts, and this includes the following:

• Do not use the same password for all your online accounts. Once someone gets into one online account, he or she can pretty much get into everything if you use the same password.
• Do not use your full name or a portion of your name as the username.
• Do not forget to log off when you are done using the account.
• Do not allow browsers to remember your password.

Hide behind a Virtual Private Network

Not everyone who hides are cowards. Some people only want the ultimate protection against crimes, and the best way to do this is to use a VPN. With the right VPN service provider, women will be completely safe because everything they do online are heavily encrypted. This means that stalkers and hackers would need to decrypt the data packets in order to get hold of your information, which is next to impossible. Even the most expensive and most advanced machine will take thousands of years to decrypt a single data.  

The Bottom Line

Women are reaping the benefits of using the internet. A lot of women have found jobs through the internet, so that they don’t have to go to an office to work. This is very ideal especially to mothers. Some women, on the other hand, have found life partners because of the internet, while some women use the internet for academic or entertainment purposes. The internet has indeed helped women all over the world. With these benefits also come risks and even threats. Women’s privacy and security are being threatened in the internet day by day. Some of these threats are seemingly innocent, such as an admirer stalking the woman he likes. However, some are very dangerous, such as the access and withholding of private photos for ransom. Identity theft and the stealing of financial information have also happened to a lot of women. With the five online safety tips for women that are discussed in this article, these threats are lessened. The ultimate solution to these privacy and security issues is a VPN. You can get a VPN service for as low as $1 per month, and it will be all worth every cent. Hopefully, women will keep these tips in mind while using the internet because as they say, it is better safe than sorry.  

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