With everyone carrying around all their most important details in their pockets, cybersecurity is more important than ever. The consequences of not taking cybersecurity seriously, even in your phone can be catastrophic. Accessing your data can lead to crimes like doxing, stalking, identity theft and more. If you want to avoid those problems, take a look at our suggestions for how to keep your phone and your data safe.
The Right to Be Forgotten
The Right to Be Forgotten is part of the GDPR privacy laws and says that everyone has the right to be erased from the internet. However, as you might imagine, this is easier said than done. Every website you access, every app you open, every action you take online is being recorded in some way. The use of this data ranges from the capitalist like marketing purposes to the dangerous to society like political propaganda or personally dangerous like mistakes made on social media endangering your career.
Services like Incogni offer users the chance to erase themselves from the internet. By taking control of your personal data, you can remove your personal details and data from as many sources as they can find.
Fintech crime: fraud and theft
Unfortunately, in this brave new world of digital dependence, there are numerous ways in which a bad apple can use your smartphone to take advantage of you. The most common of these include fintech crimes like hacking into public Wi-Fi to gain access to your online banking app. Installing a VPN will offer you some protection when you log into public Wi-Fi. Other ways hackers get into your bank account is with malware or phishing, so an anti-virus software would be a good help there.
The most common is identity theft, and when all of the most and least important details of your life are saved in apps and accounts, it’s easy to see how fintech criminals can easily pretend to be you.
Doxing and stalking
But the problem there is that fintech crime is only one way people can get to you via your phone. With location services and our culture’s inherent need to tell everyone where we are at all times, we’re very susceptible to doxing or stalking. A VPN can help when it comes to hiding your location as it will change your IP address to disguise where you are. However, you might want to also go through your apps and website subscriptions and be sure that location services are turned off if you’re worried about someone tracking you.
Conclusion
Nowadays, you’ll hear that personal data is more valuable than gold, and that’s true. Marketers want to use your data to better understand their customers, but, as we are about to discuss, marketers are not the only ones who value your personal data. Whether they’re after your money, your identity, your job or your vote, the key to getting it is personal data. If you value your privacy and security, you might want to think about installing some of these smartphone security measures.
