By 
Back in the early days of the Internet, the founders had a lot of problems to overcome – small bandwidth, weak hardware, lack of standards etc., but privacy wasn’t one of them. Fast forward 20 or so years and it’s suddenly a big issue; so big in fact that Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently suggested changing your name as a viable way to erase your past online misdeeds. Creepy as that idea may be, there’s some truth to it – one day your trail of online information may inconvenience you so much that you’ll have to change your name just to get away from yourself (literally). But for most of us, that day could never come – if we’re careful with our online information and take a few small steps to keep our info private. Here’s 10 tips on how to keep your online privacy intact – please disregard if your surname is Hilton, Kardashian or Bin Laden:
1. Use strong passwords
Many people’s idea of a password is their date of birth, license plate or pet name – others pick the perennial 12345678 or qwerty, or 1234qwerty. In a nutshell : don’t – these are the first things a password cracker will try. The strongest passwords are over 8 characters long and contain both numbers and letters (and even symbols).
If you’re at a loss when it comes to selecting a password, here’s a simple system i use: i take a regular word and make a numeric code from it using the letters on a cellphone keyboard. For example, finestdaily becomes 34637832459. Use that system for a word of your choice and then append the word itself at the start or end of the code. While your license plate may be easy to guess, mary6279 isn’t. This also works great if you have to remember a numeric code (ex. Credit card pin number) – just make up a word using the letters in it and remember that.
2. Never give out more info than necessary
Many websites and online services ask you for a lot of personal info, ostensibly to “provide a better service to our customers” – that usually translates to “advertise stuff to you based on what we know about you”. When asked for personal info, only fill out the required fields; if you’re only doing this to get access to some one-time content, consider using fictional information – you may thank yourself later.
3. Change your security and privacy settings
This is a simple, but often overlooked step. Whenever you use a new program (instant messenger, browser, e-mail client) or website (Facebook, anyone?), remember to always configure your privacy and security settings. These may mean the difference between the whole planet having access to your personally identifiable information or it being restricted to a few close friends.
4. Secure your wi-fi
Remember Google Street View and how it collected private data from unsecured wi-fi networks? Well, anyone with a laptop can do that- in fact it’s called “wardriving” in the hacker community. Keep your wireless connection unsecured (or keep the default password on your router) and anyone with a list of default router factory passwords has access to your computer and all data on it. Or give it a strong password and watch evildoers slither away in frustration.
5. Once it’s online, you can’t control it
This applies to both personal information and photo/video. As Barbara Streisand, Paris Hilton and many others have found out, if it gets online, it’s impossible to contain. So be careful – that photo of you partying wildly can be seen by your mom (who you were supposed to visit that evening) and that video of you skiing during a sick leave can be seen by your boss. Treat every photo and video that you send to someone as if you’re releasing it to the entire world.
6. Don’t forget to log out
If you surf a lot from a shared computer (library, school, work or even a friend’s place) don’t forget to log out from websites, instant messengers and your e-mail. Even if you close the program or browser window, it may log you in automatically unless you log out – giving the next person who uses the machine access to your accounts.
7. Keep a tiered password system
If you want to keep truly safe, one password isn’t enough nowadays. Remember at least three passwords (i use five) and use them in tiers – one for your personal e-mail and for that only; the second one for an alternate e-mail, instant messaging, your social networking website account and a third one (or a variation on the second one) for less used and one-time websites. That way, if one of your passwords gets cracked, it won’t affect the security of your more important accounts.
8. Use a second e-mail
If you don’t want to be overrun with spam, avoid putting your email out there for the world to see. Instead, use a second email for all the little trivial things that you sign up for once and forget about afterward. That’ll help you keep your primary email’s inbox spam-free.
9. Don’t associate personal information
In some instances, giving out your phone number may be reasonable (a Craigslist ad). In others, giving out your name might be reasonable (a wedding announcement). But putting both together can be disastrous.
Let me give you a personal example: a girl i’d met through a friend gave me her IM id, which was actually “her name_her surname”. I chatted with her online for an hour or so and during that time i googled her id and found an old ad (in Google Cache) she’d placed online that contained her phone number. When we finished chatting, i SMS’d her wishing her good night – she called back 30 seconds later half outraged half amazed (we ended up going out).
While this is a benign example, it’s also a cautionary tale – if you leave a personally identifiable piece of info online, a determined bad guy can use it to find some other info and then use that to find even more info and so on. Make sure you don’t leave information online that can be connected to form a trail to your front door.
10. Be very careful with social networks
Bosses using social networking sites to spy on employees, burglars using them to find out when the owners of a house are on vacation and wives finding out about girlfriends – all of those things have happened to people because they weren’t careful what they posted on social networks. One way to avoid this is maintaining a courtroom mindset – anything you post on your profile can and WILL be used against you – if in doubt, don’t post at all, or don’t use your real name on your profile.
So here they are – 10 essential tips about keeping safe and secure online. You might have noticed most of these suggestions are about mistakes – and how to avoid them. However, if you need to go a step beyond privacy and ensure online anonymity, there is a way – check out these 5 essential online anonymity tools.