How To Protect Your Privacy In 2021

Data privacy has become more important than ever in 2021. Our news preferences, political beliefs, and shopping habits are collected and processed to form your digital footprint.

This information is then turned against you and used to sell you things, manipulate your beliefs, and colour your political ideals. While this may sound like something out of George Orwell’s 1984, the truth is much scarier

In 2018, the New York Times reported that British consulting firm; Cambridge Analytica built voter profiles and sold voter profiles to the U.S government. Using data gathered from Facebook (FB), the company was able to develop psychological profiles of potential voters in order to manipulate their decisions.

Even scarier still is the fact that the world’s most popular social media apps; Instagram and Whatsapp are owned by the world’s largest social media company Facebook. If that does not sound like consolidation, we don’t know what is.

So, is it actually possible to keep anything a secret nowadays? Read on as we show you how to keep your data safe in 2021.

 

1. Avoid oversharing anything on social media

As we’ve outlined above, social media sites like Facebook are a veritable goldmine of information.

That comment you left on a political page? The news article that you shared?

Yup, all of that was already likely recorded and filed somewhere. The information that Facebook gathered from those interactions will be used to show you targeted ads and news articles.

This doesn’t mean that you should give up on social media. Far from it actually. Social media is a great way to stay connected with family and friends.

Just remember to not overshare anything. Things such as political beliefs, family pictures, and employment information are a big no-no. Even if Big Brother isn’t watching, an employer doing a background check on you could easily find that angry comment that you left the other day.

Instead, stick to cat pictures, music, and funny articles. There’s not much anyone can do to you if they found out your secret love for U2.

 

2. Use cryptocurrency for online transactions

Scammers are a dime a dozen nowadays and are always on the lookout for an easy mark. Thanks to the connectivity offered by the internet, we do almost everything online.

From paying bills to booking vacations, online banking has been a godsend. However, it’s not without its fair share of problems.

For starters, payments made via online bank transfers are not anonymous. Your data could be easily intercepted and tracked by a savvy hacker looking to take advantage of you.

Additionally, banks are a popular target for hackers - which makes them notoriously prone to data breaches. In the event of such an attack, your banking details could very easily be stolen and your money siphoned out.

Besides the unscrupulous decisions made by countless bank executives, you should also never place your trust in a bank’s security system.

Instead, keep your transactions private by switching to cryptocurrencies. Cryptos like Dash and Monero were designed with privacy and security in mind. They allow you to send and receive payments in secrecy without having to worry about data breaches.

Check out what are the most crypto friendly banks here.
 

3. Switch to a private messenger

Whatsapp has grown to quickly become one of the world’s largest instant messenger apps services. It allows for near instant communication from anywhere around the world and can be used to send messages and images easily.

However it should be noted that Whatsapp is owned by Facebook - a company with dubious privacy policies. Recent changes to Whatsapp’s privacy policy has sparked concerns that our Whatsapp messages could be read by Facebook.

Given the unquantifiable amount of information processed daily, it’s easy to see why companies and governments would love to get their hands on such information.

Rather than handing over your information on a plate, you can always choose to switch to a private messenger app like Signal or BeeChat. Beechat in particular is a decentralized messenger service that scrambles your data and makes it impossible to track.

Additionally, both Signal and BeeChat have incorporated digital wallets that allow you to store and make payments with cryptocurrency.

It is clear to see that our personal data and private information are regularly stolen and used by governments and various third parties. This is unlikely to change anytime soon which is why we need to take steps to better protect ourselves.