The number of remote employees has dramatically risen this year because of the pandemic. Lockdowns were implemented and to better help the containment of the virus, companies decided to allow their employees to work from home. Since working from home has become popular this year, the internet is now swamped with companies and advertisers looking to collect your data.
Since that is the case, you must use appropriate privacy tools and apps to keep your personal information private and secure. If you are working from home, it is also a must that you protect your company’s data and information that you can now access remotely. What you wouldn’t want to happen is for cybercriminals to use all those pieces of information against you and the people you work with. Here are some privacy tools that you can use to protect your privacy online.
Whenever you browse the web from home, cybercriminals can spy on your activity if your network is not encrypted. When trying to change your network settings you may have to find your network security key. This is why you should use a VPN to make sure that you are privately connected to the internet.
Using this tool allows you to access the internet through an encrypted network which makes you protected from cybercriminals as they are prevented from accessing your data and information. Using ExpressVPN’s guide on what is a VPNcan make you aware of why you must use this tool when you’re working at home.
Whenever you browse a webpage, you will be presented with content from different sources. You would see the content of the page itself and, most of the time, ads from ad companies. You would then realize that the ads you see seem to know your browsing habit. To avoid targeted ads, what you can do is install a tool like Privacy Badger.
This tool keeps notes or learns which third-party domains are on the websites that you visit. The tool then looks for tracking techniques and once it finds one, Privacy Badger will then automatically disallow any content from that third-party whenever you visit any website.
It’s always recommended that you only do your business on websites that have an address that starts with HTTPS. This is because a website address that starts with this means that the site is encrypted and your information is then safe and can’t be accessed by anybody.
However, there are still websites that do not do data encryption, and sometimes, you just can’t avoid the need to make transactions on such websites. To keep your data encrypted, you can use a tool called HTTPS Everywhere. This ensures that whenever you browse any website, your data and information will be encrypted.
What you should also keep in mind is that whenever you exchange messages with people online, there is a possibility that these messages can be accessed by random people. This is why it’s best to use secure messaging platforms whenever you want to send people messages, pictures, videos, files, or many more.
Fortunately, you have plenty of options for this like Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram. These messaging platforms allow end-to-end encryption which means that the messages you are sending can only be viewed by the person you sent them to.
It’s unavoidable to have to use passwords on work-related online accounts, and what many still do is that they uniform their passwords with their other personal online accounts. This isn’t recommendable at all. You should always try to use different passwords on your online profiles and accounts so that even if one of your accounts gets hacked, your other accounts are not at risk.
Truly, it’s not easy to keep track and manage multiple passwords, but what you can do is to download a password manager tool like LastPass. This tool helps you create unique and strong passwords for your online accounts. What’s also great about this is that you don’t have to memorize all your passwords anymore as this tool will do that for you.
Conclusion
These are just a few tools that you can use to ensure that you’re working safely at home. These are even tools that you can use whenever you’re browsing for anything online. You must keep your information and identity secured and inaccessible by cybercriminals to avoid being a victim of cybercrimes like fraud and theft of identity. While many websites would promise you secure browsing, it’s still best that you take your steps in ensuring your safety online.
