May 4 through May 10 is Privacy Awareness Week (PAW), an initiative of the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA) held every year to promote awareness of privacy issues and the importance of the protection of personal information. To commemorate this week, we would like to share a few of our favorite privacy resources.
To highlight the importance of personal privacy, APPA recently released an infographic on the topic. The infographic shows how technology has changed over the years and the privacy risks across the Asia Pacific Region. APPA also provides an online test that looks at identity theft situations to see how aware you are about identity theft risks. The overall assessment shows how exposed you are to identity theft and offers tips along the way.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) teamed up with APPA this week to talk about why privacy matters, and offers tips, for both individuals and businesses, on how to protect your personal information in today’s digital world. The FTC’s Privacy and Identity topic page offers privacy and identity topics on how to: limit unwanted calls and emails, protect your computer, talk to kids about online safety, protect your identity and repair identity theft.
Earlier this year, we celebrated Data Privacy Day, an international effort hosted by StaySafeOnline.org to help educate people on the importance of protecting their privacy and controlling their digital footprint. We nod our heads in agreement with their privacy tips to stay secure online:
Secure your devices. Set passcodes or pass phrases to be sure only you can access your smartphone, tablet or PC.
Secure your accounts. In addition to passwords, enable two-factor authentication to add another layer of security.
Make passwords long, strong and unique. Passwords should be different for each account, have as many characters as allowed and include numbers, symbols and letters, capital and lowercase.
Think before you app. Before downloading a mobile app, understand what information the app accesses to function, including location.
Back it up. Store digital copies of your valuable work, music, photos and other information on an external hard drive or online cloud.
What are you doing to protect your privacy on a day to day basis? Let us know on Twitter and Facebook, and be sure to check out our Tumblr for the latest industry news stories.