The National Cybersecurity Alliance has named January 27-31, 2025 as Data Privacy Week. This year’s theme is Take Control of Your Data. Here are a few tips to help navigate all the data you have and how you can protect it:
- Make informed decisions about sharing your data with businesses or services.
- Is the service, app, or game worth the amount or type of personal data they want in return?
- Can you control your data privacy and still use the service? Identify in your account what is being shared and the options you have to limit the sharing.
- Is the data requested even relevant for the app or service (e.g. ‘why does a Solitaire game need access to all of my contacts’)?
- If you haven’t used an app, service, or account in several months, is it worth keeping around knowing that it might be collecting and sharing your data?
- Create unique passwords for each account and device to help keep data more secure. Research and identify a quality password manager to help store that information in a secure way.
- Use multifactor authentication (MFA) wherever it’s permitted – this keeps your data safer even if your password is compromised.
- Turn on automatic device, software, and browser updates, or make sure you install updates as soon as they are available. Updates always have security enhancements built in to keep data safer.
- Don’t fall for phishing messages, which can be sent as emails, texts, or direct messages. These many times look real and try to convince you to tap a link, download a document, or reply. Stay alert!
For parents interested in discussing data privacy tips with your students, here are some Common Sense Media Family Tips, by grade level of the student.
Being aware of who and how your data is being shared is the first step in Taking Control of Your Data!