While Congress discusses the issue of privacy and determines the path to a national standard on data collection and storage, there are simple things you can do now to better protect your information while using your mobile device(s).
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a critical and trusted resource for information on your communication choices, and privacy is no exception. Public Wi-Fi, the FCC notes, is one area to be cognizant of, as hackers may be able to access your connection and your content: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/how-protect-yourself-online
Using public Wi-Fi is tempting. As an example, check out this experiment conducted at the 2016 Republican and Democratic National Conventions that enticed users to join “free” (and fake) public Wi-Fi networks. Seventy percent of the people who joined the public networks unwittingly exposed their identities.
Here are some more steps the FCC recommends you take to minimize the risk:
- Adjust your smartphone’s settings so it does not automatically connect to nearby Wi-Fi networks. This gives you more control over where and when you connect.
- When transmitting sensitive information, using your cellphone data plan instead of Wi-Fi may be more secure.
- Make sure all websites you exchange information with have “https” at the beginning of the web address. If so, your transmitted data will be encrypted.
Click the link below for what you need to know. https://buff.ly/2LYQo6R
