The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team offers the following tips for protecting privacy:
- Review a websites privacy policy before submitting name, email or other personal information. Check to make sure the website won’t share your information with third parties.
- Check for evidence of encryption. Look for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Hypertext Transport Protocol Secure (https) with a lock icon in the corner of the window to indicate encryption.
- Don’t use your primary email address in online submissions. Consider maintaining a secondary email address for online use which will reduce spam to your main account.
- Avoid submitting credit card information online.
- Keep one credit card for online purchases. This will minimize the danger of a main credit card being compromised.
- Don’t use debit cards for online purchases. Debit cards do not offer the same protection as credit cards.
- Choose options to limit exposure of information. Don’t store credit card numbers or passwords.