Privacy, Online and Off

     When it comes to digital privacy, it becomes very hard to determine how safe I feel online. There are good sides to this like two factor authentication, to ensure your information to an account is safe. But that also means giving this company your information... so am I really that safe online? It very much affects me because now that my information is out there, there is so much that people can do with it. They could change your name, address, birthdate, the possibilities are endless as long as you keep giving them information.

    Because the safety of online privacy is unclear, I think the government should strictly outline what information companies are allowed to ask for. Asking for some information is ok, but I think that companies and organizations are getting way too personal, especially online. There is not a clear reason as to why the government allows this, and even does this in multiple instances. Having all this information hoarded for other people to use as they wish is very dangerous, and the government should regulate this to make it so that innocent people aren't worrying for their lives

Now this sounds all sort of scary...

    And yeah. It really is scary, knowing that your personal information is not safe and can be used against you at any time. However, there are protective measures we can take to defend us against this invasion of privacy. One of the easiest things you can do is be aware of the kind of information companies want to steal from you. Are they asking too much from you? (the answer is usually yes). If they ask for your information, claiming they are using your it to curate "a better experience", that's their secret code of "say goodbye to your rights buddy". Companies just use that information to share it with other companies in the form of advertising. In other words, you really are not safe if you allow that kind of information sharing to happen. So it is very important that you take important steps such as these to ensure not only that your data is safe, but that you are safe too.