January 28 marks Privacy Day. This year it holds special relevance due to the growth in internet consumption, which has led to an increase in cybercrimes that have endangered our privacy.

What phenomena have occurred that have caused this risk to our privacy?

• Within the business sector, home confinement has forced companies to adopt aspects such as remote work and cloud computing. Many of them are making this leap to the cloud without implementing preventive cybersecurity measures.
• The integration of virtual classes, distance learning, and the use of digital platforms have caused a before and after in the Spanish education system, such that it will probably never return to what we knew before the pandemic. Here too, the use of unprotected Wi-Fi networks, unsecured video conferencing tools, etc., causes our privacy to be exposed.
• E-commerce sales in Spain have positioned us as the third fastest-growing market in the world throughout this past year. However, this also leads to a substantial increase in cyber scams: Banking faces billions in losses from internet fraud, whose combat is addressed through technological advances but limited law enforcement resources.
• Streaming platforms have experienced a genuine revolution: according to a recent GECA report (Audiovisual Communication Studies Office), Netflix’s penetration is now 67.3% in Spanish households. This boom has also been exploited by cybercriminals, launching phishing campaigns impersonating the identity of companies such as Netflix or Amazon to defraud users.

The fact is that our internet consumption time made 2020 the greatest year of internet consumption in history.

However, this also means we are losing a significant portion of our privacy. There is increasingly more of our personal data uploaded to the network. Passwords, email addresses, mobile phone numbers, postal addresses, bank card numbers, contact lists, more personal information published on social media… etc.

The risk of suffering a data loss or breach, of our information being exposed online and potentially stolen by cybercriminals, is greater than ever.

Given this paradigm shift, and on the occasion of Internet Privacy Day, we offer you 10 tips + 1 to keep your privacy protected this 2021:

1. Enable two-factor authentication on all platforms or online services you use and properly configure security parameters: your email accounts, social media, video or music streaming accounts, etc.
2. Keep all your applications updated: when there is an app update, most of the time it is to correct a detected security vulnerability; while you do not update it, your data could be exposed.
3. Be careful with the applications you download, especially those that request access to your data. Check the reviews and the developer’s reliability. There are applications that disguise themselves as trustworthy ones and seek to steal your credentials.
4. Use secure and different passwords for each service: imagine if you used a single master key to open the door to your home, your vehicle, your summer house, your gym locker… Certainly convenient, but quite dangerous if it gets stolen, don’t you think?
5. Pay attention when using electronic devices that are not yours. The library computer, the digital television in a hotel to open your Netflix account, the work computer… always log out, you do not know who will connect next…
6. Watch out for public Wi-Fi: ALWAYS use a paid VPN connection (this is important). If you decide not to use a VPN connection, then do not connect to websites containing sensitive information. Such as your online banking, do not use payment apps, avoid connecting to your social media or checking your email. If you do, log out afterward and change passwords.
7. The dangers of geolocation: you probably already understand that you should not share your geolocation in real time. But did you know that your photos hide invisible metadata? That in addition to revealing your location, they can include data such as elevation, distance, your mobile phone model, and even the name of places like restaurants or stores?
8. Be careful with friend requests from people you do not know and with whom you have no mutual friends. In some cases they are bots, in others scammers, and sometimes people who are mistaken. One must treat with caution someone who adds us without knowing us and with whom we have no mutual friends.
9. Be aware that all content you send or publish online could one day be used against you. As soon as you publish content online, you lose control over it even if you delete it. Hasty work complaints, compromising photos that fall into third parties’ hands…
10. Sexting yes, but safely: this year PantallasAmigas has chosen to focus Privacy Day on this topic, as due to confinement many young people and adults have discovered sexting,

+ 1 tip: Thinking you cannot be hacked because you are not important or because you have nothing to hide.

This is the biggest mistake of all. It is true that relevant individuals, public figures, celebrities… are more exposed and represent a very attractive target for cybercriminals. However, there is another line of business for cybercriminals through which they also obtain significant revenue. By launching a massive attack on all mobile devices and extracting a little from each one. As evidence, consider the massive phishing campaigns or fraudulent SMS messages impersonating companies such as postal services, banking institutions, or mobile phone carriers.

Remember that information is power; the more access and information others have about us, the more vulnerable we will be to them.