The period of love is upon us again! And in the spirit, we would like to remind you that it isn’t always about protecting yourself from both physical and emotional harm, you also need to protect your personal data from privacy related breaches. Here are our top eight data love languages.

1. No need to rush: If you meet someone online, do not be in a hurry to start conversations elsewhere. A scammer always wants to rush you off the platform to prevent you from having proof of when they requested and/or you sent your sensitive personal data to them.
2. Beware of catfishing and identity theft: In this era of online dating, there are many people online claiming to be who they are not. It is important to be vigilant of who you chat with online. If you notice anything unusual about the person you are chatting with, you can carry out some investigation such as a reverse image google search. Identity theft on the other hand is where ones identity is stolen to perpetrate fraud using Personally Identifiable Information such as credit and Bank details, passwords, passport numbers, birth and death certificates, telephone numbers, etc. On stealing your identity, it can be used to carry out all sorts of fraud that might put the actual owner in trouble. One way to prevent this is by having numerous passwords for your different social media accounts.
3. Hide your location: Your location can easily be tracked online. This can pose serious data breaches as well as security issues for you. It is important to take preventive measure to ensure your location is not all over the internet. You can adjust necessary settings on your browsers such as Safari, Firefox etc. to hide your location. The photos you post on the internet can also give you off. You can avoid this by removing EXIF from your photos.
4. We don’t like strange links and attachments: Be careful about clicking strange links and attachments sent to you online. These may be phishing attacks whereby a fake website is made to look like an existing or genuine one, to gather your personal details, such as your username, passwords, credit card details, credentials etc. On obtaining data like username and passwords, they can also have access to your other accounts because many people repeat usernames and passwords on their numerous accounts.
5. Webcams: Be careful who you have video calls with online. Anyone can record your videos without your consent and make use it for ulterior motives. Webcams can also be accessed when the laptop is on sleep/hibernation, instead you can just switch them off when not in use. Cybercriminals can have access to your webcam when your laptop is not in use and you can be recorded even without willingly having a video call with anyone. You can cover your webcam and mask your microphone when not in use to avoid any privacy breach issues.
6. Financial Protection: If you are not sure about them, do not send or receive money from them. Do not share your Bank account details, credit card details or other financial information with them. You might even need to reconfirm with people you already know! You do not want to lose money or have people steal your identity.
7. We want you to protect your personal information: Do not share personal information such as date of births, surnames, home address etc with strangers online. The basics are enough.
8. Report any issue: If you find out that your data has been breached, it is important to report it to the online platform company or the necessary authorities. It is also important for online platform companies to inform individuals whenever they notice their data was breached through their platform. This way damage control can be done on time, and the perpetrator can be traced.

People have more access to your personal data and your privacy is out there more than you will ever want to admit. You don’t have to be the smartest tech person to take the simplest steps in making sure that your privacy is protected anytime you visit the online world!