How To Overcome Online Spying? Here Are Some Tips And Tricks

Online spying and snooping is a situation that may be once unknown to people, but not anymore. We all have concluded that we all are being spied on. 

This spying may be by our Internet Service Provider (ISP), the government, or by the hackers or spies over the internet that are always on the lookout to grab any data they can easily collect for their advantage. This is exactly why so many people use VPNs these days. You can easily overcome online spying by using a trustworthy VPN like NordVPN. A VPN is a good tool to mask your online presence, get to know more about NordVPN in its full review.

According to Statista’s cybercrime report, a total of 1001 data breach cases were reported in the United States in 2020. This number is way higher in 2021. 

But, spying and data storage are not limited to hackers and spies. Even the biggest tech giants have acknowledged this game and have turned it into a big advertising business of their own.

If this information is generally unknown to you, then you need to know that the biggest tech giant, Google, spies on all users across the world and collects their data without consent. Then, it sells all that data to third party advertisers, who, in turn, generate fake identities of uses to target clusters through personalized ads.

This is precisely how you see advertisements of, for example, shoes if you searched for them earlier. You may consider it magic, but it’s all one illegal business at the back that one needs to be aware of.

This data collection is not limited to Google. Every other giant is doing the same, be it Apple, Android, TikTok, or more. If all this information doesn’t raise your concern, then we have no idea what will. But, let’s give you a reason to take care of your online privacy.

Why should I take care of my online privacy?

Why is this a question? I mean, the question should be, why shouldn’t you take care of your online privacy? The idea of being snooped and spied over is scary. Imagine your data, including your location, IP address, even your bank details, is stored by someone, and somehow all this information may or may not be used against you.

With technology evolving every day and spies becoming more powerful each day, you need to keep yourself completely secure and protected over the internet. You need to take the appropriate steps mentioned below for this. 

Tips to protect my data from being spied on

1. Avoid public wifis:

The first thing you need to remember when it comes to your privacy is staying completely away from the public wifi. You’re highly vulnerable to being spied on when it comes to public wifi. In this case, please avoid it. If you have no other choice than to use it, try to connect yourself to a VPN while using public wifi. This will ensure your protection and keep you safe over the internet. Also, avoid sharing data that includes sensitive information like your bank details and social security number on public wifi.

2. Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN):

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is one highly effective way to keep your data completely encrypted when it comes to protecting yourself against online data breaches and spying. 

A VPN offers the most secure connection and encrypts all your data, preventing it from being spied on by hackers, your ISP, and the government. A VPN also masks your identity by changing your IP address to an IP of one of their servers. This way, it confuses websites and hackers and lets them collect the wrong information. 

It also creates an encrypted tunnel between you and the website you visit so no one can snoop in and collect any information or activity.

We recommend NordVPN for this. NordVPN offers over 5500 servers globally for users to connect to. They also provide some fantastic security features like a zero-logs policy, a kill switch, split tunneling, and more to keep users completely protected.

3. Avoid browser extensions:

If you didn’t know, browser extensions are one significant type of spies you need to avoid. These extensions track you everywhere over the internet and monitor all your internet activity. They also collect most of your sensitive information discreetly, like your IP address, name, location, bank balance, passwords, etc. 

All this information is then used against you. So, to keep yourself protected over the internet, avoid any kinds of browser extensions. If an extension is essential for you, then do go through its privacy policy and permissions before downloading it on your browser. Stay aware of what they’re going to collect from you before it’s too late.

4. Use private search engines:

Private browsers are yet again one effective way to stay secure over the internet. As we mentioned above, Google collects all your data and sells it to third-party advertisers. To avoid this from happening, you need to switch your browser. 

Yes, Google is one top search engine and is widely used by everyone in the world. But this doesn’t change the fact that Google collects data from all users in the world just for its digital advertising business. 

You need to shift to a more private search engine that would not store any data and restrict websites from collecting cookies. These search engines include DuckDuckGo, StartPage, Search Encrypt, and more.

These private search engines do not offer the fantastic interface and results as Google does, but they do offer the best privacy. I mean, the choice is all yours then.

5. Avoid phishing emails and links:

Phishing links are one of the easiest ways to target users from getting spied on. These links are designed in a way that makes users curious about opening them. Once opened, the spyware in these links collects user data and information quickly. 

So, before getting curious about links and clicking them without a second thought, please remember that they could collect all your sensitive information. These links can also be used to hack your device. Being vigilant around these kinds of emails and links is the only way to stay protected over the internet.

Conclusion:

Following are some of the most effective tips to avoid getting spied over the internet. In the 21st century, you need to be extremely careful about your data. You need to keep all your activity hidden and stay unidentified over the internet. A VPN is the best way to do so.