Basic rules for Surfing Safe, privacy guide
When surfing the web your computer is not the only thing at risk, a crashed or infected computer can be repaired and disinfected. Once personal data gets around on the web you cannot simply 'retrieve' it to the safety of your home, it's out there and will stay out there. A few basic rules to decrease the risk of personal data getting on the web:
- Never give out your adress, phonenumber etcetera
- Also never give out your emailadres, unless you really need to. On the web adspiders are active, those search the web continuously for this format name@provider.extension if you post your email on a forum or website and the spider crawls there, you're done. Your adress is out in the open and you can start receiving spam. If you really have to give out your adress on a website, you can enter it normally in a webform, a mailform, (note, not webforUm, but webform), change the format to something humans can decipher, but automated systems can't. An example, you'r adress is john-doe@aol.com. Change it to NOSPAM-john-doe-NOSPAM@aol.com. Forumreaders will know they have to remove 'nospam-', spiders don't.
- When aksked for personal information on a site, don't give it , NEVER, unless you know you can trust the site
- Don't sign-up to free mailing lists where you're asked for your 'interests' these are spamlists, giving you dozens of commercial mails a week and, usually, spreading your adress to other spammers
- Don't choose unsubscribe in spammails, this will add you to more spamlists, instead of really unsubscribing you
- Scan your computer regularly with, for example, Ad-Aware, to remove cookies