Cybersecurity: the misuse of our personal data.

For many companies our personal data is of great value; even without knowing it. Let’s learn about cyber security and how to protect our privacy.

Every day we upload millions of personal files to the Internet, from documents, images, photographs; or simply information stolen without our consent. Although in general; we think that when we upload our information, it is only stored there on the servers, in many cases on social networks; also, to storing them we also sell our information, mostly to companies that are dedicated to analyzing and making statistics, to sell them later to advertising and marketing companies; so the intervention of cybersecurity in this aspect is indispensable.

So it is a much more complicated process than you can imagine; moreover, it is thanks to this sale of our information that many of these social networks have made millionaire profits; so we can conclude that although these social networks offer a free service, in the end, we end up paying with our data; for this reason, learn about cybersecurity and what it entails.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is an issue that every day becomes more important to us; at this time and thanks to technological advances, many software and programs offer us to keep our devices and our data protected; also, every day a new way is developed to make our information vulnerable.

That is why we must learn how to efficiently protect our information and devices and basically; this is what cybersecurity is all about; which defends our data from any malicious attack, and this is not only focused on social networks. Cybersecurity is in charge of protecting our information on the devices we use; whether they are PCs or Smartphones, online servers, electronic systems and among others.

Without cybersecurity, there are always consequences…

There are many aspects in which cybersecurity can help us; such as preserving the security of your data and personal information; and that is that the theft of our information can come from anywhere, not just from a hacker. We can connect to a public network and there our data is stolen, or we leave the door open to spyware or malware through carelessness.

Besides; our electronic system can be vulnerable, and this can make it easy for someone with advanced knowledge to enter and steal valuable information from us. As is often the case, passwords, personal data; and even bank details are stolen through phishing.

That’s why; even if you have the best antivirus software, or simply believe you are protected against any risk; it is important to always think about the threat to your information, and that’s why you should always know the best way to protect yourself thanks to cyber security.

Personal information and cybersecurity

We can define it as data or personal information that allows and belongs to a specific person; also, can be considered those data as personal characteristics or our routine; data about what we do daily, where we go and the activities we perform, whether public or private.

Also; for those persons or companies that are dedicated to the collection of our data, in many cases, it is to have our private information that they are most interested in. Although in most cases, in social networks, people openly publish their tastes, preferences, and/or ideologies. However; many people also prefer to have this data private, and that is when in many cases this data is stolen without our consent.

In many cases; our data is collected and used in some way to know our tastes and preferences. However; social networks use all kinds of personal information they can get from us, from data about our employment or profession, physical characteristics such as our features, ethnicity and/or anatomy, sexual preference, religious beliefs, and even our biometric data.

Use of our personal data

Today it is more than a fact that our information and personal data have acquired value. A value that can be even greater than you can imagine; big enough to be able to pay our fee, for the use of social networks and many Internet pages, that by accepting cookies we allow them to access our information.

Although it may not seem like it; social networks are not as free as you might think, by accessing the conditions and terms of use, we are allowing to sell all our information and content that is uploaded to this network. So this can be considered as our information is our payment method.

Although this data is normally collected to learn more about us as potential customers; we must also be careful about our data, which we share publicly, and our activities or routines; social networks, being a public space, may be publishing all our activities, and our personal life to individuals who want to harm us in any way, and without even knowing it.

Social networks and personal data

For many people; although they know that their personal data is used by websites or social networking companies; they are unaware of where this information goes and who acquires it or how it is used. Generally, the use of our data is protected by laws and legal regulations; which help us and act as a tool to protect our privacy.

Similarly; we must take into account that although almost 60% of the pages do not reveal where they keep the information, much of it belongs to their consumers; is used mainly for internal purposes, ie to know the behavior of users regarding your page, so they can know if there is any aspect, that is simply not generating the expected impact; and thus be able to improve constantly.

following this idea; although many people do not agree with the use of their data, this is not a new practice. For a long time user data has been acquired to improve your site or web page; moreover, although some social networks such as Facebook or Instagram, threaten in one way or another the privacy of subscribers, they have little capacity to do with our information.

In conclusion today it is quite common that every website we visit may in some way or another, request the use of our personal information, so if we want to maintain our privacy as much as possible, the best option is to maintain high measures of cybersecurity and avoid sharing both on websites and social networks our personal information.