In the news, Meta have been fined £265 Million pounds over a data protection breach that hit more than 500m users.

Meta should not be the scapegoat of those worried about misuse of personal data. 4.1 billion records leaked in the first 6 months of 2019 alone. In recent poll of 1,000 US companies, nearly half (45%) claim they have faced a major data breach within the past five years. The situation is unlikely to be less grave anywhere else.

If you are worried about how your personal information can be misused, here are some tips to manage the risk:

1. Reduce your digital footprint by closing unused online and social media accounts
2. Use strong, unique passwords to protect password protected accounts
3. Use a password manager to organise your unique passwords
4. Use multi-factor authentication capability where it is available
5. Avoid clicking on links in emails. Don’t open emails from people you don’t know
6. Secure your wireless network with a strong password
7. Use your mobile data to connect to the internet instead of public Wi-Fi networks
8. Enable remote location and device-wiping of your mobile devices
9. Use anti-virus or anti-malware protection for your mobile devices
10. Customize your social networking privacy settings