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6.3 Other Actions You Can Take

to Protect Your Privacy

If you want to use all the wonderful opportunities on the Internet to learn, shop, connect with
family and friends, and share your ideas with people around the world, you must accept some
loss of privacy. For example, if you want to make an online purchase, you must enter your
credit card information into a website.

Millions of people purchase goods and services online, do their banking online, post photos of
their family, and do a multitude of other things on the web every day with no problems. How
do they use the Internet and still protect their privacy and their most sensitive personal infor-
mation—such as their Social Security number, bank account and credit card numbers, log-in
identifications, and passwords—from unauthorized people and organizations? The answer is
by taking simple, basic precautions, some of which are listed here.

• On the home page of the browsers you use, search the settings or menu for “Safety,”
“Privacy,” or “Preferences” to locate instructions to modify the degree of privacy you
want for Internet browsing or the type of content you will accept from a website.
• Download programs only from websites you trust. If you are not sure, search the
name of the program on the web to see if anyone has reported it contains spyware
or is a scam.
• Always read all the security warnings, license agreements, and privacy statements
included with any software you download; make sure you can accept all conditions.

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