I'm sure by now everyone has heard about the recent British Government lapse in attention to detail with the loss of some 25 Million UK citizen details becoming 'lost' in the ever so reliable postal service. There are some people who think the internet is not such a safe place to shop because their identity can be 'stolen' and used illegally, but surely this recent mis-hap by the British Government highlights even further how vunerable we really are without ever going near a computer.Consumers who are thinking of buying this coming seasons Christmas Presents can be sure, their details will be kept safe if they follow a few simple steps.
1. Check that you have in the address bar of the web browser https and not a http (this indicates you are in a secure session and usually high levels of encryption are provided so you can be sure your details are scrambled so they do not make sense to anyone but the web site you are entering them on, once you have entered them).
2. Check you have the padlock symbol in the bottom of your web browser window. Usually the style you would probbaly use on your shed to keep it locked when not using it.
3. Check your privacy options and see who is monitoring you. Web browsers will report what technologies are watching what you are doing. In IE (Internet Explorer), go to View, Web Page Privacy Report and look at the Summary.
Also, be aware of pop up windows. It a site uses lots of pop up windows (usually more than one at a time), I tend to leave the site as that indicates something called spyware where someone somewhere is capturing your details if ever clicked on. You do not want spyware to remain on your computer as this is how some sites can capture more personal details over time (i.e. your email address, telephone number, credit card details and more).
You can usually download popular and free anti-spyware tools from the internet. Just go to your favourite search engine and type in 'Antispyware' to get more information; Google UK returns over 11 Million search results in 0.11seconds...Impressive!
