In observation of Congress’ recognition of National Data Privacy Day on January 28, many companies are taking part in activities to help consumers like you increase their awareness of why data privacy is important and what they can do to help ensure that they protect their own data. Microsoft Corporation, MySpace and others are spotlighting the event with a live panel discussion at San Francisco Public Library and with serveral online features.
Online privacy and what you can do has been a confusing topic for people, so a good starting place is to take the “My Privacy” online quiz. By answering a few questions about how you do things online the quiz will help you determine your Privacy Personality and then provide you with a few tips to help keep your personal data secure.
Microsoft also has a list of Privacy Protection tips that will help anyone improve their privacy in just 30 minutes. These tips can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/protect. They include using an Internet firewall and security software, using an anti-virus program, and installing software to protect yourself from spyware. But even if you have these tools, education is the key to knowing how to use them effectively. You have to be an active participant to protect your privacy online, all the tools in the world can’t do anything without you.
In a study comissioned by Microsoft for Data Privacy Day, researchers found that although people are concerned about protecting online privacy, they typically have a surface understanding of privacy and the threats they may face online. While many participants disclosed that they take basic precautionary measures such as using spam filters, deleting cookies and installing antivirus software, they do not truly understand the privacy decisions they make or the threats they encounter on a daily basis. Microsoft has provided a video to help educate consumers about internet security at http://www.microsoft.com/security/privacy/default.mspx
Click play to hear Dave Forstrom, Group Manager of Online Safety at Microsoft
Yesterday we talked over the phone with Dave and he shared with us what will be going on today with Data Privacy Day event, shares with us some of the interesting points from the study about how different age group’s think about privacy and how Microsoft’s ongoing Trustworthy Computing initiative works to educate consumers on how to be safe online.
Run Time 12:49
