Reduce Your Digital Footprint: 3 Steps to Stay Safe Online | RBC Royal Bank

Your Digital Footprint: A Growing Concern

Over the years, you’ve likely opened dozens of accounts – for banking, investments, shopping, social media, travel rewards, and more. You’ve downloaded apps, saved payment information, and logged into accounts on multiple devices. Collectively, the websites you visit, searches you make, and social media interactions create a digital trace of your online activity.

By adopting simple habits and performing regular maintenance, you can reduce your digital footprint and significantly complicate the task for fraudsters attempting to access your personal or financial information. Here’s how: enhance the credentials and passwords you use, redefine your digital habits, and remove what you no longer need.

Enhance: Strengthen the Accounts You Currently Use

One of the most effective ways to protect yourself online is to strengthen the accounts you already use.

• Update Your Passwords: Make it a habit to periodically reset your passwords, starting with your most key accounts – bank accounts, email accounts, and social media accounts. Opt for strong, unique passwords: 12 characters or more, combining letters, numbers, and symbols. Don’t reuse the same login credentials for multiple accounts. If one password is compromised, unique credentials prevent a domino effect.

• Activate Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Enable 2FA on all accounts that offer it, especially your bank accounts, email accounts, and social media accounts. Most platforms allow you to easily configure this option in the security settings. This adds an extra verification step, such as sending a one-time passcode to your phone. Even if a scammer obtains your password, it will be much harder for them to access your account. As IBM explains, 2FA requires two proofs of identity, like a password and a code from an authenticator app.

• Keep Your Contact Information Current: Ensure your financial institutions have the correct phone number and email address. Account alerts are only useful if they reach you.

• Activate Fraud Alerts for Online Banking: With a fraud alert, you receive a text message for any attempted transaction through your bank account, debit card, or credit card. This could be a particularly high amount, occurring in a location where you aren’t supposed to be, or from a merchant that doesn’t match your usual spending habits. Once you receive the text, you simply reply to approve or deny the transaction.

• Install Software Updates: These update notifications can seem annoying, but they often contain critical security patches. Keeping your devices updated helps close security loopholes targeted by fraudsters.

Enhancing your digital security doesn’t require hours of work, but it can greatly strengthen your most important entry points.

Redefine: Rethink Your Daily Digital Habits

Scammers exploit human habits, such as quick clicks, oversharing on social media, and the belief that “it won’t happen to me.” By redefining certain common activities, you can significantly improve your overall digital security.

Here are some habits to adopt:

• Your Privacy Settings: Take the time to review your privacy settings on social media. Limit access to your birthdate, contact information, workplace details, and travel plans. Fraudsters can gather publicly accessible information to craft convincing messages.

• Your Sharing Approach: It’s natural to desire to share exciting events, vacations, and celebrations online. But, posting travel plans in real-time can indicate your home is empty. Similarly, sharing personal information (like your dog’s name or birthday) can provide clues for security questions. To reduce your exposure, consider posting after you’ve returned from your trip.

• Device Security: Enable strong PINs or biometric locks on your phone, tablet, and laptop. Activate the “Find My Device” feature so you can lock or wipe it remotely if it’s lost or stolen, protecting sensitive information.

• Response Time: Scams thrive on a sense of urgency. A message informing you your account is locked or a package is delayed aims to prompt you to act quickly. When something seems urgent, don’t rush: log in to your account from a bookmarked website or official app instead of clicking a link. Thinking is one of the most effective security tools you have.

You can’t prevent all scam attempts, but you can become a harder target by taking a few precautions.

Remove: Reduce Unnecessary Exposure

Over time, digital clutter accumulates. Between traditional accounts you haven’t used in years, apps you downloaded only once, and devices sitting in a drawer with stored information, your digital vulnerability increases.

Here are some tactics that can help:

• Delete Unused Accounts: If you no longer use an online store, subscription service, or social media platform, consider closing the account. The less personal information you store online, the less data there is to exploit.

• Delete Unused Apps: Some apps request access to all your contacts, location, or photos when you first download them. It’s easy to click “Allow” without thinking. If you don’t use an app, delete it. For those you do use, take the time to review the permissions you’ve granted and disable anything unnecessary.

• Delete Saved Payment Methods: By default, many online retailers store your credit card information. Deleting stored payment information on sites you rarely use reduces the risk of it being used fraudulently.

• Factory Reset Old Devices: Before donating, recycling, or selling a phone, tablet, or computer, perform a factory reset (found in your device’s settings). Simply deleting files isn’t enough.

Make Digital Hygiene a Routine

Digital security isn’t a one-time task. The best way to keep it up-to-date and intact is to regularly review your digital footprint. Choose a date on your calendar and spend an hour reviewing privacy settings, deleting unused accounts, and enabling 2FA where possible. That’s all it takes!

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