Help Your Friends and Family Protect Their Privacy

Everyone deserves privacy and security online. Here are steps you can take.

Privacy and security shouldn’t be a privilege only available to the technical elite.

You deserve to know how to protect your personal information. You should also be able to choose who you trust to handle it. Nobody wants their data given to third parties without their understanding or permission.

As a Fastmail customer, you’ve already prioritized email privacy. However, how can you take your privacy further? What can you do to protect your friends and family?

Start small and don’t let perfectionism hold you back

Once you start investigating what you can do to protect yourself, it can be bewildering. There’s a lot of terminologies, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all the tools and options.

However, perfect is the enemy of good enough! You don’t have to do it all in one go. Pick one thing and start using it in a couple of places. Every step you take is a worthwhile improvement toward better privacy habits.

Use strong and unique passwords for every account

Pick a password manager and move, one account at a time, toward having a different password for every account. Password managers generate and save passwords in one place so that you can use complex passwords with ease.

Two-step verification adds another layer of protection

Install an authenticator app on your phone and set up two-step verification (also known as two-factor authentication or 2FA) for your most important online accounts, like your email and your bank.

When you’re ready, you can move to a hardware device, like a Yubikey that works great with Fastmail.

Check to see if your password has been compromised

Sign up for notifications from haveibeenpwned.com, which will tell you if your email address has shown up in a data leak.

You’ll also be alerted to the type of information published in the breach, like your password.

Share what you know to help others

Once you’re comfortable with your process, talk to those around you. Tell others what you do to protect yourself, or share this and other resources.

Help demystify the technology, make it the norm to understand why privacy and security matters, and be supportive about what steps people can take to protect themselves.

Each year, January 28 is Data Privacy Day. Let’s work together to increase privacy awareness on this day and all year long!