Data Protection
In today's digital world, we have experienced enormous developments in recent years due to technological progress. Everyday things such as surfing the Internet or contactless payment in the supermarket are unthinkable without electronic data exchange. Personal data is processed in large quantities every day by companies, organizations, or authorities. Sometimes we no longer even know where and what personal information about us is being collected, stored, and used for big data analysis.
With advancing digitalization, cybercrime on the internet is also increasing. The list of cases is long — from digital scams and viruses to Trojans, identity theft, and the theft of critical data (both on a personal and organizational level).
Even — or especially — aside from criminal acts, data protection is essential, as only in this way can privacy and informational self-determination be guaranteed — both are fundamental rights to which every person is entitled. Data protection is often dismissed as a secondary or tedious issue, but it is indispensable in a digital world.
To address this often postponed topic, we would like to share with you a few effective and easy-to-implement data protection tips.
1. Passwords: On almost all digital channels, we identify ourselves with passwords, and our logins are often linked to sensitive information such as bank accounts, the EPA, or private email inboxes. To protect these, passwords should be as long as possible, contain special characters, and be unique for each site. It’s best to memorize them, but when dealing with many passwords, this is often not possible, which is why a password manager is recommended. Storing passwords in your browser or in other unprotected forms is not advised. Since no password is uncrackable, it’s also advisable to use two-factor authentication whenever possible. You can find more information here.
2. Web cookies: The GDPR grants consumers the right to control their own data. On the web, this is usually managed today via the cookie banner that appears when accessing a website. Even though these are often confusingly designed, it’s worth taking the time to find the “Reject all” or “Save my preferences” button, which is usually found after a short look.
3. Choice of apps: Many apps constantly collect data, even in the background. Here too, the GDPR grants you the right to control your own data. Especially for applications or accounts where a lot of data is generated, it is advisable to adjust the privacy settings (examples include your browser, your Google/Microsoft/Meta/Amazon account, your private email inbox, etc.). For these accounts, many different data sources are combined unless you object, allowing for detailed analysis of your behavior. You can find detailed instructions here: Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon.
There are also many useful open-source products that can serve as privacy-friendly alternatives. For example, the Firefox browser can be used as a replacement for Chrome, and the messaging app Signal as a replacement for WhatsApp. These apps often also contain no ads. You can find a good overview of privacy-friendly alternatives here.
4. The smartphone: No other device collects more data than the smartphone. Almost everyone carries it with them all day and uses it for a wide variety of personal tasks, making it all the more important to protect your data here. Many apps by default have permission to access almost all of your data without needing a reason. You can prevent this via the App Permissions Manager — you’ll find a guide here (iOS, Android).
On newer smartphones, your data is linked to your device via an advertising ID, which allows third parties to track and identify you. You should definitely disable the advertising ID, as it does not affect your device’s functionality and disabling it anonymizes your data. You can find a guide here.