Don't Be Phish Food! Tips to Avoid Sharing Your Personal Information Online

Don't Be Phish Food! Tips to Avoid Sharing Your Personal Information Online

Data is the new oil, and online platforms will siphon it off at any opportunity. Platforms increasingly demand our personal information in exchange for a service.


Avoiding online services altogether can limit your participation in society, so the advice to just opt out is easier said than done.


Here are some tricks you can use to avoid giving online platforms your personal information. Some ways to limit your exposure include using “alternative facts”, using guest check-out options, and a burner email.


Alternative Facts


While “alternative facts” is a term coined by White House press staff to describe factual inaccuracies, in this context it refers to false details supplied in place of your personal information.


This is an effective strategy to avoid giving out information online. Though platforms might insist you complete a user profile, they can do little to check if that information is correct. For example, they can check whether a phone number contains the correct amount of digits, or if an email address has a valid format, but that’s about it.


When a website requests your date of birth, address, or name, consider how this information will be used and whether you’re prepared to hand it over.

There’s a distinction to be made between which platforms do or don’t warrant using your real information. If it’s an official banking or educational ins ..

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