By Eurasia Review

The Spanish Data Protection Agency (Spanish acronym: AEPD) and the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism through the National Cyber-Security Institute (Spanish acronym: INCIBE) presented last Friday the Privacy and Security on the Internet Guidebook at the State Secretariat of Telecommunications and the Information Society.

This initiative stems from a joint commitment by the two agencies to raise awareness among Internet users on the importance of protecting their personal data by offering some practical advice and recommendations. The project is supported by the Spanish Consumer Affairs, Food Safety and Nutrition Agency (Spanish acronym: AECOSAN) of the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality, the Spanish National Police Force, the Spanish Guardia Civil and Telefónica.

The event was opened by the AEPD Director, Mar España, who highlighted the importance of offering practical tools for fostering and promoting a data protection culture among the general public, and the INCIBE General Manager, Miguel Rego, who underlined the need for the public to adopt a proactive attitude in terms of regularly updating and increasing their knowledge on security as a preventive measure enabling the use of new technologies with confidence.

A large number of the most popular services on the Internet are provided while using a large amount of personal information and data taken from the users themselves. The AEPD and INCIBE believe that privacy and security are fundamental issues that should be taken into serious consideration, thereby minimising the possible risks in a hyper-connected world.

The goal of the Privacy and Security on the Internet Guidebook is to offer practical information on how to reduce the risks that people may expose themselves to when using certain services. With 18 practical sections, the guidebook deals with such important issues as: protecting portable devices; creating and managing passwords; the process behind two-step verification; how to create back-up copies or protect email; configuring your browser to reduce the amount of information stored on your browsing activity; managing the information stored in the cloud; configuring social media network profiles; and what resources to use for educating children on safe Internet use. It also tackles such issues as phishing and protecting Wi-Fi networks.

The various practical issues discussed in each section are also supported by links to content that has already been developed on the websites of the Internet User Security Office of INCIBE and the Spanish Data Protection Agency.

The publication – available both online and as a PDF – is accompanied by six video tutorials that explain how to access the privacy and security settings for some of the most popular Internet services.

The AEPD and INCIBE expect this initiative to be useful for Internet users and raise their awareness of the content developed by the two agencies, which is aimed at prevention, increasing knowledge and offering practical solutions.