Over the years, Safer Internet Day (SID) has become a landmark event in the online safety calendar, this year taking place on the 5th of February. The biggest purpose of SID is to raise awareness of emerging online issues and promote safe and positive use of digital technology among all users, especially young people. Each year, technologies are getting more important in our daily lives, so every one of us should at least try to empower young people to take control of their online lives and protect their identities. So, what are the best tips and advice for being safe online?

VPN

I believe most people already know what a VPN is (or at least they’ve heard this term before), but I’ll try to shortly explain to those who are new to this. VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a technology that provides anonymity and privacy on the internet. It can hide and change your IP address, which helps to bypass geographical restrictions (websites, streaming services, like Netflix or Hulu and so on), encrypt your internet traffic and make your online activity safe and anonymous (even your ISP can’t see what you’re doing). It’s also a great helper while traveling and a crucial tool while using public Wi-Fi’s.

What to look for in a VPN? Firstly, read their privacy policies. If you want full anonymity, then look for a strict no-logs policy service (some of them can lie a little bit, so before purchasing read some reviews from reliable sources). Also, if we’re talking about privacy — look where the company is based, stay out of the US, UK and the 14-Eyes Group countries as unfortunately — they’re restricted by many different data laws which don’t go hand in hand with the anonymity term in general. My top picks for a VPN service:

NordVPN (based in Panama, great price) ExpressVPN (based in British Virgin Islands, slightly more expensive) Trustzone (based in the Seychelles) Surfshark (based in the British Virgin Islands) FastestVPN (based in Cayman Islands)

Ad Blockers and other privacy extensions

Ad Blockers or any other anti-tracking, cookie cleaning software can let you block all those irritating ads, save some bandwidth and keep your browsing activities private to yourself. Can you imagine the world without any random pop-ups or flashing banners? Yes, it’s possible, and it’s even better when paired with a Tor or Waterfox browser. Ad blocking extensions and apps to take control of your browsing experience:

Other tips and recommendations for staying anonymous

HTTPS everywhere

When you connect somewhere on the internet, try to use HTTPS. Nowadays most of the popular websites already use this by default, but there are some sites left that don’t care about their own or users security that much. So if you’re smart — don’t buy anything from a site like that as your personal data (for example, bank account information) can be leaked and end up in someone else’s hands. Be careful and attentive to details, but for extra protection I’d recommend using HTTPS everywhere browser extension.

Encrypted email

Do you know what the most popular email services are? I think no one will be surprised when hearing about Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook and Yahoo. But are they secure enough? Our mailboxes sometimes are keeping quite sensitive information about our lives, so it’s better to consider switching to a more secure provider (HushMail, ProtonMail, MyKolab).

Use a Password manager

If you think that no one is interested in your online activity, then think again. Easily, any of us can end up as a victim of the cybercrime. If you have a bad memory and tend to use the same password for everything — say goodbye to your anonymity. Use a password manager, like LastPass, which saves all of your passwords and requires you to remember only one to unlock the rest of them.

Use alternative search engines

Most people use Google for searching any information but it’s not a secret that it keeps track of your search habits in a number of ways and stores browser cookies. To many, this is not a headache as it helps to get more personalized and accurate search results. Those who’re concerned about where all that information is being stored, can always consider using a different search engine, such as DuckDuckGo.

Be aware of public Wi-Fi’s

Using public Wi-Fi’s is risky, it can create an opportunity for the hacker to get unrestricted access to other unsecured devices on the same network (for example, your phone or computer). So don’t access personal bank accounts or sensitive data on such public networks (usually in hotels, bars, supermarkets etc) as you can end up sending your information to the hacker instead of the hotspot. Use your best judgment before connecting to public Wi-Fi, is it really necessary? If you don’t have a VPN on you, then maybe it’s best to wait till you get home?