How to keep your online information secure

Keeping your information safe online is vital when it comes to protecting your identity and money. Here are some ways you can protect yourself.

To protect your accounts online, make sure you have two-factor authentication, which adds one extra step to your sign-in process, like pinging your phone to make sure that the person signing in as you, really is you. This way, if your password falls into the wrong hands, you're setting up an extra barrier that prevents the bad guys from getting access.

When it comes to guarding your privacy against companies that want to know your personal habits, sometimes you just have to take a look at your account settings.

Facebook has a facial recognition system that can pick you out in photos, you might not be aware of, but in the privacy filters, you can turn that off. If you have an Amazon Echo, the company does have recordings of what you ask Alexa, but with a quick trip to the settings, you can allow yourself to delete those files. You can also say, "Alexa, delete what I just said," or "Alexa, delete everything I said today."

If you want to limit the data you're sending out altogether, there are alternatives for your internet searches. You can try DuckDuckGo which doesn't collect any information from its users. Texting-apps like Signal offer end-to-end encryption and even lets you have messages deleted from your phone and the person you're messaging.