Safety is smartness: Data protection starts with you

It is accepted fact that crimes against women are occurring in many countries every single day. People are speaking up but at the same time many people shy away from conversations relating to sexual assaults or rape. Often these go unreported. The internet is a powerful and useful tool so we can use internet for women safety, counter speech and speaking up.

Staying safe online, especially on social media is paramount for the well-being of your digital presence.There are many way for savvy women to stay safe online. The following online safety tips can help you manage your information floating on social networking.

1.Check the privacy setting of your profile and make sure its set to the right level. Even if your social network is set to private. Unless you are a public personality and looking to speak up to the universe of people at large.

2.Remember that the friends of your friends might be able to see your posts and update even if you are not friends with them. This is not a bad thing but its information you should be aware of. This is the case of Facebook.

3. Always review before posting and make sure your privacy settings enable you to review content where you have been tagged by friends before they appear publicly on your profile.

4. Information on the internet is easy to put and harder to get off. It's important to think before posting. Having said that the kind of opportunities the internet offers and the very heart of it is networking and staying in touch. We have the positive internet that quite outweighs the negative one. I believe we need to leverage and grow the opportunities rather than hide. However, being aware of privacy tools is important to on your guard should you be in a position.

For online account read the privacy policy of different websites. If you are on Google follow their two factor. When you create an online account, whether it is to buy things, to join group, or open an account, you should know what that site does with the information you share. Labour through privacy documents. The government is also looking at a data protection law though it's not yet in place. Until then, remind your self, data protection and digital safety begins with you

These blogs as part of SheThePeople initiative Digital Trust Dialogues with Google India. Patel Charmi is a student and these are her views