BBB Offers Tips to Help Protect Your Personal Information Online

Better Business Bureau is joining the National Cyber Security Alliance and many other organizations to promote Data Privacy Day 2017, which is themed “Respecting Privacy, Safeguarding Data and Enabling Trust.” The annual event, held January 28th, promotes privacy awareness and education. Dozens of government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and businesses large and small have signed on as Data Privacy Day Champions.

“We all leverage the internet to do business and for personal transactions,” notes Mary E. Power, president and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. “We’ve become dependent on technology to send us reminders, to connect us to our family and friends, and help us find obscure references. We all need to know the basics of how to safeguard our information and to encourage, and help create, a safer and more trusted online space.”

BBB offers these tips and links to help individuals and businesses protect their online information: bbb.org/privacy.

“The Internet of Things, this collection of technology and devices that we rely on, has significantly changed the way our information is not only collected but stored,” said Power. “We might readily share information, but we should all stop to think about what information we share. Data Privacy Day is an annual reminder that privacy – both our personal consumer information and also business information we collect in everyday business transactions – needs to be protected. BBB is looking forward, investing in cybersecurity, and sharing how we can do business better.”

For more information:

Individuals should check out the National Cyber Security Alliance’s Privacy Tips, including special information for teens, parents, older adults, mobile users, and more.

Businesses should check out BBB’s Five Steps to Better Business Cybersecurity (bbb.org/cybersecurity). Ask the BBB in your area about programs for business leaders and employees (bbb.org/bbb-locator).

Hear BBB’s privacy and security professionals discuss data privacy issues on our “Better Business > Better Series” podcast series.

Subscribe to the series on your mobile device or click here to listen to it on the web.

ABOUT BBB: For more than 100 years, Better Business Bureau has been helping people find businesses and brands they can trust. In 2016, people turned to BBB more than 172 million times for BBB Business Reviews on more than 5.3 million businesses, all available for free at bbb.org.

The Council of Better Business Bureaus is the umbrella organization for the local, independent BBBs in the United States, Canada and Mexico, as well as home to its national and international programs on dispute resolution, advertising review, and industry self-regulation. BBB Serving Eastern Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont was founded in 1920.

Paula Fleming is Chief Marketing & Sales Officer for Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern MA, ME, RI & VT. Find Paula on Google+.