Recent changes to the laws in several states allow companies to sell the personal information of their customers / and website visitors after obtaining known customer consent. Our primary location state Rhode Island has yet to enact such laws, thus ALL UNLIMITED INC. created this blog post to help residents access all the available services and benefits offered by companies online, safely and securely while keeping their identity and online activities private.
A standard in these new laws prohibits loss of service or functionality for refusing to allow the selling of your personal data and includes processes to request if a “data collector” has sold, purchased, or is using your data.
NOT all websites are equipped and prepared, to capture and appropriately house customer and visitor data, but the depictions and tips within this post will help you identify when you must act when browsing online to protect the information you value most.
Disclaimer: This post is NOT guaranteed to protect you from identity theft online. It is meant to inform the reader how to take precautionary steps to keep their online data safe by helping the reader identify one tactic being used by companies and guide the reader through the necessary steps to protect their online data.
The first step is to become aware of websites that may be collecting user data. The website must inform the user with a “Cookie Notice” that will pop up at the bottom of the screen. I do not recommend ignoring this pop up. Taking action here is an important step because not all States have passed laws to protect its residents and some companies may be inclined to confuse an unanswered question with consent.
Here are two “Cookie Notice” examples. I recommend acting as often as possible instead of ignoring or “X’ing” out of the “Cookie Notice” to remove it from your view.
The second Step is taking action. Per the two examples above, Clicking “Accept Cookies” or the “Got it” button is NOT a recommended course of action from ALL UNLIMITED INC. to protect your online data. Click on “Cookies Settings” or “Manage My Cookies”.
The third Step is to turn off unwanted cookies options on a New Pop-up box that will appear immediately after clicking the Manage or Set cookies option within the “Cookie Notice” pop up. These pop ups will also look distinct for each website but have similar characteristics.
The first example below has four options. Three of the cookies options appear disable or turned off in the second screenshot below. I recommend shutting off all the options possible then click “Confirm My Choices”.
The second example only has three cookie options of which two can be turned on or off. If you want to read about the cookie options, click on the “+” sign and a description will appear under the option heading. “Allowing All” is NOT a recommended course of action. Shut off all undesired “cookies” and click “Confirm My Choices”.
After confirming your choices, you can feel free to browse the website with the confidence that your privacy and personal data will not be collected and stored for the purpose of being shared or sold to an interested third party. Allowing certain cookie options may allow the company to track your online activity even after you leave the website and continue browsing the internet. If this is a worry of yours, closing the browser and continuing your internet activities in a New Browser Window will break the link of any cookie tracker loaded onto your device from a website.