Recently, online media reported that some high-profile celebrities have been caught by a photo hack, which is a kind of online hacking trap. They have suffered a lot of public humiliation because of what the hackers did to their personal files. But it is not just limited to celebrities, all of us are under threat and therefore we must keep our vital information and files protected. If you know how to keep your sensitive data protected, then you don’t need to worry about a thing. Here are some simple rules to follow to ensure the privacy of your data.

device configuration

Anyone who has installed a cloud app like iCloud, Dropbox, and Google+ needs to understand that their images are uploaded automatically. It is an alarming concern that you should be careful about while you are busy clicking and saving images. You should also understand that when you delete an image from your device, don’t assume that it’s also deleted from the cloud. It’s just a scratch on the surface of things. If you want to remove it from there, you need to login to your cloud account and get rid of it manually.

data encryption

Data encryption is very useful when it comes to privacy and data security. All your files are saved locally, but when you share them, you need encryption. There are numerous ways to encrypt a file; Listed here are the three most popular data encryption methods.

Using 7-Zip

The most popular means of encryption is 7-Zip which helps to encrypt files that are in an archive. A passphrase is used to protect archived items. If you are using Windows 7, you can easily download it. After downloading, the 7-Zip menu will be added to your File Explorer and from here, it will encrypt your files.

• To encrypt multiple files, select a file and right-click, then select 7-Zip and add it to the archive.

• Give the archive folder a name along with a passphrase to protect it, now your archive is encrypted

• You can do it both in the cloud and in your email

BitLocker

BitLocker is yet another tool to encrypt your drives. The TrueCrypt feature allows you to encrypt sets of files as a container. For Linux users, you can use Tomb for this purpose, and then your entire hard drive will be encrypted. It is useful for local storage of your system. This program is available for free if you want to get more out of it then you will need to opt for the paid version.

PGP encryption

PGP or Pretty Good Privacy is the most effective data encryption tool. You can create and manage your files using gpg4win for Windows 7 users. If you are a Mac OS X user, you can use the GPG tools using GnuPG.
PGP, however, helps in two ways by providing a public and a private key that help encrypt your messages and files. If you want to encrypt a file for another user, use the public encryption key, but if you want to decrypt a file, use the private key.

With these tree encryption programs, you will be able to protect your images and other sensitive data from hackers. You can enjoy sharing things online without worrying about privacy issues anymore.