Chances are you visit several websites a day that have Facebook or Twitter icons on them. Or perhaps some of the sites you visit have advertising. While the operators of these sites may not be doing it intentionally, your information is being logged, tracked and analyzed by third-party websites every time one of these types of plugins are loaded. Depending on the level of security required at your company and the sensitivity of its data, you may not want external websites tracking your employees every online move.
When you visit a website, the site can obtain your physical location (as in where you are at this moment) based on the IP address you are connecting from. Your ISP is also more than likely logging your browsing data and selling that data for a tidy sum. As we mentioned above, sites like Facebook and Twitter can track you across any site that has their plugins installed. So not only does Facebook know about your friends and how you interact with them on Facebook.com, but it also knows how you and all your friends interact across millions of sites across the internet. Many sites also have analytic software installed, which allows them to track the pages you visit, how long you were on each page, your operating system and even details such as the size of your browser window or which fonts you have installed.
Try running the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Panopticlick tool. It will outline just how identifiable your online fingerprint is. If online privacy is a concern in your business, this may be a bit of a wake-up call. While there is really no way to be completely anonymous while still using the internet in a practical way, there are a few things your company can do address certain concerns, which we will discuss in depth in another post.
Of course, the easiest solution is to hire an IT team that can closely monitor new security trends and how they could affect your business. OAC Technology, a Minneapolis-based IT company, can help you lock down and maintain your Network Security. We can scan your network and make personalized recommendations for your business based on what we find. Contact us today to set up a free Network Security Audit.
