Online privacy has become a hot issue as governments around the world consider anti-piracy laws and other legislation that could expose what the average person does on the Internet.
In Canada, debate is raging over proposed legislation - Bill C-30 - and how much access police and the government should have to your online habits.
And, calls are also going out to investigate how search engine giant Google was able to access millions of Internet surfers' web habits by circumventing a security feature of Apple's Safari web-browsing software.
On Monday, Microsoft also said its Internet Explorer browser had been targeted by Google's code as well.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has been asked to investigate the Apple security breach, but Google said it was merely using "known functionality" in Safari and any resulting privacy violations were something the company didn't anticipate.
But with all the online privacy whirling dervishes out there right now, London, Ont.-based technology expert Carmi Levy has some advice on how you can protect personal data online from prying eyes and those people who may want to do you harm.
At the same time, you must keep in mind it's almost impossible to go online and not leave some kind of footprint, Levy said.
Clear your history settings of cookies
Whenever you go online and sign into a site like Facebook, for example, "cookies" are created, Levy told CTV's Canada AM.
Cookies are little forms that help save information, so in the case of Facebook, it would save your username and password if you selected that option that says "remember me," so it's trying to be helpful, he explained.
But cookies also remember a lot of other information, some of it data you may want to protect.
"Clearing your browsing history, clearing your cache, maybe once a week or so -- this will get rid of those cookies that have been created, and in turn will leave you less vulnerable to people trying to find out your online habits," Levy said.
On browsers, you can either allow cookies or disallow them.
"What Google was doing, even when users didn't want to enable cookies, they used a code that enabled the cookies and then Google had access to the user's information," Levy said.
Open private sessions
"Whenever you launch a browser it should give you the option of starting a private session or incognito session. Use this option if you don't want any footprints of your activities online," he said.
Don't sign in if you don't have to
When you sign into Google under your Gmail account to check your mail, that's fine, Levy said.
"But what may happen is that, if your privacy settings won't allow cookies, well, once you sign into Google, that privacy setting could change and all of a sudden your computer is allowing cookies and your information is out there," he said.
If you can avoid signing in during an online session, you should, Levy said.
"One other thing to take away from this is that technology and technological problems are becoming mainstream problems," Levy said.
"That is good to see because it shows that people are becoming aware and that our world is moving towards a world where technology is being used for important matters," he said.
