Privacy Tips

Help make sure your personal information stays safe:

• Check the reputation of online organizations and look for privacy certifications such as TRUSTe.

• Always review privacy policies.

• Use strong passwords, with a mixture of numbers, letters and symbols, at least eight characters in length. Check your password strength.

• Don’t directly share personal information about yourself, such as your name, address, age, or gender with people you don’t know in the real world.

• Keep personal information to yourself. Guard account numbers, usernames, and passwords with special care.

• Make sure transactions are secure by using browsers that support encryption.

• Take these four steps to help protect your computer:

  • Keep your computer up to date.

  • Use a firewall.

  • Install antivirus software and update it regularly.

  • Install antispyware software and update it regularly.

Privacy Issues Documentary

"My Privacy: Safely Navigating Life Online" is a short documentary-style video, which highlights findings from focus group research conducted in Dallas, Texas and San Francisco, California. The research examines privacy concerns of different age groups:

Data Privacy Day Research Q&A

To learn more about the research findings and current issues in the world of data protection, see the Q&A with Microsoft’s Chief Privacy Strategist Peter Cullen.

Student Video Competition

In Europe, Microsoft partnered with the European Schoolnet (EUN), a not-for-profit consortium of 31 European ministries of education, to sponsor a Europe-wide video competition for students (15-19 years) on the theme "Surf the Net — think privacy!".

The participants were invited to submit short films around the privacy impact associated with their online activities. The films were judged by a jury of panelists from Data Protection Authorities, Members of European Parliament, Council of Europe, and a Microsoft privacy expert.

The winners of the competition were students from Bulgaria, Portugal and Romania — as well as Greece and Lithuania with a joint project.

View the winning videos.

Relevant White Papers

How Businesses and Organizations Can Protect Personal Information
Read Microsoft’s perspective on data governance — a proven strategy for collecting and managing sensitive data while also managing risks, enhancing privacy protection, and meeting compliance requirements.

Online Identity Theft: Changing the Game — Protecting Personal Information on the Internet
An interoperable, vendor-neutral framework that uses technology to give people more direct control over their digital identity is key to changing the game in identity protection.