Woman uses laptop to check her privacy settings and manage her online privacy.

What Is Online Privacy, and Why Is Online Privacy Important?

5 min read

Last Updated: February 28, 2025

Table of contents

Key Takeaways

Online privacy refers to your right to participate in when, how, and to what extent your personal information (PI) is collected, retained, used, disclosed, shared, or otherwise processed (collectively, “process”) while you use the internet.
Some common topics related to online privacy and information security include tracking and data collection, phishing attacks, and hacker campaigns.
You can review the privacy notices (also known as privacy policies or privacy statements) on websites you visit, use strong passwords, and manage your privacy and security settings to better take control of your online privacy.

You expose personal information to the world whenever you use the internet from a computer or mobile device. As an internet user, it's essential to understand what kind of information websites collect about you, how they process it, and how to protect yourself and your personal information.

What is online privacy and security?

Whether using your credit card for online shopping, running a quick internet search, or using social media, your online behavior leaves a digital footprint. Online privacy refers to the amount of control and protection you have over your personal information when you’re on the internet.

One aspect of online privacy is ensuring your personal information is secure when you use email, social media, websites, apps, or other internet-based programs. For example, if you use a credit card to make an online purchase, you may want to ensure that the merchant uses data encryption to provide online security to protect you from hackers.

According to research from the Federal Trade Commission, cybersecurity threats like identity theft, online shopping scams, and other fraudulent activities are rising. This means online security and protecting your personal information is more important than ever.

Every time you use the internet, you could be exposing your personal information to third parties. Bad actors could steal that information and commit identity theft. Additionally, data brokers might mine the internet for personal information and then sell it or use it to produce targeted advertising to sell products. When visiting social media platforms, websites, apps, or other internet-based programs, you may want to review the privacy statements to see how you can control the processing of your personal information.

Common threats to online privacy and security

Phishing attacks

Phishing is a type of social engineering and cybersecurity attack. Some threats to your online privacy and security are more severe and could result in identity theft. For example, an identity thief may email you with compromised links to collect your personal information through what looks like legitimate online activity. But, when you click on the phony link and enter your personal information (like usernames, passwords, account numbers, etc.), you become the victim of a phishing attack. If you think this has happened to you, you can report it to the government, according to USA.gov.

Hackers

Other internet privacy and security threats attack your computer or mobile device when you unwittingly download a program or file that gives hackers access to private information from your device.

Data breach

Sometimes threats are in the form of a data breach or unauthorized access to personal information. The information could then be sold on the dark web or to people-search sites. This could give cybercriminals access to details that could lead to identity theft or other fraudulent activity.

It’s a good idea to know the kind of personal information that sites you visit collect about you. You can easily check their privacy statements from their website.

How to protect your privacy and security online

Review the privacy notice

A good first step towards online privacy is staying informed. Review the online privacy notice (also called privacy statement or privacy policy) on any websites or platforms you use to learn what information they collect and how they'll use the information.

Consider applicable laws

Internet privacy and security affects people worldwide. That's why there are international, national, and state data protection laws that help with digital privacy, security, and consumer protection.

Here are some examples:

The General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union (EU) gives individual consumers more control over their personal information and how it's used and is considered the strongest privacy law in the world, according to the European Council.
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act is a federal law in the United States and governs access to electronic communication, including for law enforcement, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The California Consumer Privacy Act provides California consumers increased control of how their personal data is collected, used, and disclosed according to the State of California Department of Justice.

Check with your internet service provider

Your online privacy and security start with your internet service provider (ISP), and you can learn about the consumer protection laws in your state and country that protect internet users’ ISP accounts. Many companies and some individuals choose to increase the security of their internet service provider by using a virtual private network (VPN), which adds additional security by encrypting data (like the location, IP address, operating system, and other private data) about the internet users. You can also update your security and privacy settings to improve your online privacy.

Other tips to protect your online privacy and security

Strong passwords

Use a unique, strong password for every account, and change passwords regularly. Consider using a password manager to create and keep track of your passwords.

Two-factor authentication

Enable two-factor authentication on your digital accounts for added security when logging into your accounts on different devices as a second layer of verification.

Check for your personal information online

Data brokers may aggregate publicly available personal information and sell it. This can include information like your home address history, names and information of family members or roommates, work history, income information, and more.

Did you know?

Discover^® monitors your account through a free warning system. This tool constantly monitors your card for any fraudulent activity. We’ll quickly notify you with a fraud alert if we see any unusual activity. Click the link to sign up for fraud alerts.

Review your credit score and financial activity

By proactively checking your credit card statements, credit score, and credit report, you can watch for unauthorized purchases, loan applications, new credit accounts, or other fraudulent activity that could signify identity theft.

Manage your privacy settings

Check the settings of the websites, programs, and mobile applications you use to ensure the privacy and security settings meet your needs. For example, Google Analytics can use your Google Chrome browser history and search activity to improve its online behavioral advertising and targeted advertising. But you can choose how Google services and other online programs use your information. You can generally opt out of receiving interest-based ads from Discover or its partners using this tool from Evidon.com. Additionally, you can use a Global Privacy Control (GPC) extension on your web browser to enable and indicate your privacy preferences across sites that you visit.

If you would like more information about how Discover processes your personal information, you can visit the Privacy Center.

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