Let’s face it, traveling isn’t as easy as it used to be. It’s not just about packing a suitcase full of vacation clothes, a new book or magazines. Today, most of us can barely leave our homes without a laptop, a tablet, a smartphone, or two and a camera.
While smart devices have become an important part of our lives and vital for getting by, there is a problem.
Your safety and privacy are even more at risk when you travel. Safety has to become just as crucial as your personal safety and protecting your valuables. Today, when you are getting ready for a trip, the last thing that crosses your mind is whether or not someone at the airport can hack your computer or phone. You might think, “I have nothing worth stealing,” but unfortunately, that is not true.
Look at any of your devices, and you can see a trace of digital breadcrumbs that might lead to identity theft. Avoid the headache of losing personal information, account access and time, by setting up a few safety measures before leaving your home. Here are some basic safety measures you can follow to keep your data safe while travelling.
- Disable auto-connect and be cautious of public WIFI
When you’re out and about, it might seem like a great idea to connect to an open WIFI network. Unfortunately, this can put your data and devices at risk. Free WIFI isn’t encrypted meaning, meaning your data can be intercepted while you’re using that public WIFI.
Most smartphones come up with a setting that allows a device to connect to WIFI networks as you pass through them automatically.
However, while this might be a nice feature when used at home, it’s not something you should accept while traveling abroad. With a day or two before leaving home, take your time to change this setting so that your laptop and smartphone must be manually connected each time you want to access the web.
- Use a VPN
Using a virtual private network is more important than you realize when you are traveling. Scammers, hackers and thieves can easily access your device when you’re using a public network. This might include when you’re using WIFI at your hotel, Starbucks, or anywhere else you might find yourself connecting to public or free WIFI.
What is VPN?
A VPN is your very own secure part of the internet to email, browse and go about your normal activity. You can look at it as a simple connection to protect the information on your computer while on vacation or during a business trip.
Using a VPN for Zoom conferencing, for instance, won’t just ensure you the best peer-to-peer privacy but it will also allow you to be somewhere else virtually. For instance, if you are in Taiwan, you can use a VPN to make your device look like it is in London. This can be useful if you need to travel in countries that have partially or fully restricted Zoom.
Another benefit of using a VPN is that you can easily access apps and sites such as Pandora, YouTube, and Netflix that often block your access if you’re not in your home country. This can be infuriating as you are a paying customer and the odds are you just happen to be on vacation for two weeks.
By using a VPN, you can trick a myriad of streaming services and other region-limited contents into believing that you are home on your computer. All you have to do is log in to your VPN and set the location for your home state or city.
- Keep important documents at your fingertips
It’s difficult enough when your bag and wallet gets stolen or lost while you travel, but it’s even worse to learn that you no longer have your valuable documents with you such as credit cards, passport or driver’s license.
To avoid this, you can take pictures or even scan your IDs, credit cards and other essential travel documents as a backup to store them on the cloud or lock them down using an app like Keep safe Photo Vault. You’ll get to unwind knowing all is not lost and you still have access to your personal and travel information.
- Password-protect and encrypt your devices
It might be a little counterintuitive, but you should avoid travelling or going anywhere without setting a password, a PIN or pattern to lock down your laptop, smartphone, and other smart devices.
If you’re currently using a Password Manager to keep track of your passwords, make sure you use Travel Mode to decide which password to keep or remove in your password vault while on the go.
Consider deleting apps or sensitive information you don’t want to access – you can reinstall them later.
- Install Tracking or “Find Me” apps on your devices
Smartphones, tablets and laptops are all famous targets for theft because of the increased resale value. There are a few efficient apps that can help you track and potentially recoup your device in case it has been stolen or even lost. Some apps can even geo-locate the device, take a photo of the culprit and even allow you to remotely log in and completely delete your device to secure your data.
- Delete your rental car navigation history
Rented vehicles are likely to have an EDR (event data recorder) found in the car’s navigation system. Pretty much like an aeroplane’s black box, an event data recorder gathers information about the car’s system, its location and even driver behaviour.
That said, if you’re using a built-in or a rented GPS navigation system while using a rental vehicle, or you connect your smartphone to your vehicle’s Bluetooth system, you could be tracked either by the car-rental business or hacked by a third party.
Before you return the vehicle, make sure you delete your personal profile or any navigation history you set up in the in-vehicle computer or in a rented GPS.
Data privacy risks should not stop us from seeing the world, but we still have to become more aware of the various ways our information is collected and used.
