Fox Fact: The Tibetan Sand Fox had never been caught on film before 2006, when the BBC filmed  the Planet Earth series.

Online security and privacy are pretty important to us here at FoxyProxy. It’s kind of our thing. However, not everyone gives it as much thought as we do.

So! With that in mind, we’re giving you some nice and easy steps to make your online life a tad more secure.

Use a proxy or VPN service.  We may have mentioned this a few times before, but using a proxy or VPN service isn’t just for catching up on episodes of The Great British Bake Off.  It can also help you skirt around snooping governmental eyes (we’re looking at you, NSA) and insecure connections with ease. Our favorite is FoxyProxy, obviously. We offer both paid service, and free tools if you’re the DIY sort.

Your password probably sucks.  We don’t mean to be harsh, but it’s the truth.  Gone are the days of using your favorite pet’s, or spouse’s, or favorite spouse’s name. Passwords these days need to be hard to hack, and unguessable.  Oh and stop using the same few passwords for everything, you sweet summer child. Here are some nice tips from our friends at the EFF for choosing and storing strong passwords.

Dark Helmet knows how important good passwords are.

You have no idea who is keeping track of your browsing habits.  Don’t assume that you only need to go incognito when you’re looking at “adult” corners of the web. Websites are stuffed with trackers and data mining tools of all sorts. Use a good tracker blocker such as Ghostery or Privacy Badger, and you’ll be shocked at how much your data is being transmitted without you knowing it. Someone, somewhere, knows exactly what porn you look at and for how long, along with everything else you do on the web. Scary? Embarrassing? Yes.

HTTPS is your friend. That S on the end stands for “secure” meaning that your data is being encrypted as it flies through the ether of The Internet. Some websites already have this feature, many don’t. Our pals over at the EFF offer a handy browser extension,  helping you keep your data to yourself.