Ok, so we recently took a little poll on facebook about how our fans shop, asking if they liked shopping online better or in stores. Well it was basically 50/50 and most online shoppers looked for free shipping, but another fan explained that they were still unsure of the security levels.
So, we thought we would give you a couple of examples of how to check security of the site you are shopping, or entering any personal information on.
- First, look in the address bar, the site address should show https:// on the page that is gathering any personal information. This is not just for credit cards, this goes for social security numbers, drivers license numbers, anything that is personal and can be used for identity theft. If you are entering information on a page that just shows http:// it is not secure and therefore at risk of someone being able to steal your information.
- Second, does the site have phone numbers and email contact information on it so you can easily contact and see they really are a company, not just a hoax trying to gather your information.
- Third if it is an ecom, check for a return policy. This is mandatory for online stores to have in order to be compliant. No return policy, then any reputable credit card processor they cannot take your money.
Yes, those are just a few, but you can easily find out if you are dealing with a reputable and secure online site by looking at those things.
Here at The Web Guys, we take online security very seriously and refuse to take any personal online information without specific safety measures. We want to protect our clients and their customers from any type of identity theft or credit card theft. So if you have a site that is gathering any personal information and you do not have it secure you need to quickly and if you are shopping online on unsecured pages- STOP! You are just putting yourself at risk. If you have any questions about your site and online security, just give us a call!
