A Guide to Safe CyberTreking - Part 1

Surfing the internet is like taking any other trip except you are doing so in a virtual world. The same rules of common sense apply but must be adapted to the world of the web. We encourage you to review the tips set out below as well as the other information contained in the Information Centre which will help you to trek the net safely.

• Before embarking on any trip learn to the tools you will be using to travel the net. This means that you should familiarize yourself with your internet browser. Every introductory browser kit gives an online tour and tutorial. Learning to use your browser will save you time and therefore money when you are on the net. Your experience on the net should be enjoyed and not hampered by your not fully enjoying all the tools with which your browser is equipped.

• Plan your trip on the net. It is easy to get on the web and wandered aimlessly from site to site. The web is limitless maze. If your surfing is not planned you will quickly charge up time on your ISP account if you are not careful.

• Once you have an idea of what you want to do on the net, you must access the sites which provide what you are looking for. As a start, your ISP website will have categorized many areas of interest that you can start with. These are not all of your choices but they are a start.

• If your internet service provider does not have what you are looking for or you want more of what is has to offer, you can search the internet using one of many online search engines. Most internet service providers have one or two search engines that you can use. There are others on the net that you will encounter later. For now, you can search the net by inserting in the searching field a keyword or multiple keywords to find what you are looking for. Before using your search engine, read the help file to inform you as to how to use the search engine. This will save you time since each search engine has different rules of use. For example, if you are looking for "recipes" and you search using the term "recipe" you might end up with a thousand hits. Be more specific when using keywords. For example, you could use "Italian recipes" to narrow your search.

• Once you have found a website that you like, bookmark it so that you can quickly find it again without having to do another search. Your browser will indicate how you can organize your bookmarks into categories so that you can quickly retrieve a desired bookmark.

• Upon arriving at any site, read its Privacy Policy, which will indicate how it will collect and use information about you that is accessible once you arrive at a site. Read Ways Your Privacy Could be Unprotected on the Internet and Protecting Your Privacy on the Internet. You will be surprised on how easy personal information about you is collected and how you can minimize the disclosure of such information.