Online shopping: how to buy safely for Christmas?

Black Friday is over, Christmas shopping continues. And you will surely still make two or three online. To buy serenely and without risk, there are good practices to follow.

You will have noticed that we have officially entered the end of the year shopping period, with Black Friday now behind us, but still a lot of orders to be placed and gifts to be made. Today, you can do almost everything online, and it's obviously very practical to save time, avoid crowds in stores and traffic jams. Nevertheless, we must not neglect an important aspect of online purchases: it is essential to be able to do them serenely. And you might think that's the case, that you're safe. Vigilance is however required, and it is not always easy to distinguish a fraudulent or legitimate site, to prevent your purchases from being used to feed the databases of targeted advertising broadcasters, or to protect its identifiers against theft. of data. Fortunately, by applying good practices and installing the right tools, you can fully enjoy the benefits of e-commerce without these hassles.

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Online shopping: always be vigilant on the internet!

The first rule seems obvious. Every day, thousands of special offers are listed on various and varied sites, with very attractive prices that can make you want to go through a deal even if you do not necessarily know the identity of the seller. It could not be more important to know exactly on which site you are making purchases or transactions. The easiest way to do this is to make your purchases as a priority on known and recognized sites, reference brands, whether online only or also via a chain of stores. We are not going to list you which ones here, but you necessarily know major international or French sites, renowned for their reliability. This makes sense, but one can easily be tempted not to go through “the giants”. Do not rely only on the price and the percentage of reduction. Pay extreme attention to the security of the site, in particular by checking the presence of a connection on an encrypted site, via the "https" mention of the address bar. Warning: some browsers, for reasons of clarity, hide the full address of a site by default, do not hesitate to click on it to see the URL displayed in full.

Phishing: the number 1 threat to online shopping

Unfortunately, trusting a logo or a brand is not enough all the time. Many sites can pretend to be a well-known brand, via a promotional email, or a fraudulent site that imitates the layout of the real one. Sometimes some even manage to divert traffic from a legitimate site to a fraudulent domain, which is even more pernicious and difficult to detect. Here we reach the limits of human vigilance, and we must trust software whose purpose is precisely to verify the legitimacy of the sites you visit. A modern and powerful antivirus like Avast includes all the necessary technologies to secure your online purchases. It can protect your transactions, spot fraudulent emails and sites, and with the True Site feature, make sure you're always on the "real" domain.

Use a VPN if you're not buying from home

When shopping online, the safest thing to do is to do so from home, with a secure Internet connection. In this case, it is unlikely to be a victim of information theft. On the other hand, the period of the end of the year is precisely a time when we risk being outside often, for various races and it can be tempting to save time by making certain purchases online from the Wi-Fi of your home. a café or a shopping mall. In this case, use a VPN. You do not know the level of protection of public Wi-Fi hotspots, and you may be the victim of data interception. A VPN fully encrypts your Internet connection and guarantees your anonymity by hiding your IP address. It is therefore a very interesting tool to guarantee the confidentiality of your purchases in all circumstances.

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Try to buy online without saving your information

It is very convenient to make online purchases and create an account to access this information more quickly. It's actually a time saver on the fly, but now imagine your laptop being hacked or stolen. All your information can then be stolen and end up in the wild. It is very simple to do things in a more secure, old-fashioned way, one might say, and to lose a little time, but gain in serenity. Tools can also help you systematically erase your web browser tracks, and scramble your digital footprint so as to limit the possibilities of tracking you from one site to another.

Online shopping: use a complete and effective antivirus

All these best practices are indeed useful for securing your computer and all your devices. But an antivirus, a VPN, an AntiTrack... All this can add up to a lot of subscriptions and software licenses to buy! With Avast Ultimate, that's not the case: Avast's full package includes Avast Premium Security, VPN SecureLine, AntiTrack Premium and Cleanup Premium in a single subscription, which is currently at a 60% discount, for 1 PC or Mac, or for 10 Windows, macOS, iOS and Android devices.

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This content was produced in partnership with Avast. The BFMTV editorial staff did not participate in the production of this content. BFMTV is likely to receive compensation when one of our readers makes a purchase via the links included in this article.

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