3 Best Practices to Avoid Digital Product Liability
In the day and age of digital media and society centered around cloud-data, our digital footprint is as essential to our identity as our real-life persona. As such, a case of product liability could cause potential damages to countless aspects of your personal life, your career, and your reputation, among many others.
But what can realistically be done against that?
After all, defective and unreliable products take us by surprise on a regular basis, and we are oftentimes powerless in engaging in productive damage control, let alone preventive precautions.
Or so we might be inclined to think. Here are a few of the best practices that can help you avoid the disastrous consequences of digital product liability.
- Screen Your Device Against Pre-Installed Malware
If you are the owner of an Android smartphone, chances are that you might have been the unwitting victim of a pre-installed malicious adware campaign.
In recent years, the two major malware campaigns that were discovered through Google Auditing and Security software, Chamois and Triada, had affected millions of devices right from the moment they were shipped out of the factory.
Manufacturers of lower quality digital devices were more susceptible to such pre-planned malware campaigns, mainly because of the low-end nature of their protective software.
The inherent vulnerability was that the harmful software could easily turn off Google Play Protect, allowing external hackers to access the phone’s inner systems and engage in remote operations without the user’s knowledge.
If this is to be avoided in the future, Android users need to engage in extensive scrutiny of their newly purchased device before introducing their personal data in Google Play and any other pre-installed software.
A cyber-security professional can guide you towards the best screening and malware-analytic services available on the digital consumer market.
- Engage with Multiple Data-Protection Measures
A digital product becomes liable to external invasive data manipulation the moment it presents a visible lack of protective user-behavior.
While remote hacking is a constant worry, we need to also consider what happens if your device remains physically unguarded under any day-to-day circumstance. And what occurs after a successful security-breach.
What exactly can protect the sensitive data that your phone or tablet might contain – such as your bank account information, your private conversations, or your business information?
Thankfully, there is a multitude of available solutions.
From multi-factor authentication to extensive data encryption, the consumer-initiated digital data protection practices that we have at our disposal should be used to their full extent.
Another great preventive measure would be to regularly back-up your data in a trusted and secure external hard drive that no one else has direct access to besides you, the owner of the data.
Finally, undergo consistent firewall updates for all of your devices – laptops, and tablets included, since they are a time-proven measure of efficient protection against attacks on cloud-based sources of data.
- Discuss the Matter with a Legal Specialist
In the unfortunate case of an actual security breach, you should be informed and aware of your legal options in earning significant compensation for the damages that you have suffered.
Your device manufacturer could be liable for said damages, due to their rampant negligence in assuring that the digital safety aspect of their device is void of any defects that could be potentially hazardous to a customer’s identity.
An attorney that is specialized in product liability claims can provide you with all the necessary legal advice that you would require in order to settle the severe data breach that you have suffered.
Through their counsel, you will be assured that you do not go blindly into this sensitive situation of personal injury law, and you will be highly informed in the future if you were to face any further issues regarding digital product liability.
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