Anita Smith has always been cautious about how much she shared online. But her concerns increased following an abusive relationship with a partner, who later stalked her.

安妮塔·史密斯（Anita Smith）对于自己在网上分享信息的尺度始终保持着谨慎态度。但在上段恋爱中遭受虐待后，她的担忧加剧了——她的前任后来还跟踪骚扰她。

Although police intervened, she left the UK and also scaled back her online profile. "I erased my online presence as much as I possibly could, " says Ms Smith, whose name has been changed for this article.

尽管警方已介入此事，她还是选择离开了英国，并大幅删减了自己在网络上的痕迹。“我尽可能地抹去了自己在网络上的存在，” 史密斯女士说道。这篇文章用到的也是她的化名。

There are a number of reasons why more people are concerned about the information they share online.

越来越多人开始在意自己在网上分享的信息，背后原因很多。

"First of all, what might be innocent information right now could bring you into difficulties 10 years down the line, if there's a change of laws, or political environment, " says Vytautas Kaziukonis, chief executive at Surfshark, a security software company.

“首先，当前看似无害的信息，倘若法律或政治环境在未来发生变化，十年后可能会让你陷进大麻烦，”安全软件公司 Surfshark 的首席执行官维陶塔斯·卡齐乌科尼斯（Vytautas Kaziukonis）指出。

Another issue is the explosion of AI. "Fraud is getting better and better, and one thing that is essential for all scams is having data, " he says. Information about us is also collected by data brokers and sold to advertisers.

另一个问题是人工智能的爆炸式发展。他表示：“诈骗手段越来越高明，而所有骗局都离不开一个要素：数据。”我们的相关信息还会被数据经纪公司收集并出售给广告商。

To reduce our digital footprints, Mr Kaziukonis advises using a different email address for websites that you sign up to. "That limits the spamming."

为减少我们的数字足迹，卡齐乌科尼斯建议大家在注册网站时使用不同的电子邮箱地址，“这样可以减少垃圾邮件。”

Gus Hosein, executive director at charity Privacy International, recommends cookie-blockers and selecting web browsers with privacy controls.

慈善机构“国际隐私组织”（Privacy International）执行董事古斯·霍辛（Gus Hosein）则推荐使用 Cookie 拦截工具，并选择带有隐私控制功能的浏览器。

Mr Kaziukonis says it's common to hear people say they don't care about privacy but he believes this is a flawed argument. "They say I have nothing to hide. But would they mind sharing every single email they have sent? We have curtains at home, we want to feel private. It's human nature."

卡齐乌科尼斯提到，我们总能听到有人说自己不在乎隐私，但他认为这种说法站不住脚：“他们说‘我没什么可隐瞒的’，但若是被要求公开自己发出的每一封邮件，他们还愿意吗？我们家里都挂着窗帘，因为我们想要隐私。保护隐私是人性本能。”