Tech is all around us, helping us with daily chores and keeping our homes safe, but if something is connected to the internet it’s important to keep it safe too. Tech like cameras, smart speakers and doorbells are amazing at upgrading your home, but it’s important that you’re the only one accessing your photos, audio and video.

Here are our top tips on protecting your smart tech…

Toughen up your passwords

Having a strong password for your smart tech and home Wi-Fi is the first line of defence against hackers. Most products and companies will encourage you to use longer passwords with a combination of letters, numbers, and characters, but it’s important not to use the same password for everything. If your personal data is breached, you don’t want to have to worry about resetting passwords for every account you have.

Use a password manager or VPN

Password123 anyone? To make your accounts more secure it’s important to have a unique username and password. And because so much stuff logs in using Facebook, Google or your Apple ID, it’s worth double checking those passwords too.

If you’re stuck for ideas, use a random password generator online, or jumble up a memorable sentence. If you’re looking for maximum security, look into getting a password manager. A lot of VPN products include it, and they’ll automatically generate (and remember) HUGE passwords that are practically impossible to break.\

Change your router's info

When you set up your router, you’ll be given all the info you need to log in (typically on a little card). It’s worth changing this if you haven’t already. By changing it to something else, you won’t be giving people any information about the service or router you have.

**Top tip! **Don’t put your name or any personal identifiers in your router name.\

Enable multi-factor authentication

If you use PayPal or online banking (and who doesn’t?) then you’ll be used to two-factor authentication. It’s an extra layer of security that typically requests you log in to a different app to confirm it’s you, or you might get a text to your number with a unique code. Most smart tech products will have this built in, but you might have to enable it in the settings if it doesn’t happen automatically.

To make sure your home stays secure, these are our top picks:

Google Nest Thermostat

You don’t want to come home from a winter holiday to a burst pipe and a flooded house. The Google Nest Thermostat has automatic frost protection to keep your home safe while you’re soaking up the sun abroad.

The Google Nest system also encrypts your data when it’s being transmitted to keep everything secure.

Amazon Echo Show

The Amazon Echo Show has multiple layers of privacy and security built-in, and everything you say to it will be encrypted for safety. For extra protection, no audio is stored or sent to the Cloud until the wake word “Alexa” is detected.

If you get a 3rd gen Echo Show 10, there’s even the option for on-device audio processing. So, instead of sending a recording of your voice to the Cloud to check what the correct response is, your Alexa will transcribe your request instead – only sending the text to Amazon’s systems.

Curious about what data Amazon has from your speaker? Most of it will be to help personalise ads, or just to keep track of your preferences and location (to make the weather accurate) but you can always review your Alexa voice history to see how your information is used.

Hive View Camera

For ultimate peace of mind, the Hive View Camera lets you see exactly what’s going on at home from your smartphone. You can replay footage from the previous 24 hours and set the sensitivity level so you don’t get a notification every time your cat strolls across the room.

To protect your privacy, each camera is secured using a unique certificate linked to your Hive account, so no one else can access or use your camera even if it’s stolen, and all videos are securely uploaded to the Cloud using latest industry-standard protocols.

Want to see more smart tech? Check out our buying guide. And if you need help, or just have a question you’d like answered, why not have a chat with our experts in-store or online with ShopLive?