While data safety is probably the last thing people think about when they think of “online entertainment”, in fact, all kinds of gaming platforms need to be checked for safety as much as any other online merchant.
This is especially true for whatever platform that accepts money from you or sends you any monetary rewards. However, free platforms that “only” want your sensitive data and demand account registration should not enjoy your trust by default just because you don’t send them money. Regardless of what kind of online entertainment you choose, make sure you check the platform’s safety measures and policies.
SSL, Two-Factor Authentication, and Other Long Words
Online safety is something many people simply find boring. While many applications, websites, and services do make efforts to prevent safety breaches and make online activities as safe as possible for the users to do as little as possible, users themselves are often pretty careless.
When it comes to online entertainment, users can get excited about the new fun and opportunities they get, and forget about checking the platform’s reputation and reliability completely, even with the best online casinos apps lurking around.
However, things like SSL, cookies, privacy policies, and other data protection measures are crucial.
Today, most search engines warn users when a platform has no SSL certificate that protects the incoming and outgoing data from being collected and deciphered easily. However, being aware of the SSL presence or absence is one of the basic safety considerations. This is especially true for platforms that collect personal data via account registration and accept payments.
Two-factor authentication in particular, and all other measures in general that allow to ensure who signs in and uses an account is another layer of security to consider. Registering accounts only with well-known, reliable platforms, generating unique passwords for each account, and storing them safely are practices often ignored. Two-factor authentication or identity check by fingerprint enabled on the device/platform makes safety easier to achieve.
Eventually, it is crucial to check the platform’s privacy policy, terms of use, and other protocols for collecting and sharing their customers’ data. It is a boring but necessary reading.
Payment Processing
Free online entertainment is plenty but speaking of subscription-based services, checking out payment processing safety is a must.
It seems unbelievable but even these days, people tend to send money and share their payment data with unreliable or outright suspicious platforms because they are lured by the entertainment promised. So, regardless of what kind of fun you prefer, always check the payment methods and rules.
Paying for a streaming platform service to watch a new series or paying to $1 deposit casinos for Canadians to play some online slots is basically the same. You have to check out the list of available payment methods and choose the one that works best for you. Most of the time, you will have more than one option but unless you expect any type of cashback or reward from the platform, simply paying with your credit or debit card will work.
Checking the minimum transaction limits and fees is a good idea because some payment processing companies do charge higher fees than others. If you only want to send a couple of dollars, paying $2 in fees makes little sense.
Now, if you play online slots at casino sites, or you prefer video games where in-game rewards can be cashed out, payment methods and rules can become even more challenging.
Firstly, some systems simply do not allow accepting payments from online merchants. You will not be able to cash your rewards out via Visa, Mastercard, Neosurf, Apple Pay, or Google Pay. Instead, you can check Interac, Instadebit, iDebit, Trustly, or MuchBetter. With this in mind, it makes sense to deposit using the latter methods in the first place.
Secondly, there are always minimum and maximum transaction limits applied by these websites that differ from the ones set by the payment processing operators. So, again, to avoid unexpected financial limitations, always compare the sum you want to send or get and the fee applied within the allowed limit.
And last but not least is the internal operation currency. Some platforms, despite the fact that they operate in different jurisdictions, their internal default currency may be the one used in the jurisdiction the company is registered.
Free Games, Bonuses, and Loyalty Clubs
Free games and bonuses, loot boxes, rewards, and loyalty clubs are something that many users love. However, this is also the place where many users get caught in unfair, or outright fraudulent schemes.
The first thing to check is whether the sum of the bonus or reward is bigger than the money you initially invested in the game. If you have to pay $30 for a loot box in a video game to be able to withdraw a maximum of $50, the whole deal doesn’t seem advantageous. Also, in many cases, online casino bonuses, video game loot boxes, and comp points in loyalty clubs do not bring any benefit to the user in the first place.
