While setting up your user account, you'll notice some additional options such as one that allows you to encrypt your home folder and another that will set up the system to automatically log you on without asking for your password. Your decisions on this screen have a major impact on the overall security of your data.

The first question is whether you should encrypt your home folder or not. If you do so, it would make it very difficult for a miscreant to gain access to your data if your device gets stolen. However, there is a significant trade-off. If you do encrypt your home folder, you'll defeat the entire purpose of having a separate /home partition in the first place. The reason for this is because it is very difficult to retain an encrypted home folder between one installation and another since a new installation would not contain a valid encryption key for the original home folder. Your choice here comes down to the classic battle between ease of use and...