Sunday, April 23, 2023

Reading for Treasure: Protecting Your Information and Privacy

Reading for Treasure is my list of articles (and other readings) that are worth your attention. Click here for an introduction.

Once again, here are some articles to keep you safe as you use your technology. Specifically, how to thwart being tracked or scammed by devices, websites, advertisers, and others. 

This video from CNN includes a password tip that is genius and I have never heard of before. I am not going to list it here, but listen for the word “salt” in the video: "Here's how to keep your passwords safe, according to a hacker.” 

Wired provided a simple and common sense list of “6 Things You Need to Do to Prevent Getting Hacked.” Read the article, but I’ll list them here: Use multifactor authentication, get a password manager, learn how to spot a phishing attack, update everything, encrypt everything, and wipe your digital footprint. If any of those terms are foreign to you, take it as a sign you need this article. 

A great compliment to the above article, Propublica’s article, “A Former Hacker’s Guide to Boosting Your Online Security.” provides a straight forward and simple list of ten things to preventing stolen data, identity theft, and other online hazards. Again, I’ll list them here, but read the article for more: stop reusing passwords, delete unused accounts, use multifactor authentication, manage your privacy settings, think before you click, keep your software up to date, limit what you’re sharing online, security your SIM, freeze your credit reports, and back up your data! 

Lifehacker is also a great source for digital safety. Here a short and simple article that lets you know “How to Tell Which Apps Can See Your Private iPhone Data.” It is an older article, but still worth reading. 

This somewhat scary article from The Conversation via Inverse is a good overview of how your use of technology may put your privacy at risk: “Here’s exactly how tech companies and apps conspire to track you 24/7.

Yes, emails can snitch on you. Many emails report back to their senders if you opened them, when you opened them, and even for how long you engaged with them. Want to stop this? Read this article from Wired: “How to Tell Which Emails Quietly Track You.” If you use Apple devices, this Lifehacker article, “How to Stop Email Trackers on Your iPhone, iPad, and Mac” will help you with this issue and more. 

A new form of hacking is to use free USB charging stations. Apple Insider discusses, “What juicejacking and trustjacking are, and how to protect yourself.” The basic piece of advice here is, if your phone asks you “Do you trust this computer?” or “Allow this device to access.. and you are not connected to your home computer, say, NO! 

How many of us have lost our phones or have had our phones stolen?  We may feel safe because our phone is locked with a passcode, fingerprint, or our face. Lifehacker says, “Your iPhone Is Still Vulnerable When It Is Locked” and then helps you secure it! 

And it is worse than that: Lifehacker provides instructions on how to use screen time on the iPhone to prevent a stolen phone from becoming a stolen Apple account or worse: "How Screen Time Can Save You When Your iPhone is Stolen." 


I am currently reading The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu


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