Today on Bud’s Weekly Geek-out . . . Data Privacy Day (yup, it’s a thing, and has been for five years) was Monday, so Bud shares a heapin’ helpin’ of advice on appreciating and protecting your personal information.
- Everything you post online is potentially there forever, whether or not you delete it; backup servers are all the rage. That drunk party photo, swear-tastic rage post, or embarrassing video may be easier to find than you think. And this could be by a potential employer, your parents, your grandparents, your significant other, or your kid.
- Geotagging your photos is a great way to leave a trail of where you’ve been and, in many cases, make it easy to predict where you’re going to be.
- Using a password with upper case, lower case, numbers, spaces, symbols, and whatnot is AWESOME. Unless you use it at every website you visit. If your password for one site gets figured out, your security at every other site is in danger.
- Every piece of your information that’s out there, like your full name, age, city, workplace, phone number, address, etc., etc. makes it easier for someone to gather a dossier on you and steal your identity.
- Free WiFi is stupid easy to hack, and then everything you do on it can be seen and schlooped away by someone on the same network using the right software.
- If you don’t have SOME kind of password or pattern lock on your phone or tablet or laptop, and you lose it, whoever finds it could wander through all your photos, texts, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, call logs, browsing history, calendar, passwords, and anything else you have stored on there with no problem. Make sure you have some kind of home phone number on your lock screen in case somebody kindhearted finds it and wants to get it back to you.
We love you too much to be identity thefted. =) Bud
http://www.staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-day/everyone-resources/
