When you get some well-intended warnings, I say pay attention. And that brings me to this rather odd segue.
I was reading a magazine, and came across an article titled Clean Up Your Digital Trail. I almost flipped the page, but stopped when I read this: "You've probably accumulated a lengthy list of online accounts for everything from e-mail and social media sites to online search activities, purchasing history, and blogging platforms. Even if you stopped using the accounts ages ago, your digital footprints are still sitting there, a potential treasure trove of information for identity thieves."
When I'm writing, I do a lot of online searches. And I've been known to buy a few things from that big box store in the sky, like books. Also I shake in my buskins when I read "identity thieves," so I had to read on. I wanted to know the full extent of my digital vulnerability, and I wanted to know how to lessen it.
Here are some tips the article served up on sweeping those footprints away:
- Delete or deactivate shopping & social network accounts you no longer use. Go to account settings, option to deactivate, remove or close.
- Use incognito mode when you search from now on. Duck Duck Go is one incognito browser that I use.
- Get a VPN (Virtual Private Network) It creates a secure connection between your devices and the scary internet world.
- Deactivate old email accounts
- Check your privacy settings on frequently visited websites, especial social media sites.
- If you're in the EU, use the right to be forgotten option.
- Don’t click on nutty surveys. These are called "clickbait," as the article said, you give up a lot more than you get in return.
I hope this bit of spring cleaning wards off the evil identity thieves (shudder). After all, writers have enough to be insecure about. There are probably more things a writer can do to protect himself, so if you have some suggestions let us know in the comments.
Oh, and BTW, the Ides of March really is a good day. We might even have the first full moon of March. People used to celebrate when that happened. We should reinstate that tradition.
21 comments:
Loved the theme of your post Lee. A great read.
Yvonne.
Excellent information. Thank you for sharing.
I have deactivated some old accounts. (Plus found quite a few that went under all on their own. LOL)
Some great advice. Though I'm glad I haven't cleared out ALL my old abandoned Blogger blogs since I can't seem to start new ones on Blogger now so have to repurpose old ones.
I need to take some of these steps too. Thanks for the great advice.
Definitely something I should check out - thanks for the tips!!
Definitely need DuckDuckGo. Thanks for sharing your list.
Thanks for the tips. As a Ninja, I need to go incognito.
Thank for that! Time to do some online cleaning!
Thanks for all the tips. I'll be extra cautious now and make sure I don't leave a digital trail anywhere.
Great ideas and advice.
Great mind thinks alike. I used my husband's ipad to check this morning. I was surprised by many of the links under my name were no longer viable. My mistake. I deleted my old blog address when I should have kept it. But the designer moved everything over to my new one. Only if someone was looking for me, they'd get error. Better fix that, huh? Great post, Lee. You are a variable fountain of useful information.
I never thought about those old links still flying around cyberspace. I discovered my garden for eatin' blog is not on blogger anywhere. I lost all those wonderful pics and articles. But I can't blame them--it's been 5 years and I'm sure they need all the space they can get. I have the pictures in files, but will probably never look them up again. Thanks so much for the useful information.
I was thinking the other day what accounts I must have flying out there. Can't even remember the password to half of them. Had two old accounts some tried to hack. Nothing on em though.
This is such good advice. Now I'm trying to think of any old email accounts I had. Not many.
Great advice! I need to go and clean up my digital trail.
A full moon seems like a nice thing to celebrate.
Those are good tips. I get e-mails when old accounts I used to use were hacked, and they've certainly slowed down.
Great post and a solid list of reminders to clean house when we stop using certain sites. I recently had to change a password (legitimately while using a site) because they thought that password may have been compromised, and I had to look through my password book to find all the sites I may have used that particular one so I could change it. Ugh.
I like your quiz! I got 7/8, and only missed the final one because I got to second-guessing myself and marked it as phishing when it was legit. But I didn't miss any of the others . . . I guess I'm naturally suspicious.
Hi Lee - thanks for all these tips etc ... I'll be going through it - I hope! Cheers ... Hilary
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