The Wall Street Journal had an article about to recover your phone, with tips whether it’s lost under the couch or stolen. You can read about it at http://blogs.wsj.com/personal-technology/2014/05/28/lookout-app-finds-stolen-smartphones-with-a-theftie/.
Comcast and “Recover deleted (email) items”
If you login to comcast.net to check your email, you are familiar with deleting messages. You are also familiar with emptying the Trash folder. However, are you aware that your messages are NOT always gone?
There is a new option when you click on the down arrow next to Trash – it says “Recover deleted items.”
If you do not like this feature, please call to complain to Comcast, and reference ticket number CR368095734.
Financial vulnerability as we age
The Wall Street Journal has an excellent article about how aging impacts our ability to see “bad things.” From their article “Finances and the Aging Brain”: “…investors … can end up victims of financial predators, and new findings in psychological and neuroscientific research are helping to explain why. As people age, they become more focused on maximizing positive emotions and social interactions—and more determined to block out negative experiences. This process, which experts call socioemotional selectivity, leads older people—including the affluent—to pay more attention to those who make them feel content and comfortable. At the same time, they are more likely to neglect warning signs that might have been obvious at a younger age.”
You can find the article here:
WhiteHat Aviator
WhiteHat Aviator is probably the most secure browser, built with security and privacy in mind from the bottom up. At the moment (March 15, 2014), you can only download it for an Apple computer from their website (https://www.whitehatsec.com/aviator/). Technically, it is in beta (testing), but it seems to be fairly reliable. Once installed, the settings automatically disable tracking cookies, caching (storing), and history. The search engine within it is DuckDuckGo, which is also heavy into security and privacy.
If you have Gmail, if you use Google Docs, you have a Google account. At least yearly, review your settings. If you have time, you might also want to read its terms and services.
Here’s just one line for example: “We may collect device-specific information (such as your hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information including phone number). Google may associate your device identifiers or phone number with your Google Account.”
What they don’t say is why, or what they do with it. Can you guess? Yes, to track you, to build up a more complete profile about you, to better serve ads to you.
You may not remember, but I did join Facebook a while back – and then decided to drop out of it. I didn’t like the way they were headed, and I still don’t.
To help protect yourself, be sure to check all of its settings – you might be surprised as to what’s being shared, and with whom. Not just the privacy settings, but also look at the Applications settings to see which ones have access to your Facebook info.
On Twitter’s application page, you will find a list of apps and services that currently access your Twitter profile. You should remove all the ones that are unnecessary. If in doubt about one, remove it – you should be able to add it back later if it is necessary.
Credit Cards 2
A lot of credit card fraud occurs here because the United States relies upon magnetic stripes on the back of the cards – easy to counterfeit.
However, over the next 18 months, more debit and credit card issuers will issue plastic with a microchip inside that will transmit a unique code each time you use it in person. This will enable us to be one step ahead of the bad guys for a short time at least.
Credit Cards
Banks offering credit cards have different security measures that you CAN use. For example, Capital One users can “turn on text or email alerts that will arrive when their balance goes above or below an amount that the customer sets, when a charge occurs above or below a certain amount, when any charge occurs at all, or if a transaction doesn’t go through because there isn’t enough money in the checking account.”
“Citibank can ping you if you’re within a set distance from your credit limit. Chase will text you if its systems detect an unusual charge and let you reject it on the spot.”
With Amex, you can receive an alert whenever someone gets a cash advance using the card .
Something that I think everyone should use is a “virtual” or “one-time use” card number. This feature is offered at least by Bank of America and Citibank. You ask or sign up for this one-time use number, and give it to just one online shopping site (iTunes, Lands End, whatever) – if it’s stolen, no problem – it cannot be used again! You can ask for as many of these as you need.