A Basic Guide to Digital Safety

They’re watching you. Every word you say, every video you watch, every letter that enters that chat box, is recorded. They know where you are. They know what you are like. They are almost always there.

No, this isn’t the transcript of a trailer for a dystopian sci-fi movie. This is real life. PLEASE don’t call me paranoid, or conspiracy theorist, or enemy of the state, or whatever for saying it, but I am referring to the object that you probably used to get here: your phone or computer. Or rather, the people behind it.

Take, for instance, this common occurrence. Let’s say that you watched a video on paper clips on your phone. Or, even better, you had a conversation about paper clips. Then you go, a few minutes later, and look up another video, and there’s an ad about paper clips. You may brand it as coincidence, but then you talk about pens and then there’s an ad about a new pen. Then it happens with lunch meat. And so on, and so forth. I’ve seen it many times before. This isn’t just normal. The big phone and data companies have a reason.

On a saner level, there are all manners of hackers who will work to their heart’s content to access your rich, juicy data. Imagine how powerful info on what videos you watch on paper clips could be to them.

Point is, you need security. If you don’t have security, your livelihood is open to whomever. They’ll take your obsession with paper clips and glean out your email address and scam you with the perfect letter from the office. Fortunately, security isn’t too hard to find. Here are some basic rules for security you should follow to be a safer digital self.

• Use safer passwords. “Potato-Chips” is not a very secure password. “PoTa20cH19s” is a step in the right direction, but still not too secure. “I`H9qZ(&lh?a.veE\-`x#dtu?u./]e” is a much safer option. Please don’t copy my good password. Many websites have them already built in to account creation, and there are plenty of online sites dedicated to it. It’s not too hard, especially with the next entry.
• Don’t store your passwords in your browser. You might be proud of that 60-character password, but if it’s stored in the relatively unsafe browser, the hacker doesn’t need to figure it out: he simply hacks your account and opens your browser. BOOM. Your data is lost. You can put it on a sheet of paper, but try a digital password database manager. (You can easily back stuff up if needed. See below.) KeyPassX is simple, efficient, and works on all systems. Get it at https://www.keepassx.org/. And delete all those old browser password entries.
• Don’t be forced to give away all your info. You don’t have to use your primary Gmail account for every single new thing you sign up for. Create a fake one on another site! Change your age! Say you live in Wyoming (or if you’re in Wyoming, Alaska)! Make subtly false data so you can deter the hackers. Just don’t do it all the time. Especially on .gov sites.
• Don’t use the Internet as often. Come on. If you get hacked every time you watch too many paper clip memes, stop watching too many paper clip memes.

There are also some more heavy-handed approaches to safety. If you can be a tad paranoid, consider these options.

• Use safer online software. Edge is not the best option all the time. Browsers like Waterfox (https://www.waterfox.net/download/), Brave, (https://try.bravesoftware.com/quk420/), or Tor (https://www.torproject.org/download/) are much safer than Edge, or Chrome. You could also move off of Google, since it has a habit of recording your info.
• Backup often. Spend a little on a hard drive, or even better, burn your data to a disk. Put it in a safe and you can’t get much safer.
• Consider a platform change. Hey. We might be Windows or Apple afficionados. But Linux or other open-source, nonprofit software will cut off the rooted-in recording stuff. (If you have a phone, try Lineage OS. It’s a safe version of Android.) The geekiness required is worth it.

There’s an Apple ad which features a lady standing in a passing crowd. She’s yelling into a megaphone, “My credit card number is yadda yadda yadda.” Don’t be that lady, especially in the digital-online world we’re in. Try some safety measures and you will find you are much freer from hacking. And paper clip ads.