Living Tech
May 16th, 2022
It’s not as if we lost our privacy all at once. We’ve given away little bits of it here and there, exchanging personal information for the conveniences and genuine solutions our increasingly tech-ified world provides. But your privacy matters. Your personal data is yours. It’s worth protecting. Here are 10 baby steps you can take to protect your privacy.
Turn off Location Services. Not too deep in your phone’s privacy settings you’ll find “Location…... Continue reading >
May 4th, 2022
Seeing is no longer believing. Welcome to the world of deepfakes.
Video-editing software has advanced to the point that it’s no longer just the movie studios who can make the impossible seem real (think Luke Skywalker’s recent Mandalorian cameos).
Made with equipment available to the general public, deepfakes can appear to the casual observer to be an actual recording of a real person and event. In truth, it’s a manipulated—or, in…... Continue reading >
March 2nd, 2022
We’re going to lose it with the EARN IT Act. Let us explain.
The Senate is currently considering the Eliminating Abuse
and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act (EARN IT), a bill presented
as essential to the protection of children from online sexual predators and
abuse. Needless to say, we can all agree that children deserve that kind of
protection.
The thing is, existing federal, state and local laws already provide that protection. Still, what’s…... Continue reading >
February 24th, 2022
A little relief from cross-app tracking? Maybe. It’s not all tech-doom and gloom here on Privacy Parent.
As noted by PC Magazine, Google has just announced it will no longer allow cross-app tracking on Android phones, which make up 71 percent of smartphones. In the ongoing effort to keep at least some of your personal digital information to yourself and out of advertisers’ hands, that’s good news. Google is hardly faultless, but this…... Continue reading >
January 26th, 2022
Blockchain has become a household name and a pop-culture staple. And yet, for many, it’s still a mystery.
In its simplest form, blockchain is a digital ledger. It keeps track of transactions and creates a permanent record of digital activity, leaving no dispute as to who owns something or to whom ownership has been transferred in the past. But blockchain isn’t the item, but it is an essential part of the package because it…... Continue reading >
January 11th, 2022
The Council of the European Union, the European Commission, and the European Parliament adopted the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) to protect people’s personal data and privacy when visiting a website. Through the GDPR, websites are now required to disclose to users when cookies are employed to track their digital footprint and allow users to opt out. Most users find it cumbersome to complete the process and disregard the option. There is also regulation that…... Continue reading >
September 2nd, 2021
You may not know about data brokers, but it’s their job to know about you. Creepy, right? Let’s even the playing field a bit.
You have to be constantly vigilant to protect yourself and your family when going online. A case in point is the issue of data brokers. Parents need to be aware of data brokers because they are companies that exist to gather a huge amount of information on people.
... Continue reading >
May 14th, 2021
You’re going to be traveling again soon. Here’s a reminder: Watch your wifi. And while you’re at it, start using a VPN.
Summer is approaching and pandemic restrictions are lifting. You and your family will be on the move again, which means you’ll be connecting to the internet through unfamiliar networks. Be careful and watch your WiFi.
Using public and semi-public WiFi networks can leave you vulnerable to “man in…... Continue reading >
July 15th, 2021
Every generation benefits from the advances and suffers from
the mistakes made by its predecessors. Many of the problems we face today were
created decades, if not centuries, ago. Climate change, social disparity,
racism—messes we didn’t make but messes we live with and try to clean up
nonetheless.
Our generation is no different, though the mess we’re leaving for our kids is entirely without precedent. The Digital Age, which dawned with the Internet and blossomed with the advent…... Continue reading >
March 17th, 2021
If you’re reading this from anywhere but China, you probably don’t have a Sesame Score. But if you care at all about internet privacy and security, you should know what it is.
The Chinese government has created a social credit monitoring system to look over every member of its population. It’s called Zhima Credit and is popularly known as Sesame Credit or China’s Sesame Score. It was developed by Ant Financial, which is…... Continue reading >