If you use Venmo, I want you to stop and take a moment to check its privacy settings. Your payment activity in Venmo may be visible to the world! I wager that many people would not want that, so I’ll describe how to hide your Venmo history: You’ll want to pay attention to two settings … Read more
More and more websites & tech companies are using your info to train their artificial intelligence. And not everyone wants that. So I am frequently asked: What I can do about it? Am I allowed to opt out of AI? It depends on the company: LinkedIn LinkedIn just opted everyone in to their AI program. … Read more
I am frequently asked on Facebook, “How can you tell?“, when I call out a bogus poster. And there’s no short answer. There are many, many different tells. I’ll try to compile them all here, as a “Guide to Spotting Fake Facebook Profiles.” Major Giveaways Does their Facebook URL match their Display Name? A lot … Read more
Is there anything that AI can’t do (badly)? I am a bit fascinated and alarmed to notice that AI-generated books are readily found online, available for purchase. If you’re not sure what a book written by AI looks like, here’s what I’ve learned so far: Amazon, Of Course Where will you find AI-generated books? Your … Read more
Many people are getting a scary type of message right now. It claims to be a legal notice about Walt Disney Studios and copyright infringement. While the email is realistic and scary-looking, I am sure it is a fake. If you receive this Meta Legal Phishing in your inbox, do not cooperate with it! The … Read more
DirecTV subscribers need to beware unexpected calls about upgrading their receivers. Anyone calling you to upgrade or replace your DirecTV receiver is likely a scammer. How The Scam Works A scammer calls and identifies himself as a DirecTV representative. They’ll claim that the DTV receivers in the house urgently need a software update. “We can … Read more
I have a lot of conversations that start with “Did you hear about the big data breach?” My response is typically: “Which one?”, because there are just so many of them. I honestly can’t keep track of all of them. Data breaches are, sadly, common, and there’s very little we can do to prevent them. … Read more
Posting about a missing person on Facebook just makes sense. Meta’s social media platform has incredible reach and spreads info extremely fast. But when you see such a post in your feed, don your critical thinking-cap before reacting. There are a few kinds of Missing Person Posts on Facebook. And each one merits a different … Read more
Not sure if you’re looking at a legitimate picture on the internet? Altered images and deepfakes abound on the web, especially with the creative help of AI. Here are some tools that might help in detecting manipulated photos: AI Detection Tools AI-generated content may be easy for some to spot. Look closely and you may … Read more
That email you just received about your Netflix account? Look closely, it may be a clever fake. Internet crooks know that almost everyone has a Netflix account by now. So scamming people with the Netflix name and logo probably seems like easy money to them. Here’s what to know and watch out for with Netflix … Read more