Privacy advocates are working to prevent the worst and most extreme outcomes of personal data collection. They know that without checks and balances—without consumers knowing their rights and actively protecting their own privacy and personal data—that data could be used unethically. Privacy is your right. But in our digital, interconnected world, privacy only really consists…
Mobile payment can transform your shopping experience, making it more convenient and easy—and it’s secure, too! Forbes reports, “Shopping has become very impersonal. Few people have a relationship with a salesperson who knows their style and preferences and can direct them to the right items at the right prices as soon as they walk in…
The practice of mCommerce (or M-commerce) is using a mobile phone to make purchases. Like credit card transactions, your card/device can be either present or not present. Mobile payment has been around for years in numerous forms for purchases such as downloading music, ringtones and various other services, and it is now gaining traction for…
Whether it is called a keylogger, spyware or monitoring software, it can be the equivalent of digital surveillance, revealing every click and touch, every download and conversation. A keylogger (short for keystroke logger) is software that tracks or logs the keys struck on your keyboard, typically in a covert manner so that you don’t know…
The whole purpose of your “youth” is to grow and learn. It’s time to take in lots of information, so ultimately they can evolve, accomplish, and get ahead. However the pressure to grow and climb the ladder of life often leads to unwanted behaviors and actions that lead to significant negative consequences. And with everyone…
The word botnet is short for robot network, a group of internet-connected computers that have been infected by a malicious application. The malware allows a hacker to control the infected computers without alerting the computers’ owners. Since the infected computers are controlled remotely, they are known as bots, robots or zombies. When a virus recruits…
You already know what a keyless lock is. It’s simply a “combination lock,” but much more advanced and sophisticated than the ones you had on your high school locker. The old combo locks required three turns in a clockwise/counterclockwise direction to open. Combo locks are cumbersome, confusing and sometimes don’t pass the “grandmother test”. But…
It’s time to face the fact that for most of us, email is the single most important digital asset we own: more than anything else, it is our digital DNA. To some degree, email is connected to every online account we have; it contains the username, password reset, and an archive of most of our…
The news of the NSA spying using PRISM should not come as a surprise to anyone in the intelligence community. Electronic spying is as normal as breathing. And when a 27-year-old American traitor with little life experience (he was 15 when 9/11 hit) blows the lid off of a current spy program, it’s time to…
Mobile technology is the new frontier for fraudsters. Most of us don’t protect our smartphones or tablets—and the private information they contain—anywhere near as well as we do our wallets and PCs (even though most us would rather lose our wallets vs. our smartphones). Even the simple safeguard of a four-digit password is too much work…
