Not surprising but really gross: A woman in Connecticut started chemotherapy to fight cancer. It wasn’t long before her mailbox was full of ads for cremation services. How’d she get on their list? A data broker site sold her info. Medical information isn’t as protected as we’d like to think.
Best ways to block scam calls - And an easier way to stop scammers
When it comes to telemarketing and scam calls, the best thing to do is not pick up the phone. But it’s not always easy to tell whether an incoming call is legitimate — especially if your phone doesn’t show that scam or spam warning.
You want to stop these calls before they happen. I’ll show you how to use the settings built-in to your phone for this, but first, let’s talk about the best way to prevent spam in the first place.
Your number is all over the web
No wonder your phone is always blowing up with calls. I’ve spent more time then you’d believe removing my info from data broker and people search sites online. You know the ones, where your name, contact info and even your family members are listed.
Telemarketers and scammers are buying up that info to spam you with calls. Sure, you can go through one site at a time to clear out your data, but it takes forever.
That’s where Incogni comes in. It’s a personal data removal service that scrubs your info from the web. It handles the hard work for you. Seriously, it’d take hundreds of hours to do it all on your own.
Before I could recommend it to you, I tried it out myself. The process took me a few minutes, and I was immediately opted out of 27 databases, with 47 more requests sent. So easy.
Right now, get 60% off an annual subscription using code KIM60.
Block calls from your smartphone
Your phone has built-in security tools to protect you from scammers, and you should get to know one of the most basic: the block function.
If you get a call from a number you know is connected to a scammer or telemarketer, block it. You can do this as many times as you need to.
Block calls from your iPhone
I ticked off the creepy people-search sites, and you can, too
My son asked me where I lived for a few months in Los Angeles over 25 years ago. It was a gig working for Unisys that was far from memorable. He found that address at a free people search site, along with my other addresses and cell phone numbers. Nice.
Protect your privacy: How to stop apps and people from tracking your every move
Imagine if a data broker knows your phone is on a nightstand next to another phone six nights a week and across town on the seventh night. That data broker also knows everywhere you go and how long you stay there. Creepy.
How to delete yourself from people search sites
When’s the last time you did a search for your own name online? It’s fascinating, and sometimes a little eerie, to click through the results.
Some things you’ll find are just plain wrong, but there’s likely a lot of real info about you and your life floating around the web that you never realized — from your address to your relatives to where you work.
Massive leak exposes millions of social media profiles - here's what to do
Data breaches and leaks are never fun — especially when they affect a platform you frequently use. Usually, the most dangerous targets are e-commerce due to the fact that they include payment information. But the other most difficult breaches to contain involve social media platforms — all the personal data they contain.
Want to know what the future holds? Facebook has an app for that
Facebook has been churning out new products at a rate we haven’t seen before. From Zoom competitors to a proposed fiat currency, the world’s largest social network plans on cementing its relevance for some time to come.