Rick's Daily Tips

Scam alert: Did you recently cross the US/Canada border? If so, your identity could be at risk of being stolen.

Posted on June 12, 2019

Have you recently crossed the international border between the United States and Canada?

If so, there’s a chance that hackers could now be in possession of photos of your face and your car’s license plate.

The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agency has just announced that one of the contractors that supplies facial recognition cameras for use at border crossings has been hacked, and the hack resulted in about 100,000 border-crossers having their photos and license plate numbers stolen.

In case you’re wondering what mischief the hackers can do with that very limited amount of information, the answer is a lot.

[Read more…]

Q&A: Can I remove the Xbox app from my Windows 10 PC?

Posted on June 9, 2019

Question from Phillip H.: I really enjoy your site, Rick. I’ve learned a lot by reading your tips. I hope you can help me solve problem I’m having.

I just bought three new HP desktop computers for my office and they all have Windows 10 on them.

When I was setting them up I uninstalled several pre-installed apps that I know my employees won’t need. But there are a couple of apps that I can’t uninstall because I can’t find a way to do it.

My question is do you know of a way to remove an app besides right-clicking on it and clicking “Uninstall”? The one I’d really like to remove is the Xbox app because I don’t want it on my office computers.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I get Google to stop putting pictures in my search suggestions?

Posted on June 7, 2019

Question from Jeanne: Hi Rick. I really like your site and all the useful info you provide. I’ve really learned a lot about computers since I started following it.

I have a question that I hope you can answer for me.

When I got to work this morning and started using my computer I noticed that Google is now putting little pictures in the search suggestions when I type something into the address bar.

This isn’t good because I deal with the public and they can see my screen while I’m working. I’d hate for a “bad” picture to pop up while I’m searching for something and have them see it.

Is there any way I can turn that off to keep the pictures from popping up when I search?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I view the source code of a web page in Microsoft’s Edge browser?

Posted on June 3, 2019

Question from Ari G.: I recently bought my first computer with Windows 10 and overall I really like it, especially the Edge browser.

I do have a question about using Edge though, and I’m hoping you can answer it for me.

How do you view a page’s source code in Edge?

In all the other browsers I’ve used you just right-click on the page and click “View Source”. But Edge apparently doesn’t have that option.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Scam alert: Some of the most popular iPhone apps send your personal info to third-parties!

Posted on May 31, 2019

Apple’s iPhones and their other iOS-based devices have long had a stellar reputation for carefully guarding the user data contained on those devices.

However, the results of a new study could easily rip that stellar reputation to threads.

According to this recent article by Washington Post Technology Columnist Geoffrey Fowler, the study found that iPhones leak personal information like a sieve via their installed apps, sometimes in direct contradiction of the apps’ own stated privacy policies.

[Read more…]