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This tool can help you stay safe while using Messenger

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By now you’re probably aware that Facebook and other popular social media sites are favorite playgrounds for the hackers and scammers of the world.

Unfortunately, those same miscreants are using Facebook’s hugely-popular Messenger app to perpetrate their evil deeds as well.

I’ve written about several dangerous Messenger-related scams and hoaxes in the past, and I’ll continue bringing you the information you need to avoid the new ones that will inevitably pop up in the future.

But today I want to tell you about a valuable resource that Facebook has created that can help you recognize many new scams the first time you see them pop up in your Messenger inbox.

[Read more…]

Why your smart (IoT) devices need their own dedicated user accounts

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Do you own (or plan to acquire) one or more ‘smart devices’ such as a smart speaker, an IP camera, a video doorbell, etc.? If so, here’s a little tip for you…

Virtually all smart IoT devices that connect to the Internet collect various types of data about you, your home and/or your family’s activities and send that info back to the company that made the device.

Of course some data collection and transfer activities are essential in order for the device to serve its intended purpose (an IP camera capturing video and sending it to your remote smartphone, for example), but depending on the device and how it is used some of the data that’s collected can be quite intrusive.  [Read more…]

Warning: Don’t depend on Facebook’s privacy settings to protect your sensitive info

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Many Facebook users believe setting the privacy level of their posts and photos to “Friends” will prevent their private/sensitive info from ever being seen by a stranger.

Unfortunately, that isn’t necessarily the case.

While “Friends” is the safest privacy level available (short of “Only Me”), it can’t put a pick-proof lock on the things you post on your Facebook profile.

One recent incident drives this point home quite well…

[Read more…]

Warning: Setting everything to Friends on Facebook won’t protect your personal info and photos

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I write a lot about Facebook security, and I usually include one very important tip…

Set the privacy level for most everything on your Facebook account to Friends.

While I still strongly recommend that you do that, it’s important to remember that simply setting everything to “Friends” won’t guarantee that your personal info will never be seen by a nefarious stranger.  [Read more…]

Q&A: Does uploading photos to Facebook transfer their copyright to them?

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Question from Darla:  Hi, Rick. I hope you can answer a Facebook question for me.

I’m an amateur photographer but I’m hoping to go pro before too long.

I regularly upload some of my best photos to my Facebook profile to get feedback from my friends and other photographers.

I was chatting with one of my photographer friends the other day and she said once I upload a photo to Facebook they automatically become the copyright holder of that photo and they can do anything they want to with it.  [Read more…]

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