Here's a list of things to keep in mind for keeping yourself safer online


Here's how to enable (depending on what browser you use) Global Privacy Control


Blocking webpages not on your network from getting to localhost in your browser via uBlock Origin


Here's a link to easy ways you can help prevent identity theft

How to find when you created your gmail.com account

Just for the record, I did it and saw that I created mine in July 2004.

Now that 23andMe is having financial problems you'd be wise to delete your information with them before it gets sold or goes to another company that might use it for different reasons.

Unfortunately, requesting the data deleted doesn't necessarily mean that all backups of that data is also deleted but at least this is something...

Have you see the ads for Home Title Lock? Ignore them - it's a scam

If you've seen commercials or gotten mailers talking about locking your home title rest easy - this is just a scam and can be ignored.

Have you received a text about unpaid road tolls? It's probably a scam

If you get one of these texts just delete it... if you even have driven anywhere that has toll roads in the first place.

Keep your Venmo information private

You'll want to do this otherwise it's possible for trolls, stalkers, ex-spouses, and law enforcement to easily access, and potentially exploit not only your contact lists, but your friends' contact lists if those are also set to "Public"

Keep uBlock Origin working with Chrome til June 2025

Google is making at update to Chrome so that uBlock Origin will stop working in November 2024. The following is the way to keep it working through June 2025
After June 2025 when uBlock Origin stops working the option will be to install uBlock Origin Lite. This can be done at any time but should be done before June 2025 in order to have ads blocked. Or you could switch to using Firefox and not worry about it.

Stop the "Login with Google" from popping up.

Note: this requires your browser (such as Firefox),to have uBlock Origin installed
Update: Here's an even better way to block all of that sort of thing from happening. Here's what the config should look like (the numbers may be slightly different; that's okay) after checking the boxes:


Updating PayPal settings to prevent data going to merchants

PayPal is looking to exchange data with merchants and third party advertisers "to help improve your shopping experience and make it more personalized" Here's a couple of stories that describe in more details what is happening - techradar, dailydot, MSN.
Here's how to opt out of this:

Places to check/update in case (i.e. when) a data broker gets hacked and loses your personal information

There was a huge data breach of a company called National Public Data and much of the data that this company has gathered (reports say 2.7 to 2.9 million records) was placed out on the Internet. Here's just a couple of articles if you want to read more... or do a web search for "National Public Data breach" to find your own stories:
Here's a couple of stories that describe in more detail what happened - CBS News, CNBC, Krebs on Security, National Public Data.

There is a question of what time period the affected data covers but there was so much data involved that it's possible that your personal information (i.e. date of birth, SSN, address) is found somewhere in the data. If you want to check if your personal info is in the data that was stolen go here: ndp.pentester.com. If you're found in the search results from this it will show your SSN with asterisks covering key data but be aware that the actual data stolen has everything and isn't heavily edited as the results show. There are services that will work on deleting your info off of the Internet if this is of interest:
Optery - They have a free level that does something... not sure how effective it would be though.
DeleteMe - goto the URL and use the code "TWIT" to get 20% off
Incogni - check for deals; currently (as of 15-Oct-2024 they have 55% for a year)