Monday, March 11, 2013

And I apparently need to wear a tin foil hat

I'm reading a book called Who's Spying on You? The looming threat to your privacy, identity, and family in the digital age. It's by Popular Mechanics, who before this book, I didn't think were tin foil hat wearing crazies. And maybe they're still not, but these authors definitely are.
For the most part, what they tell you to do is appropriate, and the smart thing to do-disable the location apps on your smartphone, turn off location services on your phone, do not allow apps to use your location unless necessary- or turn them on and off.
They also recommended watching your children's social security numbers, as any decent hacker can guess active SSN's, and your kid's identity is crap, all before they are 18. Which I've told Charlie about way before now.
One thing that the authors said was to avoid debit cards. Which is fine, but what they did say was unless you wanted to go totally off grid, stick with credit cards. Which is all fine and good- credit card companies are used to fending off cyber hacks, and will alert you/stop transactions. HOWEVER, I am willing to take that one step further. Which just goes back to my love of Dave Ramsey. Pay cash. The hackers can't steal your money or your identity, and you can only spend what you have. So yes, I have officially put on my tin foil cap.
But- it goes back to my love of frugality. I'm frugal, my husband's a cheap ass. ;) there's a difference.

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