Nancy LeaMond: Enjoy Life Online, But Be Savvy & Stay Safe!
Remember life before the Internet? If you're 50+, like I am, you do. But you're not reminiscing the good old days. You're increasingly going online to research healthcare choices, manage your finances, plan your retirement and vacation, buy baseball tickets and groceries, and socialize with family, friends, even strangers, by emailing or blogging.
Life online brings great rewards and risks, particularly to our personal privacy. To help you stay safe online and protect yourself, AARP and Google have created a series of online consumer safety videos that you can watch on the Google Privacy Channel on YouTube and on AARP.org's online safety page.
Our videos offer tips for using passwords safely, enabling firewalls, shopping and sharing information wisely, and avoiding online scams like phishing and other ploys.
While you can't eliminate every risk, these tips can help you reduce the chance your personal information will be hijacked. Whether you're searching for doctors, dates, limousine drivers, or donut shops with online search engines or simply surfing the web for fun, our videos will help you be smart and protect yourself.
I hope you'll use our new online consumer safety videos and share them with family and friends!
Here are a few tips from our videos that I hope that you'll follow:
- Firewalls are your friend: They ensure that only trusted servers interact with your computer. Be sure your firewall is enabled.
- Passwords are key: Make them easy for you to remember, but hard for others to guess. Never use social security numbers, birthdates, addresses or other easily found information.
- Acronyms get A+: Use a phrase you can't forget - like I Bought My Car in 2005 - and use the acronym, IBMCI2005, as a password.
- Beware of public computers: When accessing websites in your public library, a government office or friend's house, never click on a "Remember me on this computer" prompt.
- Inoculate your pc against viruses: Use anti-virus and anti-spy ware software and always keep them up to date.
- Be savvy when shopping and sharing: The Internet is an easy way to share emails, photos, and blog posts. But use the sharing controls provided by the service you're using. For example, when using AARP's photo-sharing service, use sharing controls to ensure that your family vacation photos stay within your family.
And as always, don't forget to check for daily updates on all the latest news you can use on both AARP's blog, ShAARPsession and the Official Google Blog. Have fun, and stay safe!
Tags: computers, Google, internet, Nancy LeaMond, online safety
Comments
Darlene Shaner says:
We need to know just what we are paying for in this bail out bill.
How much of the money will go to just a piece of paper with nothing behind it.? ALSO, the execs who were responsible should lose their jobs. GOOD OVERSIGHT should choose those worthy of help and those who are not. John McCain was part of the savings and loan disaster and should not be trusted to play fast and loose with no regulations ever again.
10/01/08 10:52 AM
Mario Carrier says:
If we do little else for homeowners, we should make sure their real estate taxes are adjusted appropriately.
10/02/08 12:29 PM
Personal Loans says:
Because of the huge financial problems that we are experiencing nowadays, of course we must be familiar with the things on how to save money. Die hard baseball fans may be in a period of mourning – the season is over after the conclusion of the World Series. They may be able to rejoice because we now enter the ”Hot Stove League” – or the period of time where free agents showcase their talents to attract new contracts and teams to play for. The players have had to fight for years to have the right to attach themselves to the team that they wished to play for. In the past, players could be bought, sold, or fired at the management’s whims, regardless of anything the player had to say, whatsoever. This kept salaries low, along with their shelf lives. There was no competition for player’s services, at all. In a similar manner, you, the consumer, can look for personal loans as you see fit. Personal loan companies should compete for your business, the same way that teams should compete for players. This manner of competition keeps rates and terms low and reasonable – the way the business market should function. This means that proprietors and consumers all win – the way American business should conduct itself. Click to read more on Personal Loans.
11/26/08 1:52 AM