Peggy Theisen

Password Protection: Choose safety over convenience

Who isn’t tempted to want to go for convenience and answer “Yes” when your computer asks if it should remember your password for certain accounts?

Of course it’s handy, but it can prove to be dangerous.

If your system were to be compromised, the hackers would be able to lift the password database and have access to information you’d rather keep secure and private.

And worse yet, if you use that password for more than one website (a big no-no!) those sites are also at risk.

Choose safety over convenience on this one. Think twice before allowing your browser to remember any of your passwords.

Facebook: Too much information?
One of the newer features of Facebook is Tag Suggest, which scans your photographs using facial-recognition technology. The system looks at characteristics such as the shape of the eyes and the distance between nose, eyes and ears. It then ties that face to a specific user’s name.

If you’d rather not have Facebook automatically recognize the faces in your photos — including friends, family, your children — disable that feature in your privacy settings.

Not only does Facebook know what you look like; it also keeps track of websites you visit via the “like,” “recommendations,” and similar buttons that so many sites include.

The “like” button sends along the date and time of your visit and your IP address, whether or not you click on it.

Even if you maximize your privacy settings, assume that anything you do on Facebook can be seen by all of your friends, your family, your employer, your health insurer and the government.