Spring is officially here. Warmer weather, more daylight, and April showers are bringing us May flowers. It's a beautiful time. It's also a time when people do some overdue cleaning that they have been putting off. Usually, this involves cleaning your household, but you should also use spring cleaning for your digital life as well. You should do this often, but now is as good a time as ever to do so. Here are some ways to get started:
1.) Delete old accounts - Any accounts that you don't use anymore should be deleted. This includes social media, shopping, subscriptions, etc. There is no need to have them sit there while the website keeps hosting your data. Deletion means that they will no longer contain your information (though they may keep some due to "business or legal interest"). It's also just one less thing you have to worry about.
2.) Change Passwords - You should look through all your passwords and change them if they haven't been updated recently, especially if they are weak. Use a password generator to create strong passwords and an encrypted password manager to store them for your convenience.
3.) Update account settings - Make sure any privacy and security settings are to your liking, and make the necessary changes if need be. This is important because sometimes you get no heads-up about certain changes to services. For example, Twitter and their video and audio calling had no prior announcement, and it was on by default. Or with LinkedIn, which recently changed my "Visibility" settings for no reason, and I had to change them back. Also, sometimes you just want to make changes, so make sure you check the settings.
Here are additional tips to consider for spring cleaning:
Clean up your email account(s) and switch over to an encrypted email provider
Organize photos and documents with encrypted services
Get reliable anti-virus software for your laptop or computer
If you know of any other spring cleaning tips for our digital lives, please feel free to leave them in the comments.
Until Next Time,
Monique 🌸
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