Podcast: Play in new window | Embed
Consumer Reports joined Into Tomorrow this week to suggest maintaining and cleaning your accounts and devices:
It’s a new year. It’s time to treat your online accounts, laptops, and phones the way you handle a garage or a closet. Digital accounts and electronics need regular cleaning and maintenance, just like shelves full of motor oil and cleaners. Consumer Reports electronics spokesman James McQueen is here with some recommendations on how to spruce up and protect your gear.
Here’s your digital maintenance to-do list:
Fix your passwords. Try to create new passwords for each of your app and website accounts. This prevents one compromised password from creating multiple breaches. When it comes to passwords, the longer and more nonsensical, the better.
And use a password manager, which can be a huge time-saver.
Do a security check. It seems as if we hear of a new data breach almost every week. To see whether your personal info was swept up in the hacks at LinkedIn, Adobe, Dropbox, or Yahoo, plug your email addresses and user names into haveibeenpwned.com.
The website takes your user info and matches it up with the publicly leaked data. It also lets you sign up to receive notifications if your accounts get compromised in the future.
Unsubscribe from unwanted emails. Though you could spend an afternoon opening every last email and clicking on the unsubscribe link, there’s an easier way to clean house. It’s called Unroll.me, and it wades through your inbox and compiles a list of subscriptions. From there, you can pick and choose what to keep and what to jettison.
For more info on this story, visit ConsumerReports.org.
Chris recommended an app that he’s been playing with:
Looking to make a reservation at a nearby restaurant? OpenTable allows you to discover, explore, and manage restaurant reservations free and instantly—anytime, anywhere. And it’s an app I use all the time. You can make restaurant reservations, you can research restaurants in your area and read reviews from other users. Have a large party, you can search for availabilities by things like party size, cuisine type, price or distance. You can send OpenTable invites to friends and easily add your reservations to your calendar. It’s a great tool when traveling, especially when you don’t know what kind of restaurants are nearby. The app works in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, England, Ireland, Germany, Australia and Japan. You can even earn points when you make and keep reservations, earning your way towards free dining at participating restaurants.
