ArticlesAn archive of Privacy Parent’s original content designed to help increase your privacy literacy.
An archive of Privacy Parent’s original content designed to help increase your privacy literacy.
April 11th, 2023
Face filters, in-app features that allow you to alter your appearance, present themselves as innocuous fun. Look! I have puppy eyes! But like just about everything app-related (and like most topics we cover here) there’s a downside. Two, really: They can be creepy—especially “age filters”—and they’re awful when it comes to users’ privacy, providing permanent “faceprints” to the companies that own them.
Let’s focus on those age filters. These are filters that allow…... Continue reading >
March 23rd, 2023
You may have suspected this already, but deepfake videos, in which footage is heavily manipulated, are here. And, predictably, they’re alarming. Students in a school about an hour north of New York City recently fabricated a video that showed—even though it never happened—a middle school principal going on a racist rant. To be clear, the principal didn’t say what the video showed him saying. And that, of course, is what’s so alarming.
It offers…... Continue reading >
February 26th, 2023
Your infant grandson sitting on the (endlessly patient) family dog. His older sister’s kindergarten portrait. The giddy dance they perform every time you play “Yellow Submarine.” They’re all moments you cherish and want to remember. And you know your friends would love them, too. So you do what so many of us do now. You share them. Not just with your closest confidants, but with hundreds of “friends” and countless people you’ll never meet.
... Continue reading >
February 1st, 2023
Even our government is making money off of your personal data. Sure, it’s legal, but is it right?
You likely know that mega businesses, such as Amazon, social media and search engine companies, collect vast amounts of data about us. That’s so they can target their goods and services more precisely to customers. It’s all in the name of helping advertisers reach specific audiences and demographics.
And…... Continue reading >
December 27th, 2022
Every year we make New Year’s resolutions. Sometimes we succeed, often we don’t. Either way, resolutions can be useful. They indicate an awareness that something about the way we live needs to change. For many of us, the way we use technology—smartphones, fitness trackers, social media—needs to change. So here are a handful of resolutions aimed at improving our relationship with tech. They’ve got two things going for them: they’re important…... Continue reading >
January 6th, 2023
Remember those “This is your brain on drugs” ads with the egg in the frying pan? The New York Times has an interesting article out about research exploring how the heavy use of social media can affect teens’ brains. As one of the researchers put it, “teens who are habitually checking their social media are showing these pretty dramatic changes in the way their brains are responding, which could potentially have long-term consequences well into adulthood, sort…... Continue reading >
January 4th, 2023
They’re tracking your days. Now they want to track your nights, too.
At bedtime, the last thing you should have to think about is a large, multinational corporation bent on keeping track of your activity while you slumber. But in this era of permanent connection, in which personal data is the new currency, surveillance is a round-the-clock concern.
Amazon’s Halo Rise is the latest effort to collect and monetize information…... Continue reading >
December 2nd, 2022
Here’s a quick tip on how NOT to make your wish list this holiday season. Don’t send links. If you’ve got a bunch of gift ideas to share with someone, write them down. Type them out. Talk about it. But don’t send an email or text full of links. Here’s why.
You scour the internet for the things you want to buy for the holidays. Your partner does the same. Your kids, online natives…... Continue reading >
November 25th, 2022
It can be wild out there, with a galaxy of websites competing for your dollars and data. Here are seven quick tips to make your Black Friday and Cyber Monday safe(r).
Be skeptical. If a deal looks too good, it probably is. Move on. Use a VPN. If you’re visiting more sites than usual, you’re also leaving more footprints than usual, scattering your personal all over the internet. A VPN will help…... Continue reading >
November 4th, 2022
Is Messenger Kids OK for your kids? Sort of. Here’s what you should know.
Messenger Kids is an app designed for children for messaging and video calls that runs on Fire tablets and iOS and Android phones and tablets. This free app is from Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), which designed Messenger Kids so parents can control its settings.
The target audience is kids, which Meta wants to bring into its platform…... Continue reading >