This third Tuesday Sweep of the month focuses on “Permissions.” The old saying goes “if you give ‘em an inch, they’ll take a mile,” and for many technology products that seems to be their motto for data collection. But not all products, and not all setting levels on all products.  This week think about the items and software you’ve let in the door, so to speak, and make sure they are being proper guests.

This topic is so big and mostly requires a change in habits overall than general to-do’s but here’s some tasks that will help.

  • When in doubt, remember to use the website, not the App. (more)

  • Spend 10 minutes moving unencrypted data (for example, email) older than ~3 months old to offline archive. (more)

  • Keep using privacy minded browsers and search engines, Spend 5 minutes clearing cookies and history as needed. (more)

  • Check dockets. Call your reps. (more)

  • Don’t let apps see your contact book, or spend time moving sensitive contacts into something else. (more)

  • (more)

  • Review your standards, move closer to them. (more)

  • Spend 10 minutes check your location sharing settings and clear out other location leaking data (more)

  • Spend 10 minutes changing the default setting on a service you use, social media, navigation, search engines etc. (more)