Cambridge-Analytica

Cambridge Analytica: My Takeaways

As the developing story about political data firm Cambridge Analytica unfolds, I’m sure you are asking the questions What now? How do I protect myself? Should I quit Facebook? I encourage you to ask as many questions as you can handle. Keep asking until you understand, keep looking until you are satisfied.

Need an Update on Cambridge Analytica?

I went live yesterday (about Facebook on Facebook, I know) to give an overview of the issue, mention what Facebook had done up until that point, my thoughts, and how you can protect yourself. Watch the video and share, if you like. This blog is many of the resources I promise in the video. Continue reading →

Get Those Social Media Keys Back!

When anyone with access to your digital assets or social media accounts leaves your organization, make sure you change your passwords and remove all of their points of access. Just like you’d get back their keycards and keys to the building, make sure you are protected.

If you are firing or laying them off, remove their access BEFORE you have that conversation with them. A lot of damage can be done before you know it.

What Do I Do With My Passwords?

In response to the major internet threat that is Heartbleed, there are quite a few passwords that you need to change RIGHT NOW. Take a look at the grid that Mashable has prepared so you know what services you use that you need to protect.

I get asked a lot about password protection. This is what I do:

I save mine in an Excel spreadsheet (I make a practice of never using the word “password” in documents) listing all the services in my personal and business life. When I change something, I update the list at the same time. This document is password protected. My estate manager knows where this document is on my computer (it’s not on the cloud) and how to access it for when I pass away.

Take a look at this blog I wrote about other ways you can protect your business and assets. #legacymanagement

Teen Social Media Class at Sonoma State

Do you have (or know) a 7-9th grader that loves to spend time on their smartphone and social media?

I’m teaching “Changing the World with Social Media”, a 2 week teen social media class at Sonoma State University in July 2014 just for that student. They’ll get skills to turn their online time into opportunities to impact positive social change. They’ll identify how to make a difference in the world; select tools right for the task; set them up correctly; and learn how to stay safe online.

Read this blog I wrote about critical thinking and hoaxes and the web.

Platforms used in this process include: Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest, mobile devices and more. Students pick a project, establish a strategy, set-up tools, and learn how to manage a social media campaign for change. Privacy and security settings, and protecting and building your online identity will be examined. Students will present their campaigns to their classmates and families.

No prerequisites.

Learn more on the Sonoma State Excel for Youth course description page. Registration page.

Talking Angela and Critical Thinking

“Mrs. Rego! What about ‘Talking Angela’?”

I got this question over and over. In fact, I was asked this question so many times in one day that I did the research right in the middle of my last presentation at a recent middle school career day.

As a visitor on this campus, it felt like an epidemic. I started to become worried when the stories grew fantastical. Kids being watched. Phones being hacked. People being kidnapped. Continue reading →

Guided Access

Keeping Kids Safe Online While Using Apps

I have an 8 year old and I get nervous when she has an internet enabled device. Games for children have lots of clickable ads that take them away from the app and onto the wild and woolly web.

Here is a setting you can change (iOS) to keep your kid in the right place. It’s a setting called Guided Access and it keeps users from errantly clicking or tapping within an app and ending up someplace they’re not supposed to be, or deleting something by accident.

Go to Settings Continue reading →

child-on-the-internet

Your Child is All Over the Internet!

AVG, an internet security company, did a study and it turns out that 92% of US children have a digital footprint….before they are two years old. Have you thought about your child’s presence on the internet?

About once a week I say out loud that I am grateful I had my daughter before Facebook went mainstream. I was using Myspace when she was a baby but that environment wasn’t really about family. I just know that I would’ve uploaded a ridiculous amount of pictures and been an “over sharer” (that’s NOT a veiled dig at anyone I know!). The reason I joined Facebook originally was to keep up to date with a girlfriend that moved to rural Canada. I had to wait for it to leave the university system so I could join to see pictures and videos she posted. I feel like I watched her son grow up via social networking. Due to our distance, there’s no other way we could’ve shared that much. [Article about Lance Armstrong’s unborn child’s Twitter account.] Continue reading →

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