Passwords, backups, privacy, digital hygiene, and staying safe online. The digital life skills nobody taught you.
Default social media settings expose everything — spend five minutes switching to the most restrictive options that still work for you.
Encrypt the phone before factory reset, sign out of everything, remove SIM and memory cards, and verify nothing personal remains.
Create a digital will listing your key accounts and access instructions — it spares your loved ones from a painful digital scavenger hunt.
Add friction to mindless scrolling — move apps off the home screen, set timers, and create phone-free zones for meals and sleep.
Process every email with a decision — reply, task, archive, or delete — and check at set times instead of constantly.
Enable automatic cloud backup on your phone and verify it monthly — the five-minute setup protects years of irreplaceable data.
Length beats complexity — a long random passphrase is far stronger than a short password with special characters.
Your recovery email can reset everything else — secure it with a unique password and 2FA before anything else.
Print or write down your 2FA recovery codes and store them physically — they are your only way back in if you lose your device.
Honest security question answers are easy to research — use fictional answers and store them like passwords.
Never send passwords in plain text messages — use a password manager sharing feature or a self-destructing link service.
SMS 2FA still blocks most attacks and is far better than nothing — but an authenticator app protects you from SIM-swapping too.
When someone exits your life, rotate all shared credentials immediately — it is security hygiene, not a statement about trust.
Write down your master password and emergency kit on paper and store it securely — one broken device should not lock out your entire digital life.
A verification code sent to your phone is the key to your account — no real company will ever ask you to read it to them.
Check haveibeenpwned.com to see if your email appeared in a data breach — then change compromised passwords immediately.
Notes apps and chat messages offer no real security for passwords — use a dedicated password manager instead.
A SIM PIN prevents thieves from using your SIM in another phone to receive your verification codes — set one up in 30 seconds.