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Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#101
post #92
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My in-laws got hit by an absolutely ridiculous phone scam. Basically some guy called and said "Hey this is Apple, this is an emergency, your iCloud got hacked, you need to install this remote desktop software and give me your credit card info so I can fix it for you". They are smart people but they still fell for it. So, the advice we gave them was that no organization is going to use a phone call to deliver importan…

They often have call back numbers from what I have heard.

Yeah, you have to verify the number through an independent system.

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#103
My recipe is AdBlocks + automated updates enabled + firewall enabled + desktop shortcut for web browser + regular antimalware check.

Regarding phishing, I set them up with a GMail account and their filter is quite good against this.

So far, not anything bad happened, some minor malware were installed through malicious web browser extensions, but no financial damage or identity theft.

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#104
post #99

Make them a list of hard "no" items. Tell them no porn, no clicking on pop up ads, no cheezy viral articles with click bait titles, etc. If you can visit them in person, check their computer for malware. Find out what they want to use the internet for and help them create a white list. If they have enough safe ways to satisfy their needs, there is less temptation to randomly venture forth into things they don't reall…

If you are able to talk about porn and ban it with your parents (presumably providing some alterate means, because you know they have needs), then well congratulations that sounds like a very open and sharing relationship. For the rest of us though...

I would just make a written checklist of hard "no" items and list porn on it. If they call with a problem, ask "Were you clicking on a hard no item?" and don't get into whether or not it was porn.

If they call frequently because their computer is a giant mess of malware, eventually tell them they need to educate themselves because your efforts to keep them safe are proving insufficient.

If you honest to God can find no means to tell your parents that porn is a really big problem with regards to technical safety online, then I suggest you wash your hands of this issue and tell them you are wholly unqualified to help them and maybe point them to some resources to help them sort it out themselves. Hopefully, buried somewhere in those resources is the fact that porn is a problem.

Otherwise you are doing more harm than good by giving them the illusion of assistance when the real message is "Sorry, I can't actually protect you because it might involve admitting my parents, who probably did the wild thing to get me, might still have a sexuality." If that's the answer, don't pretend to help. Just refer them elsewhere to someone willing to have that conversation.

I will add that you need to know porn is an issue even if you don't consume it. Advising them that porn is a problem doesn't actually presume they consume it. I had to do a hard shut down of a laptop because I was moderating a forum and someone posted a porn link. I wanted to do my due diligence and not just assume. It opened a zillion popups and locked my computer up.

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#105
One of the difficulties of keeping seniors safe on the Web is that that even "the good guys" are doing dumb and harmful things (e.g., government office gratuitously running dotcom cross-site trackers on gov't sites, or outsourcing parts of site to companies that sell out private data), and "the good guys" companies are often outright some of the most insidious exploiters.

Two of the barriers are:

1. Most people of all ages don't actually understand the technology, and instead mimic their peers (and do things like people they know tell them to do, like install a particular thing to see photos). Both young and old people make much the same mistakes here.

2. Older people might come from times&places with different ideas of respectability and sense of duty. They probably can't even imagine the accepted sociopathy within the tech industry. Daughter/son went to work for that nice company that does the right thing, and surely they're keeping an eye on things (not systematically reading people's private messages, monitoring every page everyone reads and thing they do, and encouraging bad security practices that set up openings for other kinds of exploiters).

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#106
Honestly consider having them offline. I have the same problem and my only solution is me being their proxy for internet. When they need something "online" like movie o buying something, they ask me.

Today most thing happen via a browser instead of programs and it's basically impossible to secure.

Consider using a tablet/smartphone instead of a computer. Apps are a little better than website in term of being "safe". By using something like privacy guard (feature of lineageos) and disabling the browser and email you can keep reasonably safe.

That's what i did. Bought them a tablet, install what they needed (netflix, amazon etc...) and a app for remote control, like teamviewer, disabled browser and playstore, and basicaly everything else. For anything else they call me.

It's not amazing but it work.

Desktop computer are, for me, a lost cause.

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#107
Lots of good stuff in this thread. I'll add: introduce the tech into their lives yourself. Don't wait for them to call you and tell you they just bought a laptop at Bestbuy (just for example). Educate them, appeal to their already built in BS detectors. Pay attention and answer their technical support calls :) [also Apple store and Bestbuy are usually great customer service resources]

edit: if there are grandchildren around, get them involved in the project

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#108
post #14

Honestly, while getting phished and hacked are big issues, I would also worry about them being sucked into social media bubbles where they could start latching onto conspiracy theories, fake news, and the like. It was not too long ago where their generation believed it was a bad idea to believe anything on the Internet. I'm not sure what changed. I have seen my own parents fall suspect to that stuff now and then, so…

Just admit it, they don't agree with you politically and to be more specific they are not as lefty as you are. Leave them alone, having different opinion is not being "sucked into social media bubble".

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#109
post #89

My no. 1 thing is to always install and ad blocker in their browser. uBlock does a pretty good job of getting rid of all the fake download buttons and pop-ups. And tell them explicitly that if their computer tells them they have a virus, they must not try to do anything about it and call you immediately. 99% of the time it's a fake pop-up and they don't want to look stupid so they follow its "friendly instructions" t…

what is CoW?

Copy on Write, presumably to save them from crypto-locking ransomware. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryptoLocker

Re: Ask HN: How do I make sure my non-technical parents are safe online?

#110
post #14

Honestly, while getting phished and hacked are big issues, I would also worry about them being sucked into social media bubbles where they could start latching onto conspiracy theories, fake news, and the like. It was not too long ago where their generation believed it was a bad idea to believe anything on the Internet. I'm not sure what changed. I have seen my own parents fall suspect to that stuff now and then, so…

Advice I could have used five years ago. I don’t even know how to talk to my parents about current events/politics now because we don’t share a common base of facts.

Perhaps broach the fact that social networks are really just advertisement delivery networks, and that they found that partitioning audiences by interests let them sell you for more money.

Try opening an incognito tab and search for flat earth on youtube, and then see what videos that window gets recommended, if they don't believe you.

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