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Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#51

Post by crispyambulance »

Got 1Password family plan 2 or 3 years ago. Still waiting for the wife and I to be able to sit down so I can get her set up with it. I use it. My wife says she wants to use it and we remind ourselves to do it whenever there's a cybersecurity horror-story... but then it never happens.

Also, got some yubi-keys which I use for aws and gmail. Still have a raincheck for my wife to try those.

Yes, I told her it's not hard to get started, she could do it herself if she wanted to, but she wants to discuss it at length and spend time on it (I agree with that, but geez, it's hard to do stuff like this). Taxes are a nightmare enough for us.

I knew when I saw the title here that there would be multiple stories of folks who have gone ABOVE AND BEYOND AND THEN SOME, HN-style. Ain't going to happen in my house.

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#52

Post by rsync »

warent wrote: post #41
rsync wrote: post #37

The number one thing that we do is use an assumed name and address (and phone number) for all online interactions. If it's not a government agency, it doesn't get any real info. So, for instance, Amazon has a made-up name and our PO BOX and our "junk" number from Twilio. As I have mentioned here many, many times: This is possible because VISA/MC do not verify cardholder name. They make it seem like they do and mercha…

Maybe you're a very high profile individual that this matters beyond paranoia? I've always used my name for signups, and I have a very unique name, probably the only one on the whole planet. It has affected my life in no meaningful / noticeably negative way.

The reason I do this is that there are fascinating and unpredictable interactions between behavior and identity that extend out into the indeterminate future.

If we assume this information persists forever - and we might as well - it represents infinite liability and risk whereas the mitigations I have proposed cost almost nothing.

Or, to put it another way, it's very cheap insurance.

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#53

Post by grvdrm »

rsync wrote: post #37

The number one thing that we do is use an assumed name and address (and phone number) for all online interactions. If it's not a government agency, it doesn't get any real info. So, for instance, Amazon has a made-up name and our PO BOX and our "junk" number from Twilio. As I have mentioned here many, many times: This is possible because VISA/MC do not verify cardholder name. They make it seem like they do and mercha…

Just curious - do you have Lyft pick you up or drop you off at your house/apt or do you avoid that as well? I think of that action as different from payment information verification.

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#54

Post by rhn_mk1 »

warent wrote: post #41
rsync wrote: post #37

The number one thing that we do is use an assumed name and address (and phone number) for all online interactions. If it's not a government agency, it doesn't get any real info. So, for instance, Amazon has a made-up name and our PO BOX and our "junk" number from Twilio. As I have mentioned here many, many times: This is possible because VISA/MC do not verify cardholder name. They make it seem like they do and mercha…

Maybe you're a very high profile individual that this matters beyond paranoia? I've always used my name for signups, and I have a very unique name, probably the only one on the whole planet. It has affected my life in no meaningful / noticeably negative way.

Collecting personal data is insidious: it doesn't manifest itself until it does. It's no different from having your password leaked, or from having your mortgage application rejected for opaque reasons.

The data is there, silently, stored for a future use which may come at an unpredictable time.

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#55

Post by Havoc »

No - just nudge them towards better practices and answer questions they may have.

It isn't worth the drama frankly and they are grown adults.

>Which subjects spurred the most discussions and how did you solve it?

We had one distant family member go off the deep end with 5G vax/google/phone is listening to me. That triggered a family wide discussion on this. Tried injecting some facts, but its quite hard explaining concepts like fingerprinting and data brokers. Its such a nebulous concept and if you're not careful you just end up affirming the paranoia unintentionally. "oh so you're saying they do track me and read my mails?" Yes, but also noooo

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#56

Post by epc »

Family 1Password for me + spouse, separate 1Password account for my elderly parent–in–law. I maintain paper copies of all keys.

I back up (export) 1Password vaults quarterly to an offline backup I maintain.

I maintain two small (1Tb) SSDs with digital copies/scans of all important documents, offline. Try to sync monthly. Store inside faraday bags inside fireproof (in theory) safes.

We both lie excessively when creating profiles for online accounts. Unless absolutely necessary we use a PO Box for addresses. We've both been online 30+ years and the amount of old, forgotten accounts that resurface in breaches and scams is disappointing, and yet not surprising. Our late dog continues to receive a lot of "growth hacking" spam from services that started after she died.

Everything important has multiple 2FA options enabled, avoiding SMS as much as possible.

All of our financial accounts use email addresses off an obscure domain name I manage, not our personal email addresses (which themselves are G Suite/WorkPlace/WorkSpace/Whatever accounts).

I review all financial accounts monthly to look for odd charges. The last serious fraud we experienced started as small (I just assume we'll get hacked at some point, instead of trying to make that impossible, I try to ensure that we have backups of everything (and a paper trail as necessary to prove who we are, though I'm not convinced the various automata at FAANG gang companies will believe any of that).

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#57

Post by kcb »

rsync wrote: post #52
warent wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you're a very high profile individual that this matters beyond paranoia? I've always used my name for signups, and I have a very unique name, probably the only one on the whole planet. It has affected my life in no meaningful / noticeably negative way.

The reason I do this is that there are fascinating and unpredictable interactions between behavior and identity that extend out into the indeterminate future. If we assume this information persists forever - and we might as well - it represents infinite liability and risk whereas the mitigations I have proposed cost almost nothing. Or, to put it another way, it's very cheap insurance.

Life is finite

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#58

Post by eternityforest »

I'm a single guy, with no authority or desire therefore, but I am the most tech oriented person, and one of the most tech focused people in my friend group.

If anyone asks me anything about security I tell them to assume everything everywhere is spying in every way(I don't advise against using any specific devices or services, or avoid them myself, whether they care about Google spying is up to them).

But mainly I just tell everyone that they should be using 2FA. Everyone even remotely tech savvy these days knows that spying us the business model for half the internet, and only a few care enough to do anything about it.

The only in depth discussions I've had(Outside of work of course), have nothing to do with insecure systems and everything to do with public posts.

For everyone who gets their bank details hacked(And probably gets most of it back), there's probably 5 who lost jobs or friends or opportunities, or just embarrassed themselves, because they posted something on a medium that is easy to misinterpret and encourages posting without thinking.

In the last year I know one person who was hacked. They didn't have 2FA on.

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#59

Post by jokethrowaway »

rsync wrote: post #37

The number one thing that we do is use an assumed name and address (and phone number) for all online interactions. If it's not a government agency, it doesn't get any real info. So, for instance, Amazon has a made-up name and our PO BOX and our "junk" number from Twilio. As I have mentioned here many, many times: This is possible because VISA/MC do not verify cardholder name. They make it seem like they do and mercha…

In Europe your payment will most likely fail if your name doesn't match your card's and often even if your address doesn't match the address on your card.

Sad.

Re: Ask HN: Do you manage your family's digital safety?

#60

Post by dsnr »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #59
rsync wrote: post #37

The number one thing that we do is use an assumed name and address (and phone number) for all online interactions. If it's not a government agency, it doesn't get any real info. So, for instance, Amazon has a made-up name and our PO BOX and our "junk" number from Twilio. As I have mentioned here many, many times: This is possible because VISA/MC do not verify cardholder name. They make it seem like they do and mercha…

In Europe your payment will most likely fail if your name doesn't match your card's and often even if your address doesn't match the address on your card. Sad.

Also, knowing how bureaucratic Europe is, I can totally see myself having a warranty claim rejected because of a name mismatch.
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