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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?

#81

Post by rsync »

heavyset_go wrote: post #73
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…

> So, for instance, Amazon has a made-up name and our PO BOX and our "junk" number from Twilio. If you're worried about the government prying, using a fake name on a PO box is a great way to rouse suspicion and investigations into whether or not you're doing something nefarious with the post.

We don't use a fake name on the PO BOX. It is the vendor (like Amazon) that gets a fake name (and our po box).

The post office (quasi-government agency) knows who we are.

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

#82

Post by nonesuch49 »

We recently threw out everything we thought about surveillance, privacy, liberty, and learning through experience when it comes to our kids' access to the Internet. They now have no phone. The computer has a whitelist of sites it can visit and a few ports open for some games. It only gets used with the door open. I disable the Internet completely between the hours of 10pm and 6am. I am looking into even more big brother solutions. It's all theoretical until real stuff goes down. I'll admit to having thrown away my personal principles in regards to freedom and privacy to try to protect my kids.

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

#83

Post by enobrev »

This post reminds me of a huge win I had, recently.

I had convinced my wife (who is not of the tech world) to switch to a password manager a couple years ago, and while she didn't love it, she's now totally on board.

My mother runs a fairly successful small online business and kept getting BS charges on her business cards along with other various occurrences. She and her employees were sharing a couple passwords for everything the company used. They weren't _bad_ passwords, but it wasn't a great set-up.

Finally, my wife and I convinced her to try out a password manager. After quite a few excuses why it would never work for her over a couple weeks, she got a another bogus charge and begrudgingly accepted. My wife went and spent a day to help her move _everything_ over, generate strong passwords, and showed her how to set up accounts for her team and share them so her team could do the same.

I'd since forgotten about all of that, as it's been well over a year since all that happened, and I assumed she went back to her old ways. Then last weekend I heard her bragging to a colleague about using a PW manager and how it's changed her life significantly - recommending they do the same.

She said excitedly "I don't even know my passwords! It's great!"

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

#84

Post by Wariith »

nonesuch49 wrote: post #82

We recently threw out everything we thought about surveillance, privacy, liberty, and learning through experience when it comes to our kids' access to the Internet. They now have no phone. The computer has a whitelist of sites it can visit and a few ports open for some games. It only gets used with the door open. I disable the Internet completely between the hours of 10pm and 6am. I am looking into even more big brot…

sounds too extreme

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

#85

Post by rsync »

grvdrm wrote: post #53
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.

"Just curious - do you have Lyft pick you up or drop you off at your house/apt or do you avoid that as well?"

We live on a ranch at the end of a 2 mile private road.

Lyft is something we use in the city or while traveling.

However, I do understand the spirit of your question and I don't have formal practices for these kind of things.

Like a sibling comment said, life is short ...

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

#86

Post by nonesuch49 »

Wariith wrote: post #84
nonesuch49 wrote: post #82

We recently threw out everything we thought about surveillance, privacy, liberty, and learning through experience when it comes to our kids' access to the Internet. They now have no phone. The computer has a whitelist of sites it can visit and a few ports open for some games. It only gets used with the door open. I disable the Internet completely between the hours of 10pm and 6am. I am looking into even more big brot…

sounds too extreme

I thought so too. I hoped I'd never have to be this way. It's not just stolen money from a bank account or a hacked Instagram. It could be life or death.

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

#88

Post by lazyeye »

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…

All the big tech companies almost certainly have your real name on file. Im assuming its very easy to buy large datasets matching real name,cc and email.

The only really private way to use these services would be using something like burnermail.io and crypto.

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

#89

Post by croutonwagon »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #32
croutonwagon wrote: post #19

I use bitwarden for my families account. My wife has her own that i setup and got working on her phone/browser. I wish she used it more but she DOES use it for the "org" account and shared info (cc, passwords etc). Email i use on a gsuite legacy domain and have for a very long time. It allows us to move email around if needed. We still have some older gmail accounts as backup, but rarely use them. Ill probably move t…

You must hurry with the Google apps domain, they are closing the grandfathered accounts 1st of June. Mine was almost 20 years old.

Sorry...i apparently replied to myself today. Heres what I said to myself when actually trying to reply to you..oops.

I have already moved to workspace for now. There will be no charges until August or so. And then 50% off through August of 2023. So its....not awesome but gives me breathing room to find an alternative (Or just stay the course).

I will say one gotcha that got me...The dont allow Google Voice for workspace. If youhave a legacy account, even on the gsuite it should be fine, but you cant setup new service. And if you mark the payment account as "individual" you have NO options. If you set it as a business you could get google voice as a paid service.

Payment accounts cant be changed once setup. Which is crazy.

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

#90

Post by croutonwagon »

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…

I can understand this sentiment. I certainly do it for some things (like reddit accounts, or things to do with say....gaming online, steam etc).

For most things though I dont mind too much about things that are already public anyhow. Like name, address etc.

That said for services that extend beyond that, If i feel the need to go that far i just dont participate. Like facebook for example.

I do carry a google voice number. That is the only thing a company, service or basically anything that gets typed into a computer gets. It has signifigantly cut down on spam calls to my actual cell phone, which friends and family do have.

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