Take Control Of Your Online Privacy 5th Edition

Learn what's private online (not much)—and what to do about it! Version 5.0, updated May 28, 2024 Nearly everything you do say or do online can be recorded and scrutinized by advertisers, data brokers, and a long list of other people and organizations—often without your knowledge or consent. When your personal data falls into the wrong hands, you risk theft, embarrassment, and worse. But you can take steps to greatly improve your online privacy without sacrificing all your convenience. Nowadays, online privacy is extremely hard to come by. Corporations, governments, and scammers alike go out of their way to gather up massive amounts of your personal data. The situation feels bleak, but you have more control than you may realize. In this book, Joe Kissell helps you to develop a sensible, customized online privacy strategy. No matter what devices or operating systems you use, you’ll find practical advice that ordinary people need to handle common privacy needs. The massively revised fifth edition of Take Control of Your Online Privacy is packed with information that helps you get a handle on current topics in online privacy, including data breaches, hardware bugs, quantum computing, two-factor authentication, how ads can track you, and much more. You’ll receive savvy advice about topics such as these: Why worry? Find out who wants your private data, why they want it, and what that means to you. Determine your personal risk level, learn which privacy factors are most important to you, what you can and can't control, and what extra steps you can take if you're at a high risk of being personally targeted. Hear some good news (five steps you could take that would massively increase your online privacy)…and some bad news (why some of those steps may be difficult or infeasible). Remove personal information from Google and data brokers, though the process comes with limitations and gotchas. Discover Apple-Specific Privacy Features for users of Macs, iPhones, and iPads. Manage your internet connection: Secure your Wi-Fi network and keep your data from leaking out. Find advice on why and when to use a VPN or a network-connected privacy appliance, plus why you should be skeptical of VPN reviews. Browse and search the web: Avoid bogus websites, control your cookies and history, block ads, browse and search anonymously, and find out who is tracking you. Send and receive email: Find out how your email could be intercepted, learn techniques for encrypting email when necessary, get tips for sending email anonymously, and know when email is not the best way to communicate. Watch your social media: Understand the risks of sharing personal information online (especially on Facebook!), tweak your settings, and consider common-sense precautions. Talk and chat online: Consider to what extent any phone call, text message, or online chat is private, and find tips for enhancing privacy when using these channels. Protect your smart devices: Address privacy issues with "Internet of Things" devices like smart TVs, smart speakers, and home automation gear. Think mobile: Ponder topics like supercookies, location reporting, photo storage, spear phishing, and more as you decide how to handle privacy for a mobile phone or tablet. Help your children: As a parent, you may want to take extra steps to protect your children's privacy. Find a few key tips to keep in mind.

Work faster, increase your efficiency, and have more fun with automation! Version 5.0, updated January 29, 2024 Ever wondered if automation could make your life easier? In Take Control of Automating Your Mac, Fifth Edition, Mac expert Joe Kissell shows you how to save time and aggravation by using numerous built-in macOS tools, as well as helpful third-party apps, to automate routine tasks and procedures.n Looking for ways to work smarter and faster with your Mac? In this updated and expanded fifth edition of his popular guide to Mac automation, Joe Kissell shows how anyone, at any level of experience, can save time and effort, and avoid unnecessary errors, by using automation techniques that range from the simplest keyboard shortcut to the most complicated script. In this book, Joe teaches you how to automate routine tasks in a wide variety of ways. You can begin by making the most of productivity features such as Siri, Spotlight (for launching apps), and text replacement—and then move on to the more sophisticated automation tools built into macOS, such as Shortcuts, Automator, AppleScript, services, and shell scripts. In addition, Joe gives extensive information about third-party automation apps that can make a huge difference to your work efficiency, such as Keyboard Maestro, TextExpander, OmniGraffle, and many more. As an extra bonus, the book includes coupons for discounts on seven automation apps! Whether you’re new to automation, you just need a refresher, or you’re experienced with automation but want to go deeper, this book can teach you the skills you need to automate with ease. Take back your time, work more efficiently, and have more fun with your Mac, with Take Control of Automating Your Mac, Fifth Edition! With this book, you’ll learn how to: • Get started with the built-in macOS automation tools, including Shortcuts, Automator, AppleScript, and shell scripts • Take full advantage of input devices to save clicks and keystrokes • Customize toolbars and your Touch Bar to put hard-to-find controls at your fingertips • Use your voice to control your Mac with Siri and Voice Control/Dictation Commands • Automate text expansion for faster, more consistent typing • Control the Finder with a launcher and by organizing files with Hazel • Supercharge your clipboard to remember and reformat previous copies • Write macros in Microsoft Office and Nisus Writer Pro • Create rules to file email automatically in Apple Mail and Outlook • Log in to websites faster with a password manager • Automate cloud services with IFTTT and Zapier • Set up automatic backup and syncing • Run tasks automatically with Login Items, Calendar events, or launchd • Use Omni Automation for JavaScript-based automation tasks • Control nearly anything on your Mac with Keyboard Maestro

Learn to secure your personal data & reclaim your online privacy! Ê KEY FEATURESÊ - Understand your cyber risk exposure by calculating your Privacy Scoreª - Improve your Privacy Score with easy-to-follow recommendations - Different recommendations for different levels of expertise Ð YOUR choice! - An ÔinteractiveÕ book with inline QR code references for further learning! - Instantly applicable recommendations that show immediate results! - Gamification of recommended actions to incentivize best practice behaviors. - Quantifiable* improvement by the end of the book! Ê DESCRIPTIONÊ This book intends to be a comprehensive step-by-step guide on how to take control of all your digital footprints on the internet. You will begin with a quick analysis that will calculate your current Privacy Score. The aim of this book is to improve this Privacy Score by the end of the book.Ê By the end of this book, you will have ensured that the information being leaked by your phone, your desktop, your browser, and your internet connection is minimal-to-none. All your online accounts for email, social networks, banking, shopping, etc. will be made secure and (almost) impervious to attackers. You will have complete control over all of your personal information that is available in public view.Ê Your personal information belongs to you and you alone. It should never ever be available for anyone else to see without your knowledge and without your explicit permission. Ê WHAT WILL YOU LEARN - How to safeguard your privacy online - How to secure your personal data & keep it private - How to prevent your devices from leaking your private info - How to prevent various websites & services from ÔspyingÕ on you - How to Ôlock downÕ your social media profiles - How to identify threats to your privacy and what counter-measures to take WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR Anyone who values their digital security and privacy and wishes to Ôlock downÕ their personal data will find this book useful. Corporate IT departments can use this as a reference book to design data security practices and training modules for employees. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Prologue 2. Internet and Privacy 3. Android Devices 4. Apple iPhones 5. Smartphone Apps 6. Smart Devices & IoT 7. Desktops Ð Operating Systems 8. Desktops Ð Software Applications 9. Desktops Ð Browsers 10. Services - Email 11. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) 12. Networks: Connectivity, & Internet 13. Operational Security (OPSEC) 14. Epilogue 15. Bonus Chapter: Useful Tips and Tricks

"This textbook is PROACTIVE. It is about starting over. It is the complete guide that I would give to any new client in an extreme situation. It leaves nothing out and provides explicit details of every step I take to make someone completely disappear, including document templates and a chronological order of events. The information shared in this book is based on real experiences with my actual clients, and is unlike any content ever released in my other books. " -- publisher.

Set up a rock-solid backup strategy so that you can restore quickly and completely, no matter what catastrophe arises. Version 5.0.1, updated February 19, 2024 Joe Kissell provides the advice you need to create a Mac backup strategy that protects your data and enables quick recovery. He compares backup software, services, and media to help you make the best choices. You’ll learn to set up, test, and maintain backups, plus how to restore files after a calamity!n Creating and maintaining a solid backup plan is essential to anyone who uses a Mac, in order to prevent the loss of important data if disaster strikes—whether through hardware or software failure, theft, human error, or other mishap. In Take Control of Backing Up Your Mac, Fifth Edition, tech expert Joe Kissell explains how to design a sensible backup strategy, choose and configure the best backup hardware and software for your needs, and understand how to make your backups as painless as possible. His advice is equally useful to those who have never had a backup system and those whose backup systems are in need of an update. The book delves into the challenges presented by recent versions of macOS, M-series Macs, and the ever-changing landscape of Mac backup hardware, software, and cloud services. It explains what you need to know about bootable (and non-bootable) duplicates, backup media, and disk formats, as well as recent changes in Time Machine and the weird world of APFS snapshots. It also shows you how to include in your backups files and folders that are stored in the cloud, even if there's no local copy of them. Using this book, you’ll learn how to: • Design (or update) the ideal backup system: If you’re starting from scratch, you’ll find all the information necessary to assemble a reliable and easy-to-use backup system. If you’re updating an existing system, you’ll learn about what’s new in hardware, software, and online services that might affect the way you back up your Mac in the future. • Choose backup software: Apple’s Time Machine is both free and easy to use, but it’s not the best choice for everyone, and even if you do use Time Machine, you’ll certainly want to supplement it with other tools. You’ll learn about key features to look for in a backup app and find tips on using several popular tools. You’ll also discover the pros and cons of cloud backup services, and get help choosing the right one. (An online appendix covers dozens of apps and services.) • Shop for hardware: Depending on your needs and goals, you may need one or more external SSDs or hard drives, but the range of options (sizes, interfaces, speeds, and more) can be bewildering. Joe helps you find the best backup hardware, whether it’s individual SSDs or hard drives, RAIDs, NAS devices, or other options. • Make and maintain backups: Once you’ve selected hardware and software, you’ll need to know how to make your first backup, set up your backups to run unattended, and test them regularly to make sure they’re working as they should. This includes both versioned backups (which contain old file versions and deleted files) and—for some users—bootable or non-bootable (data-only) clones. And, you’ll learn about strategies for keeping extra backups offsite. • Operate Time Machine: If you choose Time Machine for versioned backups, you’ll learn how to back up and restore individual files, app-specific data (such as contacts), and even an entire disk. You’ll also discover why and how to encrypt Time Machine backups, how APFS snapshots work (inside and outside Time Machine), and what to do if Time Machine misbehaves. • Deal with unusual backup needs: If you deal with exceptionally large files (such as audio and video files), spend a lot of time on the road away from your usual backup hardware, run Windows on your Mac, or rely on cloud services to store essential data, you’ll want to take extra (or different) steps to make sure everything is safely backed up. You’ll also learn various approaches to backing up and restoring data from Apple’s Notes app. • Manage your media: What happens when a backup drive fills up, or becomes so old that you worry about its future reliability? What if you want to archive older files for posterity, but not necessarily maintain them as part of your daily backups? Joe explains how to deal with media management tasks such as these. • Recover lost data: Backing up data can be easy, but restoring it is often more challenging. When you discover that data is missing—whether due to a disk error, theft, or a simple mistake—you need to know the exact steps needed to recover it and get back to work as soon as possible.

Your data has already been sold... Get it back. There are so many times when we are online, and we need to make sure that our data is safe. We assume that we are doing a good job with a bit of anti-virus protection and carefully selecting what sites we visit. But when some of the big companies we trust, including Facebook, Google, and more, are willing to gather up as much data as they can about all our lives (whether online or not) and then sell it make money, it's hard to know how safe our information really is. This book is going to help you prevent that. While it may be difficult to keep this from happening, there are quite a few powerful steps that you can take. These help to keep the hackers out and will stop Google, Bing, and other companies from tracking you and will keep all your personal information nice and safe. It is amazing how much information companies are able to store about us and sell. Most are willing to hand it over because we don't even realize it is happening; we are just following instructions and typing what we are prompted to type. Taking the proper precautions ahead of time can make life a little easier and put you back in the drivers' seat when it comes to keeping your data safe. This book will go through some of the simple steps you can take to keep your information safe and ensure that no one can take your data without your permission again. Some of the things YOU WILL LEARN: The TOP FIVE big companies already taking your information and selling it for mega-profits. The biggest SOCIAL MEDIA MISTAKES you need to fix, right now. The BEST HARDWARE to keep the trackers, and the hackers, out. The minimum MUST HAVE SOFTWARE that will lock down your system. How to SHUT DOWN HACKERS while you browse safely online. BULLETPROOF YOUR EMAIL and shop online without a care in the world. Safe online banking with these SECRET CREDIT CARDS. How to DELETE YOURSELF from the internet in under five minutes. While there are many ways that companies can take your data and use it for their own benefit, there are just as many ways for you to kick them out and gain control again. Some of the controls are right in front of your eyes provided to you by the companies themselves, and some will require you to take additional steps on your own. Regardless, it is worth considering using privacy controls to protect yourself and your data. Take back control of your data. Scroll up and click Buy Now.