| | | | Tips for Shopping Smart This Black Friday and Cyber Monday Hi there, It’s Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year! Will you be shopping today? Or maybe on Cyber Monday? Misha and I, your *Privacy Not Included team, are here to help you avoid buying that creepy gift. We researched the privacy and security of 151 connected products to help you shop safe this holiday season. Here are a few tips to help you shop safe Do your research Anything that connects to the internet can be vulnerable. In our *Privacy Not Included buyer's guide we did the research to help you know which products are creepy and which aren't. Keep it local If you’re shopping for a home security camera, look for one that stores video locally on an SD card rather than in the Cloud on the internet, which is less secure. Understand the risks Not all risks are the same. Those Bluetooth-connected headphones are probably a lot less risky than that Bluetooth-connected smart lock. Convenience is nice, security is nicer. Know what you are comfortable with We all have different levels of concern about privacy and security. Understand where you and the person you are shopping for stand. If you are shopping for children, ask their parents what they are comfortable with. Tell them to forget about it Smart speakers like Amazon Echo Dot and Google Nest Mini now let you tell them to forget what you just asked them. Get used to telling them to forget you every day. Companies put the burden on you Too many companies put the burden on you to protect your own privacy by opting out of data-sharing or selling and by making you change your privacy settings if you want to keep your personal information personal. If you buy a connected device, plan on spending some time locking down privacy settings before you use it. Want more information? Go check out our *Privacy Not Included buyer’s guide. Which gifts are creepy and which aren’t? We try to make it easy for you to understand how the products compare when it comes to privacy and security, so you can shop safe. Happy Holidays! Jen Caltrider & Misha Rykov Your *Privacy Not Included Team Mozilla P.S. Making this guide is just one of the ways we’re working together to make the internet a safer place. Will you chip in to help fund more work like this and give internet safety a big boost? It takes just 2 mins. | |
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