New Year: How to cleanup your digital footprint.

placeholder

It’s the start of a new year and the perfect time to think about cleaning things up on the technology side of the house. Below are a few recommendations to implement that will reduce your digital footprint.

Security: How to improve my personal security in 2019.

Yeah, you knew this was coming like a bad headache after a New Year’s eve party. But unlike that headache, you can avoid future pain but taking some simple precautions to lower your risk. Take action today as this is the most important thing you can do in 2019 to cleanup your digital footprint. We’ll tackle personal security, system performance, and what i like to call your Digital Zen.

Install a Password Management Tool: It doesn’t really matter which product you use as long as it has it is trusted, it can assess your passwords for strength, and it can recommend strong passwords for your site.

Replace the One Password: If you still have all those old accounts out there that are all using the same passwords, it is time. Just like your favorite hoodie form 5 years ago, it is time to say goodbye to using the same password everywhere.

Unsubscribe: No one talks about it, but it is going to help. Remove yourself from all of those commercial subscriptions. Why? Well they make it easy for you to miss-identify the phishing scams coming into your mailbox. And don’t you want some reasons NOT to look at your phone?

Performance Improvements:How to Optimize Windows 10 / How to Optimize OS X

Although Windows 10 is a great product that manages performance better, there is always an opportunity to make sure it is running at peak performance. I like to do the following steps to clean up a years’ worth of software, changes and the like.

Clear Web Browser Cache: there is a lot of data that gets stored in your browser. And all that data can slow things down a lot. Be sure to backup your passwords and URL’s. Depending on how much you clear up, you could end up removing that saved web link in your history.

Uninstall Unused Applications: I especially like this one. You may have installed apps that you no longer need. Go through Program uninstaller and get rid of them.

Archive old data: Move that data onto cloud backup or external drives. But clear it off the existing hard drive. You want to make sure you have at least 30% of drive space available to maximize performance. And if you are on solid state drives, you probably have a lot less space to work with.

Go Digital Zen

We’re now a good two decades into the digital revolution and there has been a lot of great things we’ve introduced in our lives (like robotic vacuums – who doesn’t love that!). But its time to get real with our digital addictions.

Fewer Services: Its time to unsubscribe yourself from those apps and services you no longer use. Yes, the feeling of being left out may be strong, but your close friends could benefit from having you look them in the eye once or twice during a conversation.

Reduce Your Apps: Yes, I said it before as it relates to performance, but that also is a big help to digital zen. Do you really need 4 different apps to manage lists and projects?

Reduce the Noise: Removing subscription to emails will help with security, but it will also help with reducing inbox noise. Even with features like Microsoft Clutter or Google’s Promotions Tab it is still best to get yourself unsubscribed from as many services as possible.

Now is the time. Start the year with a simpler, safer, and better digital life. Wishing you a great 2019!

Some additional reading on security:

https://www.varsitytechnologies.com/what-we-dos/security-compliance/

https://www.varsitytechnologies.com/mobile-risks-in-healthcare/

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Categories
Archives