Tech Holiday Calls For Action –– Talking Tech w/ Ed Bartholme
Host Brian Wesolowski sits down with Call for Action's Executive Director Ed Bartholme to discuss CFA's guide for all online shoppers this holiday season. The guide has a vast array of tips on what we should be doing to keep our data safe and secure when thinking about purchases for our friends and loved ones. <br><br>Ed covers Call for Action's practical advice on passwords, cookies, private browsing, and more.<br><br>More on Call for Action: https://callforaction.org/<br>Their gift guide: https://callforaction.org/giftprivacyguide/<br><br>More on Ed: https://twitter.com/call4action_ed<br>More on our host, Brian: bit.ly/cdtbrian<br><br>Attribution: sounds used from Psykophobia, Taira Komori, BenKoning, Zabuhailo, bloomypetal, guitarguy1985, bmusic92, and offthesky of freesound.org.
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Transcript
Welcome to Tech Talk. Bye.
CT. Tea. Welcome to CDT's tech talk where we dish on tech and Internet policy while also explaining what these policies mean to our daily lives. I'm Brian Wasilowski, and it's time to talk tech. Tis the season for online shopping, but of course with that could come online fraud, online privacy violations, or online ads tipping off what you bought your spouse. All of that would not be good. Thankfully, our guest today has a guide for all online shoppers about what we should be doing to keep our data safe and secure this holiday season. Ed Bartholome is the executive director of Call for Action. Welcome, Ed. Thanks for having me, me, Brian. It is my pleasure. So first, for folks who don't know, even though everyone should, what is Call for Action? What do you do?
So we're a nonprofit, consumer organization, and our model is we partner with media outlets, traditionally broadcast, but we do have some print partners as well. And we set up locally volunteer staff local help hotline. So we handle all sorts of consumer issues. We really run the full gamut, you know, dishwashers that had they they they've been out to replace, but they haven't quite gotten it right yet, financial account issues that you might be having with a bank, sort of any type of consumer problem you can think of. Our volunteers are ready, eager, and willing to help. Well, that's awesome. Well, what a perfect name then. Call for action. Alright.
So online shopping is what we're gonna be talking about today. And before, we chatted, you shared some stats with me. 57% of all holiday purchases are now done online. And there will be, 123,000,000,000 astounding numbers.
Does this I think Yeah. Go ahead. I was gonna say, I I think those were just initial projections because everything that's come out since sort of the the big Black Friday, Cyber Monday weekend has been that it's just exceeding those expectations.
Wow. Wow. Did you buy anything on Cyber Monday? I did not. I was actually in transit, so I didn't really get to do the traditional sitting in front of the computer and and finding those great deals kind of thing. Oh, I bought plenty. I have a whole new wardrobe coming, so this is very exciting for me. I I don't tend to do great with holiday shopping except for myself then. But, so with all these numbers, all this increase, does that also lead to an increase in security and privacy concerns?
We think that it does. Especially on the security front, you know, there are a lot of best practices that that more consumers should be taking advantage of when they're shopping online to keep credit card information secure, to keep personal information secure, and just to keep things from ending up in in the wrong hands. So definitely on a security front, it's really important. On a privacy front, it it seems to be that time of year when you might just accidentally tip somebody off to the to the gift they're gonna get. Now, obviously, if you're redoing your own wardrobe, you're probably you're probably okay on that. But for people that are buying, you know, the the coat or the gloves or the scarf for a loved one, a spouse, a partner,
they might end up seeing that as an ad later on on their device or on a shared device that you were doing shopping on earlier in the day. Yeah. No. I I discovered that apparently v neck sweaters are no longer a thing. It's all crewneck. So those crewneck sweaters are following me across all of my devices right now even though I did buy quite a few. Alright. So, of course, luckily, you created a wonderful online guide for shoppers. It's the 12 tips to keep your Christmas under wraps. An amazing 12 trip 12 tips, twelve days of Christmas. That's clever. Did you think that one up?
We we cry. We cry.
I love it. So let's go through it. I'm gonna kinda use the framing that you or the groupings that you did because those were equally clever. And you have a first kind of set of tips that fall under keep it safe, keep it secret. So how what are some of the tips and tools that, consumers should be doing to keep their data safe when shopping?
So a really, really simple one, and we tried to order the list within each section and by difficulty. Right? So the easiest stuff's gonna be at the top in each section and the the stuff that takes a little bit more effort on the consumer part consumer's part is further down the list. So one simple thing that everybody should be doing is looking for HTTPS at the beginning of the URL when you're shopping online. Whenever you're on a site where you're gonna enter a password, payment information, personal information, or really just kinda complete any sort of form to hand over data and send that back across the Internet, you wanna make sure that it's an HTTPS site and that you're doing that because that gives you sort of a security blanket for that data as it travels back to the server and the the party that you're sharing that information with, whether it's the store you're buying from or the the, you know, mailing list that you're signing up for or whatever that might be. Always look for that s. And modern web browsers have actually gotten really good Yeah. In tipping you off when there's a problem. So a lot of times on sort of the new version of Chrome or or Firefox, Safari, it'll show you that there's a little like a lock symbol or it might have a red sort of, you know, warning symbol to let you know that this isn't a secure website. Yeah. No. They've they've gotten really great. And certainly, any consumer,
if it's certainly, if they're trying to make a payment and they do not see that, my goodness, run. You know, don't make a payment without seeing the the lock symbol or the HTTPS.
Exactly. And and sort of along those same lines, the other thing that you wanna do is make sure that the URL you're at is actually where you wanna be. Right? So so give it a second look and make sure that you spelled it correctly or that there wasn't, you you know, sort of a a space where it shouldn't be or some other way that the name of the website you're trying to go to got broken up. Because we see that a lot too. Just sort of fake spoofed websites that are designed to look really, really similar to where you wanna be, but they're actually not where you wanna be.
Okay. What are some of the other tips in this category then?
Sure. And I I think that's a a really good segue. In order to get that protection, you you need a new updated version of the browser. Right? So make sure you're updating your devices and the software that you're using before you start shopping. We released this before the holiday weekend. So one of the things was sort of you've got a long holiday weekend, spend some time updating your your, you know, your phone device, your tablet devices, and and websites. But really, that's something we should all be doing all the time. It seems a little annoying to kinda get those constant reminders about updates and that you need to, you know, download this and install it. But, really, that's how security keeps up. Security is a moving target, and we've gotta keep patching. We've gotta keep updating to keep our devices safe and secure. Yes. Don't ignore those prompts. Exactly. And then another thing that you everybody should be doing is is using good passwords. So the longer it is, the better it is. Our thing is to try to make it a memorable phrase and maybe mix in a couple letters or symbols. So, like, we suggested using Merry Christmas, replacing the e with a three, replacing the s's with dollar signs, things like that. That makes for good password hygiene. And, you know, it's not that you have to use, you know, super complex different passwords everywhere, but for certain things like financial accounts and other accounts where you're storing sensitive information, you probably do wanna make a point of making those a little bit longer, more unique, and then not reusing them for other things that are of of less consequence and less importance. And then really, if this is all kind of confusing and a little bit much to handle, there are great password managers out there that you can download. We've got a link to a list of some of the top rated ones,
in our guide, and and consumers can always do that to make it a little bit easier on themselves. Awesome. Alright. We get to move on to the next category here, which is a fun name. Santa doesn't leave cookies. So I assume this is about web cookie web browsing cookies. For our listeners who aren't quite sure what those are, first explain what they are and then give us the tips that people should be using here.
Sure. So cookies are are small pieces of data stored on your computer that helps stream streamline your browsing experience. So they might track the number of times you visited a website or the things that you've looked at in the past. You know, I think we're all familiar with seeing the search results and then clicking on one and then going back to that list and the the one that you clicked on before is a different color or looks a little bit different. And that that's a cookie that's allowed that sort of system memory to happen. So it's a it's a convenience tool and they're not they're not necessarily bad things. They're they're part of the, you know, streamlining an online experience, but they can help accidentally spoil a surprise and that that's one of the things that we highlight here. So one of the things that cookies do, a lot of websites when you go to online retailers and you put things in your shopping cart, if you leave that site and come back two days later or or a month later, those items still might be in your shopping cart.
Yes. Or they send you a great email saying, oh, look. You forgot something in your cart.
Exactly. And that's where those cookies come from. You know, the cookies help make that possible. Yep. So one of our tips is to to clean out your cart. Right? So if you've been thinking about some things, maybe you've added a couple crew neck sweaters in some different colors that you're thinking about buying for somebody, but you decide to buy them somewhere else or you only get one of them and leave some of the other ones in your cart, a, it could generate that email. And if, again, if it's a shared account or a shared device, somebody might see that email later and and and then know what you're getting them. Or the next person that, you know, is shopping for you might go to that same website and notice that there's stuff in the cart and and end up getting the surprise that you've you've picked for them spoiled. So it's really easy. Just clear out the cart, you know, delete the items, remove the items, whatever the phrasing is on that website, but that's always a good thing to do. Good advice. And most browsers, you can also delete your cookies. Right? You can actually kind of proactively
do that.
Yeah. Most browsers, you can proactively clear cookies. And we've actually got at the bottom of our guide on the website, we've got instructions for the sort of four most common browsers and what the the menu flow is to get you to the point where you can clear those cookies. Oh my goodness. This is the guide just keeps getting better and better as you dig into it.
So let's go on to the next category, Santa's Little Helpers. What are these? What are your tips here?
So these are standalone browsers or standalone search engines or just different plugins that you might be able to use to help keep your gift ideas from popping up on different devices or being spoiled this holiday season. So I think that there's a lot of there can be a lot of convenience when we see an ad for something that we we've year, especially, that can be a little perilous. Right? I I, you know, I think the real common example is the person who's engagement ring shopping. You know, that's something that a lot of people do around the holidays is is pop the question. But you don't wanna be shopping for that ring and then have your you you know, the person you're gonna propose to surfing on their tablet in front of the TV later, and all they see is ring ads everywhere. And I wonder what's coming next for me. I'm like Well, maybe they'd be ready to video it then so that it, you know, could be posted on them. No. It's a bad thing, but still. That's true. You know, maybe it is deep down inside Different use cases everywhere. Right? Exactly. But these are some the the little helpers are things that you can do to kinda keep that from happening. So one is using DuckDuckGo for search. It's a more privacy focused search engine that doesn't track IP addresses or store user information. They do still use cookies for some things, but it's a much more minimal use of cookies. There's also some designated private browsers out there such as Firefox Focus or or a browser called Brave. Consumers can find those. They're available on different platforms and and mobile devices for for download through sort of app stores and and that thing sort of thing. Thing. You know, there's a couple tips in here about syncing through your social media settings. Mhmm. So, you know, maybe start by logging out of all your your, you know, your Facebook and your Google accounts before you start shopping. So that's just one sort of more break in the chain to keep those ads from following you around. That makes sense. We've got some links to opt outs that consumers can can exercise if they want to and also links to ad settings on some common social media platforms. So even if you're hearing this in July and it's not the holiday season anymore, those are good things that you can do anytime to sort of review what your settings are, and what you've what you've chosen to do and and what you might wanna opt out of if that's something that's of interest to you. And again, we have links at the bottom for how to do that on Android devices, iOS devices, Windows devices to reset your ad ID number, to turn off some some different privacy and security
toggles that might give you a better online experience or or a more private online experience if that's something that you're looking for. That's fantastic. So it's kind of a a nice mix of the basics you should do, and then you can really go to the ultra paranoid level, which I really appreciate. So that's fantastic. Last set of categories. We've kind of touched on this a bit, but you go even deeper here. The not so secret Santas. Is this is this what you would consider your, like, supreme? You are the, like, super paranoid is probably the wrong word, but super privacy, super secure individual, the things that you should be doing?
So, actually, that's the last category. Oh, I jumped ahead. Oh, no. We call that one the best hiding places. And then, actually, we talk about for people who really wanna do this and are really paranoid, VPN is probably the way to go. And we actually relied on some great work that CDT has been doing in this space, and we link to to some of your primers and and your sort of best practices when shopping with VPN. But, you know, a VPN obviously encrypts all of your traffic. It gives you a a much higher level of security and privacy online. But it's also something that takes some effort. Right? Like, you've gotta be really committed to doing this if you're gonna go the VPN route. And it does make it a little more difficult for certain location things and and stuff like that to work. So there's always trade offs. But our not so secret SANAs, the ones that we sort of glossed over there, are a couple, it's a tip about a few things that are a little bit misleading in their name. So one is Okay. Do not track. I think people who have, sort of been in the Internet users for a while have probably at least heard mention of do not track before. Most sites simply ignore it. So don't realize Uh-huh. You're not tracked to to save you just because you see that toggled on on your browser. And I think another one that that we think consumers might find a little bit confusing is incognito mode or private browsing. And that makes it private on the device you're sitting in front of, so it doesn't store it in your search history on the device you're on. But it doesn't prevent third party websites and the places that you're going on the Internet and interacting with on the Internet from collecting some data, tracking Oh, fascinating.
I just learned something here. I mean, this shows that I am not, by any means, the most tech savvy in the office, but that's fascinating.
Okay. Yeah. And so we really wanted to flag that for people because you don't wanna have this sort of false sense of of privacy and security while you're out there doing things. No. That's really helpful. So those are the 12 tips. Anything that we missed or anything else that I glossed over there? Well, we did throw in a bonus stocking stuffer. So Oh. What's that? And this is for gifts that you just can't find online. So another thing that a lot that we've noticed and that, a couple people mentioned while we were putting this together is that when you shop in brick and mortar stores now, retailers are constantly asking you for an email address Oh, yes. And or a phone number when you check out. So it's good to remember that you don't have to provide either of those. Sometimes providing that to a retailer will get you signed up for for, you know, lists or or they might even use that and share it with data brokers or other third parties to put together a more complete profile of you and then, you know, sort of sell that out so that you can get different ads. And and those aren't necessarily bad opportunities, but you should know what you're signing up for and you should also know that you you can just say no. I don't really give out my email address and move on. Or, like I have, have a fake email address that you write down so you don't feel bad about it.
Or you that's the passive aggressive way to do it. But, no, that is a great tip. And then a a good point that a lot of times the offline and online can merge, and this is one of those places. So one of the things we, of course, did not say is where folks can find these.
Right. So callfraction.org. If you go there, it's right on our homepage, and we'll stay there through the holiday season and and that'll get you to the guide. That is awesome. Well, Ed, thank you so much for joining. This has been incredibly helpful. I learned something as well. Happy holidays. Same to you. Thanks, Brian.
That's it for this episode of Tech Talk. I hope you all have a joyous and cybersecure holiday. I'm Brian Wasilowski. Thanks so much for listening.
