Clear-eyed coverage of cybersecurity and digital privacy
When a manufacturer blocks independent repair, the consequences reach beyond broken screens and voided warranties. Devices that cannot be lawfully serviced often cannot be securely maintained — and that gap is becoming a privacy problem for millions of American households.
Connected entry systems are quietly becoming standard across US rental properties, leaving tenants with little visibility into who holds the digital master key. We examine what these platforms log, what a compromised landlord account could expose, and the questions renters should ask before signing.
Smart meters record far more than kilowatt-hours. Interval data can reveal sleep schedules, occupancy patterns, and appliance inventories — and a growing set of companies wants access. Here's what your utility knows, who it can share it with, and what recourse you have under state law.
Most Americans spend decades building digital lives secured by passwords they never share — and leave grieving relatives with no way in. A look at platform policies, state fiduciary-access laws, and the practical steps that keep your death from becoming a security nightmare for the people you leave behind.
Pop culture has turned the dark web into a catch-all boogeyman, but the reality is more mundane — and more relevant to everyday Americans than most realize. This explainer breaks down how anonymizing networks actually work, who legitimately relies on them, and what ordinary users should do when their stolen credentials end up in the wrong corners of the internet.
Millions of American homeowners have installed video doorbells in the name of security, yet few have read the agreements that govern what happens to the footage. This report examines how clip-sharing partnerships, neighborhood apps, and police request portals quietly turn a home camera into a public-safety data node — and which settings are worth revisiting before the next package arrives.
Browser extensions promise convenience — better deals, fewer ads, faster searches. But some of those tiny icons collect far more than users realize, and a handful of the most popular add-ons have quietly changed hands to new owners with different intentions.
The most convincing phishing emails rarely announce themselves as urgent invoices or lottery wins. Increasingly, they borrow the mundane details of office life — a ticket number, a printer outage, a colleague's name — to slip past the skepticism of American workers.
Fraudsters are paying to place counterfeit helplines above legitimate companies in search results, staffed by polished call-center operators trained to harvest payments and credentials. We trace the scheme from the first frustrated search to the final charge, and explain the verification habits that shut it down.
Most Americans click 'agree' on terms-of-service changes without reading a word — and companies know it. This piece examines what gets quietly rewritten in those 'we updated our terms' emails and offers a practical framework for deciding when an update actually deserves your attention.
A single image shared among friends can carry GPS coordinates, device fingerprints, and timestamps long after it leaves your camera roll. We followed one photo across the apps Americans use every day to see who scrubs the evidence — and who quietly keeps it.
In a competitive labor market, an unsolicited message from a recruiter feels like a break — and that relief is exactly what scammers count on. We trace the anatomy of a recruitment scam and the verification steps every American job hunter should take before handing over a single detail.
Automatic content recognition turns your television into a reporting device, logging what plays in your living room and selling those insights to advertisers. Most owners never touch the settings that control it. Here is what the data says, who profits, and how to take the menu into your own hands.
Your own social media settings can be airtight, yet your face may still be circulating in albums posted by relatives, schools, and friends. This investigation unpacks how third-party photo sharing builds a profile you never consented to — and what little US law actually does about it.
Losing a phone is not just an inconvenience — it starts a countdown during which a thief can attempt to unlock a cascade of accounts. Here is what actually happens in that first hour, and the sequence security professionals say victims should follow.
When a company you've never used gets hacked, your email can still end up in an attacker's spreadsheet. We trace the long afterlife of leaked records — from aggregation and credential stuffing to identity fraud kits — and outline the practical steps worth taking.
Scammers have discovered that the fastest way past a person's defenses is through the people they trust most. Here's how fraudsters work their way into shared albums, family threads, and group chats — and how households can spot the seams without turning on each other.
Closing an online account feels like a clean break, but deletion is often a request rather than a command. From backup archives to broker copies, here is what actually happens to your information — and what consumers can realistically control.
People-search websites operate legally by aggregating records you never consented to share — addresses, relatives, phone numbers, even estimated income. Here is how that data fuels scams and stalking, and why opting out is a maintenance job rather than a one-time fix.
Modern vehicles quietly generate a rolling record of where you drive, how hard you brake, and sometimes what happens inside the cabin. As federal regulators and class-action lawyers close in, drivers are left asking a simpler question: how do I turn this off?