Online Safety

Spot Online Shopping Scams Before They Cost You Money Online shopping has become second nature for most of us. A few clicks, a payment, and a package arrives days later. But that convenience also attracts scammers. Fake stores, phishing emails, and social media ads that look legitimate are circulating more than ever. In January 2026, the VA News published a government-backed reminder that shoppers need to stay alert. Their article, titled “Watch out for scams and stay safe while online shopping,” underscores that these threats aren’t rare—they’re persistent and evolving. Knowing what to look for can save you money and personal information. ...

Judges Are Banning AI in Court Discovery—Here’s Why Your Privacy Is at Risk Too If you use an AI notetaking app during a business meeting, a voice assistant at home, or a cloud-based tool to organize personal documents, a recent trend in U.S. courts may feel distant. But it’s worth paying attention to. Over the past year, several judges have publicly barred parties in litigation from using artificial intelligence tools during the discovery phase—the process where both sides exchange evidence before trial. The stated reason? Privacy risks. And those risks are not limited to the courtroom. ...

When Judges Block AI in Court: What That Means for Your Privacy Think you’re the only one who reads your AI notetaker’s transcripts? A growing number of judges are challenging that assumption. According to a June 2026 report by Bloomberg Law, several courts have started explicitly banning the use of public generative AI tools during legal discovery. The reason: uploading confidential documents or transcripts to services like ChatGPT could expose privileged information permanently. This isn’t just a courtroom concern. If you’re using any AI service that processes your private data—meeting notes, medical records, financial documents—the same risks apply. ...

Privacy in the AI Era Is Possible – But Here’s What Worries Proton’s CEO If you’ve used ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or any other large language model in the past year, you’ve probably asked yourself: Is my data safe? It’s a fair question, and one that Andy Yen – the CEO of Proton, the company behind Proton Mail and Proton VPN – addressed in a recent interview with Spiceworks. ...

Why Some Judges Are Banning Public AI Tools in Court – and What It Means for Your Privacy In recent months, a quiet but significant trend has emerged in U.S. courtrooms: judges are formally barring the use of public generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini during the discovery phase of litigation. The stated reason is privacy. These rulings, reported by Bloomberg Law in early June 2026, reflect a growing judicial awareness that public AI platforms pose real risks to the confidentiality of sensitive information—risks that extend far beyond the legal profession. ...

Judges Are Banning AI in Court – Here’s How to Protect Your Privacy Too Intro If you use ChatGPT, Copilot, or similar AI tools for work or personal tasks, you might want to know about a trend unfolding in U.S. courtrooms. In recent weeks, several judges have issued orders that explicitly prohibit lawyers from using generative AI during the discovery phase of litigation. The reason? Privacy risks. These rulings are not about legal strategy or courtroom missteps—they are about the risk that sensitive data uploaded to AI tools could leak to the AI provider and beyond. ...

Why AI Tools Can Be a Privacy Risk (Even Judges Are Worried) If you’ve ever typed a question into ChatGPT, Google Bard, or Microsoft Copilot, you probably assumed your words vanish into the ether. Recent court rulings suggest otherwise. In several cases this year, judges have started banning the use of AI tools during legal discovery—the phase where lawyers exchange evidence—because of growing privacy and confidentiality concerns. ...

What Proton’s CEO Fears Most About AI Privacy (and Why He’s Still Optimistic) Proton, the company behind ProtonMail and ProtonVPN, has built its reputation on giving users control over their data. So when its CEO speaks about privacy in the AI era, it’s worth listening. In a recent interview with Spiceworks, the CEO laid out both a specific concern that keeps him awake at night and a measured case for why privacy hasn’t been lost yet. ...

Privacy Is Possible in the AI Era, Says Proton CEO – But Here’s What Worries Him Using AI tools today usually means trading a bit of privacy for convenience. Every query you type into ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot travels through servers that may store, analyze, or even train models on your data. For many users, that trade-off feels unavoidable. But Proton CEO Andy Yen argues it doesn’t have to be that way. In a recent interview with Spiceworks, Yen laid out how privacy can coexist with AI — and why one particular threat keeps him up at night. ...

Proton CEO on AI Privacy: What Keeps Him Up at Night and How You Can Stay Safe A recent interview with Proton’s CEO offered a rare, straightforward take on AI privacy: it is possible to protect your data while using AI tools, but one specific threat still worries him. The conversation, published by Spiceworks, focused on the real-world risks that everyday users face and what the company behind Proton Mail and Proton Drive is doing about them. Here is what was said, why it matters, and what you can do right now. ...