Online Safety

How to Spot and Avoid Online Shopping Scams: Practical Advice from VA News Online shopping is convenient, but it also attracts fraudsters looking to steal your money or personal information. Scams can appear in many forms—fake websites, phishing emails, or too-good-to-be-true social media ads. Government sources like the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regularly publish warnings and guidance to help consumers protect themselves, especially during high-traffic shopping periods. This article distills key tips from recent VA News articles so you can shop with more confidence. ...

Is That Productivity Extension Safe? How Chrome Add-Ons Are Turning Into Backdoors If you use Chrome at work, you probably have a handful of extensions installed—a grammar checker, a note taker, a password manager, maybe a meeting scheduler. They feel harmless. They help you get things done. But recent events have shown that these very tools can quietly become pathways into your company’s network. ...

Which To-Do List App Is Best for Your Privacy? A 2026 Guide If you rely on a to-do list app to manage your day, you’re trusting it with more than just errands and deadlines. These apps often store details about your habits, your work schedule, your health appointments, and even sensitive project notes. The convenience is real, but so is the privacy question: which app protects your data, and which one treats it like a resource? ...

Meta is training AI on your keystrokes: What you need to know about the privacy risks If you use Facebook, Instagram, or any Meta platform, the way you type is now being used to train artificial intelligence. The company has started collecting keystroke dynamics—the rhythm, speed, and patterns of your typing—and feeding that data into its AI models. This move is raising questions about how far companies should go when gathering training data, especially when that data can identify you as uniquely as a fingerprint. ...

Is That Chrome Extension Safe? How to Spot a Backdoor Disguised as a Productivity Tool Browser extensions are convenient. They block ads, manage passwords, check grammar, and automate repetitive tasks. But that convenience comes with a hidden risk: many extensions request permission to read and change all the data on every website you visit. When a seemingly innocent “productivity tool” turns out to be a backdoor, attackers can steal emails, login credentials, and internal corporate files without triggering any alarms. ...

How Meta’s AI Training With Keystrokes Could Affect Your Privacy — and What to Do About It If you use Facebook or Instagram, anything you type in those apps may now be used to train Meta’s artificial intelligence models. That includes messages, comments, search queries, and other text you enter while using the services. The company confirmed it is collecting keystroke data as part of its AI training pipeline, a move that has raised immediate concerns among privacy advocates and everyday users alike. ...

Your Productivity Tool Could Be a Spy: How Chrome Extensions Turn Into Backdoors Chrome extensions are a staple of modern browsing. They block ads, manage passwords, clip articles, and help remote teams collaborate. But behind that convenience lies a growing risk: extensions that start as legitimate tools can be hijacked, or built from scratch with malicious intent, to steal credentials, monitor browsing, and even sidestep corporate security. ...

The Hidden Danger of Chrome Extensions: How Your Productivity Tools Could Be Spying on You You probably have a handful of Chrome extensions installed right now. A grammar checker, a password manager, a note-taking tool, an ad blocker. They promise to save time, organize your work, or make browsing smoother. And most of them deliver on that promise—until one of them doesn’t. ...

Chrome Extension Risks: How to Detect a Backdoored ‘Productivity Tool’ The convenience of browser extensions comes with real security trade-offs. A recent investigation into compromised productivity tools shows that even trusted add-ons can become attack vectors overnight. Intro ...

Why Privacy Can’t Keep Up with AI — and What You Can Do About It The latest annual privacy survey from TrustArc, a privacy management firm, confirms what many users have suspected: AI adoption is racing ahead of the safeguards meant to protect personal data. According to the survey, 78 percent of organizations report that their privacy capabilities are struggling to keep pace with how quickly they’re deploying AI tools. Meanwhile, 65 percent of consumers say they are worried about how AI companies use their data. ...