Online Safety

AI Email Assistants: Convenient, but Are They Safe? Here’s What You Need to Know If you use Gmail, Outlook, or any modern email service, you’ve probably noticed suggestions finishing your sentences or offering quick replies. These features, powered by large language models, are now standard in many mail clients. Microsoft Copilot for Outlook, Google’s Smart Compose and Help Me Write, and third‑party tools like Shortwave or Superhuman all promise to save time. But enabling them means handing over access to your inbox—and that creates trade‑offs most users aren’t fully aware of. ...

MAC Lawsuit Exposes Privacy Risks of AI Beauty Tools – Here’s How to Protect Your Data If you’ve ever used a virtual try-on tool to test a lipstick shade or see how a foundation looks on your skin, you’re not alone. Millions of shoppers use these AI-powered features every year. But a new lawsuit against MAC Cosmetics raises a question many users never stop to ask: What happens to the data these tools collect? ...

What Microsoft’s Email Security Data Reveals About the Threats in Your Inbox Intro Every day, your inbox faces a steady stream of attempts to trick you, scam you, or infect your device. The numbers behind those attempts are hard to come by, but Microsoft recently published a year’s worth of data from its Defender for Office 365 platform. The benchmarks cover what its filters see, block, and miss. While the data comes from enterprise customers, the patterns apply to anyone who uses email. ...

What Microsoft’s New Email Security Data Means for Your Inbox Introduction If you use Outlook or Microsoft 365 for email, you’re relying on Microsoft Defender to catch threats before they reach you. Recently, Microsoft released a year’s worth of email security benchmarking data, offering a rare look at the volume and types of attacks that hit inboxes daily. The report itself is understandably promotional, but the trends it describes are consistent with what security researchers have observed independently. More importantly, the findings point to a handful of settings and habits that can meaningfully reduce your risk—no IT degree required. ...

What Microsoft’s Year of Email Security Data Reveals About Today’s Biggest Threats Email remains one of the most common attack vectors for cybercriminals, and understanding the current threat landscape is essential for anyone who relies on digital communication—which is nearly everyone. Microsoft recently published a year’s worth of telemetry from Microsoft Defender for Office 365, covering June 2025 to June 2026. The report offers concrete benchmarks on phishing, spam, malware detection, and other email security metrics. Here’s what the data shows and how you can use it to strengthen your own defenses. ...

How to Use AI Chatbots Without Sacrificing Your Privacy: Tips After Signal’s Warning In June 2026, Signal’s president made headlines by publicly warning about the privacy risks tied to AI chatbot use. The exact details of his statement are still being parsed, but the core message was clear: the same data‑collection habits that have long plagued social media and messaging apps are now embedded in the tools millions of people talk to every day. ...

Signal’s President Warns: AI Chatbots Are a Privacy Risk – Here’s What to Do If you’ve typed a personal question into ChatGPT, Gemini, or any other large language model, you might have assumed that conversation stays between you and the software. Signal’s president, Meredith Whittaker, has a different message: treat those chats like a public square. ...

What Signal’s President Says About AI Chatbot Privacy Risks — and What That Means for You If you’ve used ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or any other large-language-model chatbot, you’ve probably noticed how convenient they are for drafting emails, brainstorming ideas, or answering questions. But that convenience comes with a trade-off that often goes unnoticed: the data you type into those chat windows may not be as private as you assume. ...

Signal President Warns: AI Chatbots Could Be a Privacy Nightmare — Here’s What to Do Every time you type a question into ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or another AI chatbot, you are handing over more than just a query. You may be sharing personal thoughts, work documents, or even financial details. And according to a recent warning from the president of Signal, the encrypted messaging app, most users have little idea how those conversations are stored, shared, or used. ...

How to Spot Amazon Impersonation Scams (Before You Lose Money) If you’ve ever received an email about a suspicious Amazon purchase you didn’t make, or a text warning that your account will be suspended unless you call a number immediately, you’re not alone. Scammers have been impersonating Amazon for years, and the problem shows no sign of slowing. A recent Daily Herald report notes that Amazon remains one of the most frequently impersonated companies by scammers. A separate article from SMH.com.au also includes Amazon-related scams among four schemes that can cost people thousands of dollars. ...