Using the Internet Safely For Seniors

➟ Quizzes can also generate targeted spam offers based

on your answers. If you answer a diabetes quiz that

asks about your least attractive feature, and you

answer your skin,what do you want to bet that skin

lotion and anti-wrinkle cream spam mail begins to

appear in your inbox?

You must be especially careful about spam regarding

medications and miracle cures. Never buy medical

supplies or medications from online drug stores that

you don’t already have a personal relationship with in

the brick-and-mortar world.

Protect Yourself

Now that you understand the value of your information to others, you

can keep yourself relatively safe by following this advice:

➟ Interact with only sites you trust.These might be

sites that people you know recommend or businesses

you trust offline. You can also use a feature in your

Internet browser or a security product, such as McAfee

Site Advisor (read more about these in Chapter 4), to

identify and avoid sites that are known to download

malware(malicious software) onto your computer.

➟ Don’t expose private information to the general

public.If you’re sharing personal information such as

your name, location, or daily schedule, keep settings

in social networking and other accounts private. (See

Figure 2-9.) If you’re writing for the broader public,

take care to avoid exposing private information at all.

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Part I: The Foundation of Using the Internet Safely