Credit, Security Breaches, and Freezes – Protect Yourself!

While this is not normal subject matter for the MDS Tech site,  this IS a part of the digital life we are living that we all have to deal with.

The recent massive Equifax security breach is a huge example of network breaches that occur just about every day. One of the problems is that the thieves will often sit on the data until things cool down -i.e. people forget about it – THEN they try to use or sell the stolen data to steal people’s identities.

What can they do with it?

  • Buy stuff for themselves, but you get the bill is common.
  • So is getting ID papers using your credentials – opening accounts, not paying for things….ruinng YOUR credit and not theirs.

What can YOU do about it?

Freeze your credit. If you have ANY banking/payments/accounts, you probably have a file at the three credit agencies – which is sometimes true even if you are only 12 years old. Freezing your credit means that no one can open an account in your name with the PIN number – and for heaven’s sake, don’t lose that number [NOR should you carry it in your wallet or purse!]

In Georgia it costs $3 to freeze your credit unless you have been a victim of ID theft. You would unfreeze it if you are applying for credit at a new institution – any place you ALREADY have a financial relationship with already has permission to access your info.

These articles have more [easy to read] information, plus links to get started:

Notability: Drag-n-Drop in IOS 11

Imagine being able to drag and drop pretty much anything from another app into a Notability Note.

With  IOS 11, you can! [well, almost all the time.]

 It’s a fast way to move handwriting, text, and even entire notes into, out of, and within Notability. This guide describes everything you can do with Drag and Drop so far.

Dragging and dropping an item takes three steps:

  1. Select: Press and hold an item to select it.

    • Optionally, tap more items to select them, too.
  2. Drag: Drag the items into an app that supports Drag and Drop.

    • While dragging items, you can switch notes in Notability and even switch to completely different apps.
  3. Drop: Let go of the item to release it.

CLICK HERE for all the details.

You can save a LOT of time using this feature!

iPad out of room

Here’s how to tell how much storage you have used on your iPad, and how to tell what is using it up:


To see how much storage you have already used up on your iPad, go to

Settings –> General –> About

Look for the line Available.

Anything less than about 400 MB means you need to clean out your unused stuff.

To see what is using up your storage space, go to

Settings –> General –> Storage and iCloud Usage –> in the Storage section, click “Manage Storage”

You will see a list of the apps after a minute or so, with the apps taking up the most room at the top of the list.


Some general advice:

Photos

  • Assuming you have setup Google Drive correctly to automatically upload your photos and videos, you’ll still have a copy of them in Drive, even if you delete them from your iPad. [They’ll be the Google Photos folder on Drive].
  • To ACTUALLY delete photos/videos from your iPad, open up Photos –> Camera Roll.
    Click SELECT.
    Click on the photos/videos you want to delete.
    Click the Trash icon, top left.
    Click the  message “Delete these x photos?”
    Click “Albums”, top left
    Open up “Recently Deleted”
    Click “Select”, top right
    Click “Delete All”, top left.
  • If you don’t clear out the Recently Deleted folder manually, it will empty itself in about a month.

Google Apps [Drive / Sheets / Docs]

  • The Google apps all have an option to store your document “locally” on the iPad. If you no longer need docs available when you don’t have an internet connection, then check the Docs part of this article:  iPads –> what’s taking up all my storage?

Miscellaneous Space Hogs

  • Messages – those messages with pictures and videos take up ROOM. Delete them.
  • Mail – sometimes the Mail app takes up a ton of room. Actually, it’s all those emails that you never deleted. Delete them.
    –> If deleting the mails sound like too much, then delete the account
    [Settings –>Mail–> Accounts–>Select the account–>”Delete Account”
    –> This does NOT actually delete your account from the Mail server – it just deletes your “window” into your mail account.
    –> Then re-create it. For the MDS email, it’s a Google account type.
  • iMovie – delete your projects. You can export them into your Google drive if you’d like a copy of your final project.
  • Notability – anything deleted in Notability goes into a trash can which is emptied after about a month  [similar to the way Photos works]. Click on the trash can to empty it manually.
    Remember that deleting a note in Notability does NOT delete it from Drive.

 

Notes, Tips, Hints, & Answers