Pros of Find My Friends
This app makes it easy and fun to locate where your friends and family are. All you have to do is request for them to add you as a contact on the app, and once you accept, you will be given access to where they are.

Read More: Best Apps for Planning Your Summer Party

There are also many privacy controls on the app that are very helpful. If there’s a moment where you don’t want certain friends to see where you’re located (maybe a surprise party or you’re on a date and don’t want to be bothered), you can mute those friends and they won’t be able to see you. The app is also great because it can help you keep your friends safe. If you’re concerned about a friend’s well being and haven’t heard from them in a while, you can simply use the app to see where they are.

Cons of Find My Friends
One downside to the app is that it does cost money to use. Find My Friends has a small, one-time fee of 99 cents. This fee may deter many people from downloading the app, so the app does have a smaller user base than other popular apps like Twitter and Facebook. Another negative aspect of Find my Friends is that you may get requests from people you don’t know and people you don’t want to have access to your location. This isn’t a big deal often, but it is a bit of a hassle to constantly reject strangers from accessing your location.

Finally, this app has a major downside because hackers can access the app, hack your personal information, and be able to locate you. Once the hackers have your location, they may have access to your address. Think about the pros and cons before downloading this app.

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Lock Down Your Admin Account
When you first signup for a WordPress account or you decide to self-host, your website is controlled by an administrator account. By default, the name of a WordPress administrator account is ‘admin.’ While this username is easy to remember when you want to log in, it also gives hackers half the information they need to hack your website. Start by changing the default ‘admin’ login to something different – think of a username that is easy to remember, but also not obvious such as your business name. In addition, be sure that your password is a strong alphanumeric combination and isn’t based on something easily guessable such as your birthday or a pet’s name.

Read More: Here Are the Most Common Passwords, Ranked

Keep Everything Up To Date
No matter what device or service you’re trying to protect, it’s essential that your WordPress site is updated regularly to combat security threats. Unfortunately, in a recent survey, it was found that almost half of all WordPress sites are not updated to the latest version. Don’t concern yourself with the momentary downtime to perform a critical update, many hosting companies now do automatic updates for you. If your hosting company doesn’t provide this service — don’t ignore notifications to update, it really is painless and only takes a few minutes.

Change Your Login Address
You can generally access the login of a WordPress site by typing in the website address and adding ‘/wp-admin/’ to the URL. For example, if Google was hosted on WordPress, you would head to ‘www.google.com/wp-admin/’ to gain access to their login prompt. By leaving this login address at the default value, you’ve basically shown hackers to the front door. Consider changing the default login to something more unique to keep hackers guessing. After all, if you knowingly give them access, can you blame them once they break in?

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Read More: 5 Ways to Turbo Charge Your Smartphone’s Internet Speed

Read more to learn which 5 best apps your dad deserves on Father’s Day.

Get Dad to Download StubHub
One of the most popular apps of the last 5 years has been StubHub, which compares ticket prices from various websites in order to find your dad the best deal. Whatever his musical taste or favorite sport may be, StubHub can be tailored to find tickets for the right event on any given night. The app can be linked to your dad’s Spotify, plus it can connect to various e-payment platforms to ensure every transaction is hassle-free.

Help Dad Find His Dream Home
If your father is on the hunt for some new real estate, Zillow.com will help him find a more comfortable home for the entire family. The home search app has an intuitive and logical user interface to search for the ideal home based on your dad’s price range. It can also help him sell his current home by valuing properties in his neighborhood.

For the BBQ Hero of Your Life
If your dad loves to grill meats, check out hundreds of recipes on the Weber Grills app. Each recipe has step-by-step instructions, a built-in grill timer, and a grocery list feature to keep your father’s grilling days organized.

When Your Dad is Mad About Sports
Perhaps the hottest sports app at the moment is Bleacher Report, which offers timely scores and news in football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and just about any sport imaginable. The app can be programmed to fit your dad’s interests so he gets notified of the latest stats for his favorite teams.

Improve Your Dad’s Mobile Performance
The best app for optimizing your dad’s mobile device is dfndr performance, which has a quick cleanup feature that gets rid of old files that could be slowing down his phone. It also has an app manager function to remove unused apps he no longer needs. A memory booster feature can enhance his device’s RAM speed as well. After all, you have to help him make room for all these awesome apps.

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Read More: Vulnerability Found in Alexa App, What Should You Do?

There are lots of positives to using these devices, but they may know more about you than you’d like. Here’s a breakdown of why Alexa and Google Home could be a detriment and not a help.

How It Works
These devices may not be listening to everything you say, but once you request an interaction with “Alexa” or “OK Google,” they will record you. As soon as these devices hear these keywords, they will instantly upload everything uttered to cloud servers.

The reason for this action is Alexa and Google Home need to store information in the cloud in order to respond back to you. The data is processed into machine-comprehensible instructions and the devices return with an answer to your command. For example, if you ask Alexa to read you an email or an SMS, this information could be stored on cloud servers forever.

What Else Should I Know?
An estimated 31 million Alexa devices have been sold already, as well as 14 million Google Home devices, which is a dream for marketers. Your data could be compiled and used for marketing purposes and all your data will be concentrated in a central place. Having all your data exposed in one area could make it easy for hackers and cybercriminals to target you.

What Can I Do?
You are able to delete the information that Alexa and Google Home collects about you by going to your Amazon or Google account and deleting old recordings. But, if you do this, the devices will unlearn some of the information they know about like your email account to read messages out loud or your musical preferences.

Be careful which devices you link to Alexa or Google Home. Remember that sensitive, personal information may belong to the device as much as it belongs to you. Another option is you can choose when to turn off a smart home device’s connection to your information. For example, if you’re not using an online shopping feature on your device, turn it off.

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New Features to Secure Your Online Life
For starters, the company will be including new anti-phishing capabilities based on machine learning algorithms from Gmail user scenarios. The service will now be able to flag emails as suspicious; it can also alert you to odd attachment files that may pose a threat. It can be a tiring practice to be on your toes continually looking out for malware, so these new features could be quite beneficial.

Read More: What You Need to Know About Google’s Security Patch Record

The anti-phishing system will also be able to scan images and expand shortened URLs in order to look for signs of malicious content. Basically, while you browse your Gmail inbox, Google has implemented a collection of new tools to watch your back. Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep your eyes peeled for trouble!

Advanced Changes to Google’s Backend
Other changes introduced include modifications made to Google’s Cloud Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solution, which offers new mechanisms that detect how a user interacts with the platform. On a security level, it monitors strange activity, like logging in from halfway around the world, or sending emails that don’t sound like you. These occurrences will be noted by the system.

Remember: Keep Your Eyes Open!
Overall, Google has introduced new security protocols that many users will find useful. However, it’s important to note that a basic patch of security doesn’t give complete protection. In fact, Google Play Protect, an essential part of the Android ecosystem continues to fail third-party testing by independent security firm, AV-TEST.

To make sure your entire Google life is safe and secure it’s worth downloading a third-party app such as dfndr security to watch your back. With features including full virus scanning abilities, anti-phishing fueled by AI, along with cleanup and performance features – it really is an excellent option to keep you moving forward. Go ahead, try it!

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Read More: Bitcoin Scams Are Coming Your Way

However, the technology has other applications that could help with your cybersecurity needs.

What Is Blockchain Technology?
The concept of a block is a digital ledger that stores anything from cryptocurrencies to medical information, voting records, or other types of transactions. A blockchain is the combination of several blocks containing multiple records about a particular topic. The technology is effective when dealing with encrypted pieces of information, such as cryptocurrencies.

In the cryptocurrency world, blockchain technology processes these encrypted transactions by solving complicated math problems, which become more complex as the blockchain grows in size. Programmers who solve these equations are rewarded with cryptocurrency in a process called ‘mining’. The technology is seen as a solid alternative to traditional bank transactions because it can keep personal information confidential.

How Can It Help You?
A rising problem with cybersecurity is the increasing complexity of cyberattacks, which are usually geared towards stealing financial data, personal information, intellectual property or health records. Criminals obtain this information through phishing scams, DDoS attacks, ransomware or by blackmailing victims in sophisticated ways.

Blockchain technology can help detect fraudulent activity by encrypting data that may otherwise be out in the open. The encryption process makes it harder to detect a point of entry for hackers because information on these digital ledgers is decentralized, meaning they are stored in numerous databases around the world rather than in one location.

This makes it harder for hackers to tap into a single database that contains vast amounts of your transactions.

No Passwords Necessary
With blockchain technology one day becoming the norm, you may not need a password to access your data, which is a plus since current authentication methods are susceptible to cyberattacks. This technology instead creates a security system that can only be accessed with a distributed public key. In other words, an SSL certificate is provided instead of a password, making it nearly impossible for attackers to use fake certificates.

Until blockchain becomes a reality, for now you’ll have to keep fighting cyberattacks the old fashioned way — with antivirus software and strong password combinations.

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The study looked at tens of millions simulated phishing attacks conducted over the course of a year through and reviewed more than 15 industries to see how susceptible each one is. The results may surprise you.

Read More: dfndr lab Discovery: McDonald’s Phishing Scam

The Stack Up of Other Industries
It was discovered that education workers were less likely to fall for a phishing scam than industries such as technology, entertainment, hospitality, government consumer goods, retail, and telecommunications. There are also some industries that are less susceptible to these cyberattacks than higher education, including transportation, energy and finance.

What Makes Higher Education Workers Different?
A number of universities have started implementing phishing awareness campaigns on their websites in order to help workers avoid compromising the privacy of students, colleagues or teaching staff. For example, the University of Pittsburgh created special inboxes where students and staff can report suspicious messages to the institution’s IT team.

What Organizations Can Do to Avoid Phishing Scams
There are some telltale signs of phishing attacks that everyone should know about, such as emails that appear suspicious. A phishing scam can entail a few things, but a big one is when an email impersonates an institution’s domain name from an account that looks similar to the real deal, but isn’t (such as “@harvard.edu” vs. “@harvardu.edu”). If the email is prompting you to click on a link, it could be a scam. Don’t click it!

What Can You Do Personally
If you’re attending college or work at one, one vulnerable point that is missed are smartphones. A smartphone is sometimes glued to your side and is necessary for school work or your profession.

To skirt the vulnerability that your phone can pose, consider using antivirus software there too, not just for  your computer. dfndr security’s advanced anti-hacking feature blocks phishing threats when you’re surfing, chatting, or studying. Best of all, it does the work for you by alerting you and blocking malicious links before you click on them.

While it’s interesting to peek at other industries and their cybersecurity measures, security actually begins with you first.

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Here’s what you should know about the dangers of this vulnerability and why it’s important to patch your browser right now.

Read More: How Vulnerable Is Your Email Account to Malware?

An ‘Arbitrary Code Execution’ Flaw
Mozilla released the Firefox update a week after the release of the company’s new Firefox Quantum browser, also known as Firefox 58. The new browser includes an improved graphics engine, as well as performance optimizations and patches for more than 30 browser vulnerabilities.

Cisco released a security advisory that stated this update for Firefox 58.0.1 fixes an ‘arbitrary code execution’ vulnerability.

Could Hackers Get to You?
The vulnerability opens the doors for hackers to run arbitrary code on a victim’s computer that tricks them into opening a file with malware containing malicious code. Cybercriminals could then take control of a user’s privileges and completely compromise their system. They could do everything from installing programs to creating new accounts, to changing or deleting data.

If a user’s configurations offer fewer user rights, the impact on their device could be less harmful. Owners of Firefox 56 (.0, .0.1, .0.2), 57 (.0, .0.1, .0.2, .0.3, .0.4) and 58 (.0) could be affected. You can download the update on the company’s website. The vulnerability was discovered by Mozilla developer Johann Hofmann and it does not affect Firefox browser for Android and Firefox 52 ESR.

How Can Chrome Users Protect Themselves?
If you don’t use Firefox, this update doesn’t apply to you, but Chrome users may have to deal with other vulnerabilities. Google recently released a new update for Chrome in version 64, which includes changes to the browser that should help deal with speculative side-channel browser attacks. These are malicious ways in which hackers try to gain access to a system’s memory.

The biggest lesson here? Always update your browser because important security patches within updates keep your online experiences safer than not.

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The truth is blunt and surprising, but if you’re a ‘millennial’, guess what? You’re more susceptible to cyber attacks. What the heck, you might ask. Even though you have experience with surfing the web, and know that a pop-up on your phone isn’t going to lead to a free plane ticket or a large cash prize, 20% of millennials are more likely to fall for these traps than their older counterparts.

Read More: Google Chrome and the Safe Browsing Feature

Read on for the reasons why you’re easier targets for security breaches online than your grandma is.

Born With a Smartphone in Hand
The youngest generation that can now legally drive vehicles in the United States were born in 2002.They arrived in an era that’s currently progressing through young adulthood and when they made an appearance on planet earth, Apple had already released the second generation iPod. Time does fly!

Being born with technology creates a level of comfort; it’s produced a collection of individuals who don’t take much caution when approaching technology but instead expect technology to be at the ready, without risks, when you need something done. The idea of a safe technology Utopia that’s there to help, and not to harm, has almost been drilled into younger minds.

Our grandparents and parents were taught about the importance of privacy, but the latest generation has been born into a society where privacy is becoming obsolete. With being connected by various social media accounts, posting photos and videos online, while also “checking in” on Foursquare and sharing an exact location with strangers — keeping personal information private is not a cultural mindset for millennials. The latest generation wasn’t taught about security or trained to approach technology with caution – it was always there, and that makes it dangerous.

Pure Apathy for Security Procedures
The current generation conveys a general naivety regarding security, as a recent Fortune article pointed out that “millennial employees could be your company’s biggest cybersecurity risk.” 

A recent study carried out reported that about 30% of younger employees leave their sensitive passwords on post-it-notes or other scraps of paper in clear sight. That surprising number can be compared with only 20% of Gen X individuals, such as your parents, keeping their information out in the open, and only 11% of Baby Boomers, like your grandparents, doing the same.

The Why and How
The apathy problem might stem from merely being born with technology in-hand. Security can seem troublesome to millennials who are used to a fast-moving digital culture.

Having to wait for IT to approve taking files home, creating a two-factor authentication to secure online accounts, or even creating different passwords might make this generation lose patience, wanting things to move quicker. After being accustomed to a level of simplicity and ease, it’s difficult to reel everything in by introducing more detailed procedures, even for the sake of security.

Don’t lose hope if you’re a millennial, though. You can become more conscious of your online life. It begins with following some simple security tips:

One, don’t use a single password for all your accounts – create various passwords with random letters, numbers, and symbols

Two, don’t share your passwords – they are yours and should be kept secure, even from your girlfriend or boyfriend.

Three, don’t ignore your company’s security guidelines – reach out to your IT department for help if something seems too hard.

Seems like a boring thing to say, but cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility. Together, we can remove the stigma attached to any generation and create a more secure internet experience for all.

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The Simple Option – Patterns
Back in 2009, when users were introduced to the second version of Android, known as ‘Eclair,’ individuals were treated to something sweet, the ability to unlock their phones with simple patterns. A grid of nine dots was presented to users, swiping between these dots in a specific manner would create an easy way to unlock your smartphone. It was a convenient solution that could be mastered with one hand on the go, but is it secure?

Read More: How Safe is it to Use Finger Recognition with Your Bank App?

Pattern unlock has remained on Android phones to this very day. However, don’t be fooled by a simple trick — unlocking your phone with a pattern is the most insecure option you could select. As with other authentication methods, it all starts with how complex of a pattern you choose, with most users opting for short ‘dot’ combinations or ones that could be easily guessed. Even with a complex passcode, your finger will typically leave oil trails on the screen that are easy to see, giving away your code. This is one ‘security’ method that’s best to avoid.

The Trusty Familiar – Pincodes
Pincodes remain a stable and secure option to protect your smartphone as long as best practices are followed. Choosing a four-digit code such as ‘1234’ or ‘1111’ is extremely easy to guess and won’t fool anyone attempting to break into your phone. The top recommendation for those creating a pincode is to use as many digits as possible. Older devices typically suggest four numbers, but newer smartphones will almost always default to six.

Again, how secure is this method of locking your phone? The answer is that it all depends on how complicated you choose to make your pincode. Avoid repetitive numbers, memorable dates, or other information that may be guessable if someone knows a bit about your background. Create a random six-digit code, and you’ll have a more secure solution to protect your data.

The New Kid on the Block – Facial Recognition
In recent years, facial recognition has hit the market. Introduced in 2011, Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich Android release brought about the ability for ‘Face Unlock.’ Android users could easily unlock their phones quicker than ever before. But, if this feature was released seven years ago — why is it just taking off now? The answer is simple; the technology was premature. Now, device manufacturers aren’t faced with the same limitations as before, and users have found facial recognition quite useful as it has advanced.

When it comes to facial recognition on Android devices though, it just isn’t the most secure at the moment. Trustworthy facial recognition is a careful marriage between hardware and software. Your experience will vary significantly between the smartphone manufacturer and the facial ID system being employed. As of now, we suggest keeping a secure passcode on your device as the majority of manufacturer solutions, including Samsung’s Iris unlock, have had their systems easily beat by photographs being held in front of the camera.

Another potential option is to protect specific content you care about most, like your photos or videos. Using solutions like dfndr vault’s premium facial recognition feature allows you to hide what matters most. For example, unlock your phone with a complex passcode and then add an extra step of facial recognition for your videos and photos. Consider it the perfect marriage of simplicity and security.

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NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, has released an application that allows a spare Android device to act as a security system for your gadgets. The app, Haven, enables users to oversee the device’s environment for intrusions. First, however, you must ensure that your machine isn’t being compromised from the inside. An AV-TEST approved app such as dfndr security can be your watchdog against viruses, malicious content, and infected applications.

Haven is aimed at anyone who may want to keep close tabs on their stuff, such as journalists, activists, and security personnel – one of the reasons Snowden developed the app in connection with the Freedom of the Press Foundation. However, the Android creation is also a way to ensure roommates aren’t accessing your machine, parents aren’t snooping on your content, and hotel maids aren’t getting too curious.

Once the application notices a possible intrusion, Haven will store the data locally while also transmitting a real-time notification via either an encrypted message or standard SMS text. Instantly hear what your device has heard, see what your smartphone has seen, or know if it has been moved.

Your spare Android device doesn’t need to have active phone service, but the feature would enable the device to work anywhere there is cell service and communicate via text message. Otherwise, you can connect your device to a trusted Wi-Fi network to get the job done.

Something to remember is your device should be secured both inside and out. The Haven app is one way to help protect your device and, as the application matures, it can provide an efficient way to monitor your surroundings.

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Journalists Jefferson Graham and Chris Woodyard recently spoke with the Director of California-based security company Green Hills Software, Joe Fabbre. In the trio’s discussion, Fabbre commented on a scene from Hollywood blockbuster, “The Fate of the Furious,” in which vehicle hacking was depicted:

“That’s Hollywood sensationalizing it, but that is not really that far-fetched… there are very skilled hackers out there who can beat through a lot of medium and low levels of robustness in terms of security that is present in a lot of cars today.”

Read More:  Massive Global Cyberattack Has Ties to the NSA

In recent years, automakers have become more conscious of security vulnerabilities that are now possible due to the increased number of computer systems found within cars. While no one has yet been killed due to an occurrence of vehicle hacking, cases have been noted where cars brakes and engine systems have been taken over remotely.

Back in 2015, hackers were able to take control of a Jeep Cherokee, shutting its engines down on a local St. Louis highway. The incident prompted Fiat Chrysler to send out USB sticks to their drivers that contained software fixes to prevent the exploit.

Last year, for the second year in a row, a group of Chinese hackers was able to demonstrate a software exploit within a Tesla vehicle, allowing them to take control of a Model X’s brake system, audio, and door systems. Luckily, these hackers were on our side, working to show the vulnerabilities in poorly secured software.

While your next car may be equipped with computer systems exhibiting exploits, the real catastrophe is when we view the world of entirely autonomous vehicles – driving without the aid of human interaction. With self-driving cars, the threat becomes very real when cars begin sending signals amongst one another to communicate wirelessly to better understand the road ahead.

When it comes to whether or not you should be concerned — yes, you should keep yourself aware of the security threats present in emerging vehicle technology. However, automotive makers are working faster than ever, learning to deploy software updates that can be installed via your home WiFi or vehicle’s cellular connection, to provide us with a safer future. For now, be sure to keep your hands on the wheel and your smart car updated.

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When to Draw the Line
When it comes to a personal caller such as an ex, even weekly calls can be painful so draw a firm line with them. For your sanity, block him or her if they continue contacting you and making things awkward.

Spam calls continue to increase year by year. If you’re getting bombarded by marketers, warn them to no longer call or you’ll report them. If they persist, report them or simply block them to gain some peace and a quiet phone.

The Do Not Call Registry
If you’re constantly being harassed by marketers, sign up with the National Do Not Call Registry. On DoNotCall.gov, you can register up to three numbers or check if your number is already there.

Doing so will give you an increased sense of privacy as continuous calls from marketers and scammers can be reported. You can also sign up by calling 1-888-382-1222 from the phone you want to register.

How to Block Someone on Android
Blocking someone on an Android device is much tougher because you have to go through different procedures based on your phone. We recommend you Google the steps, or search on YouTube depending on the device you own.

There are some devices such as the Google Pixel and Pixel XL that run Android 6.0 Marshmallow or later that has clear instructions on blocking calls. When in the Phone app, go to the more options icon next to the icon. Then go to Settings, Call Blocking and tap the number you want to block. You can also ‘Report’ call as spam.

The bottomline is to remain safe from an aggressive caller so with these handy tips, hopefully, the confusion on who to block or when is much clearer for you to determine.

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There are many ways your device’s software may be eating at its memory and our dfndr’s performance app offers one fix for this problem.

The Ultimate ‘App Manager’
You may be running multiple apps that no longer suit you without even knowing that could be slowing down your device. Think about–mobile apps nowadays are packed with data that can slow down your RAM memory, including videos, images, chats, and games.

An App Manager shows you just how much space each app is taking up, allowing you to delete any old ones in one screen. All it takes is one click to eliminate an app and all the data attached to it.

A Facebook Messenger Deep-Clean
There’s plenty of information that is transmitted through Facebook’s Messenger app, which you’re probably using on a daily basis to connect with friends and family. However, there’s a plethora of videos, images and other media files in every conversation that is saved on your phone, taking a bite off your processing power.

A ‘Facebook Messenger Cleaner’ examines every old file shared on the app and gives you the hassle-free option of deleting some and keeping others in order to increase your device’s storage capabilities.

Maximize Your RAM Power
You may be running multiple apps at once without even knowing it and hoping for an easy fix to ramp up your device’s functionality. Memory Booster helps you examine how many apps are running at once and close the ones you’re not using at the moment, while also reducing the chances of a crash or freeze screen.

Stick to a Static Background
Moving backgrounds look great, but they often slow down your phone’s processing power. A solid, static image will ensure that your device operates faster, while reducing the number of widgets on your screen to your most-used apps will keep your phone operating smoothly.

Go Ahead, Update Your Phone
This is a no-brainer but we often fail to update our devices to the latest operating system. The companies behind OS technology are often troubleshooting and eliminating bugs on the latest OS. Plus, your phone’s hardware and apps will often operate better with the most recent technology.

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However, you can still take back the power with virtual private network solutions (VPNs), such as dfndr vpn to make your data private and prevent ISPs from discriminating against you and the services they will or won’t offer.

Read More: 3 Court Cases That Shaped The Modern Internet

Let’s say that you decide to visit to visit your favorite social networking website. In a normal circumstance, your computer or phone would send out a request to that social network’s server; this request can be seen by others snooping on the network or private internet providers. Without net neutrality, ISPs can decide if they want to charge more for certain types of traffic.

But, if you use a VPN to visit your social networking site, all of it remains hidden. Your computer takes your website request and encrypts it. This request is then ‘tunneled’ to another location where it is fulfilled. Finally, the resulting information is then encrypted and sent back to you. What’s encryption exactly? Well, the entire process hides your activities from anyone keeping a close eye on your connection.

Proper VPN solutions should also have privacy protocols that prioritize your confidentiality. dfndr vpn, for instance, doesn’t track your IP to maintain your privacy. Also, top speeds may be a must if you’re into video streaming or gaming, which is why going premium is sometimes the better choice if you need the best connection at all times.

There is a possibility that net neutrality could be restored, but until then your data is under your ISP’s control. Don’t allow ISPs to take control of your internet, take the power back to choose how your Internet is delivered.

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The Benefits of Astro
Maybe you’re interested in the idea of using artificial intelligence to clean up your email inbox and free up some space, but you’re afraid that the AI will delete emails you wanted to keep. Don’t worry, Astro is truly intelligent and it is the first email app that comes with a built in chatbot to talk to you. Astro will chat with you, and recommend to you what you should unsubscribe from, what to save, and which contacts you should make VIP. The app asks your permission before deleting things so you will never wake up to a string of important work emails being erased from your inbox.

Read More: How to Prevent Identity Theft When You’re Online

Astro is designed to make your life easier. It has Astrobot Voice and Alexa. This makes it easy to read your emails aloud using Alexa on the Amazon Echo or your phone. This is a great benefit of Astro because you can now hear important emails when you’re on-the-go or driving. It’s also supported by Gmail and Office 365, so no matter what email provider you use, Astro is there to help you and clean up your inbox.

Where You Can Download Astro
You can download Astro from the Google Play store. In addition to downloading it from this store, you can also add Astro to Slack because it has full Slack integration. This means that you can add Slack search and Slack email so that you can manage your email from your Slack app. Another place you can use Astro is on the Amazon Echo, also known as Alexa. This way you can give commands to Alexa, and Astro will go in and complete those commands in your email inbox.

Overall, if you want a cleaner inbox, why stop there? Clean up the rest of your phone with App Manager to make space on your phone for new applications and pictures. A phone free of clutter is a more efficient phone.

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One of Snapchat’s most advanced — and exciting — features are filters. Many of those boast facial recognition, where it turns its user into a different character whenever it’s used. But how does that technology work, and what does Snapchat know about you that you may not have realized? Find out below.

Read More: How to Get All of Your Social Media Updates in One Place

Snapchat’s Facial Recognition
The Snapchat filters that we all adore come from a Ukrainian startup called Looksery, which was acquired for an impressive $150 million by Snapchat. While the company tries to keep it under wraps exactly how their technology works, there’s been research done on the topic.

To put it in layman’s terms, the app uses computer vision to spot you based on contrast patterns that can commonly be found in the human face. It uses a general “map” or “graph” to find people’s faces and overlay the features of these filters. To make this work, Snapchat trained their system with hundreds or even thousands of different faces, manually marking them where features lay: nose, mouth, eyes, and overall face. That means that when each of us uses the filters on our own faces, the program can use up to 24 frames per second to use its “point-mask” to shift to match your specific face.

How Much Does Snapchat Know?
This cool (but slightly creepy) process does pose a question: How much does Snapchat know about us? Should we be taking measures while using the app to protect our identity? While the tool does seem to have a lot of information on us — our contact list, our name, our location, and even our current activities — it doesn’t seem that the application can detect too much about us via the facial recognition apps. It may learn more about our facial features and the structure of our face, but it’s not presenting anything too crazy at the moment. This means that we can snap away using these fun and quirky filters without fear.

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1. Google URL Shortener

For most people looking to shorten their URL, Google URL Shortener is the go-to site. All you have to type is goo.gl and it automatically brings up the URL converter. This is an easy to understand interface, and it takes all of the confusion out of shortening your URL link. All you have to do is copy and paste your URL into the space that says “Your original URL here.” Then you click “I’m not a Robot” so that Google knows that you’re real. Finally, click the “Shorten URL” button. Google then spits out your new and improved URL and you’re ready to go. It’s quick, easy and free!

Read More: How to Clean Up Your Android and Combat Sluggishness

2. ShortLink

ShortLink offers some interesting features for you if you want a shorter URL. The Android app not only shortens your links and provides you with a new shortened URL. ShortLink also creates a QR code which you can share on your social media sites making it easy for clients to find your site. All they have to do is scan your newly created QR code with a QR code scanner application and it automatically brings up your website on their phone. For some businesses or websites, it may be more beneficial to have a QR code instead of a short URL because the QR code may get people to your site faster.

3. URL Shortener

This free Android app is a great way to make any URL shorter. This app brags that it can make your URL short enough so that it fits in any Tweet, Facebook post, or email without taking up much space. Twitter can be frustrating due to the limited character count, but if you shorten your URL, you can link to your website without using too many characters. By using a shorter URL, you’ll have more room to write your thoughts. URL Shortener also lets you access your history so you can quickly see what URLs you have used before and you can access them. Another great aspect of this app is that they have beautiful analytics reports for your URLs. This means that you can see how many people clicked and shared your short URL.

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Read More: Defend Yourself with These Personal Safety Apps

Are You Sure the Device Is Wiped?
The most important factor to consider before parting with your phone is whether your information will be at risk should you hand it over. As mobile apps start to store more personal information, and as banking moves to cell phones, it can be dangerous to hand off your phone without wiping your information. Many phone sellers often fail to fully wipe their devices, and can leave their information available to the next owner.

What Is It Worth?
Another factor to consider is how much you think your phone will sell for. Is it a newer model, and is there a lot of demand for it? Research on eBay and other sites what your phone might fetch based on it’s value, age, and appearance. If your phone has a lot of scratches or cracks, or if it has been dropped one too many times, it may not be worth trying to sell it.

Where to Donate Your Phone
If you decide to donate your phone, take the time to find a charity that you can trust, and one you are passionate about donating your phone to. There are plenty of great charities that give phones to people in need. If you do decide to donate it, make sure that your phone has been completely wiped, because while its new owner may not try to steal it, their online security practices may leave it vulnerable to hackers.

If you’re looking to get rid of your device, and if you have asked the above questions, you should be good to go. But, as always, you can never be too cautious. Make sure your information won’t be compromised by encrypting the data before you wipe it.

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Read More: How to Identify a Sketchy Third-Party Seller on Amazon

Finding Your Junk Email Folder
As mentioned, a junk mail folder will save you many headaches. However, it’s important to make sure that the junk mail is setup correctly. You don’t want important emails going in there! The first step is to find your junk email folder. Finding your junk mail folder is easy. Simply go to your email client of the account requiring the junk mail folder. Bring up the folder list, or whatever shows various folders such as Inbox, Drafts, etc. on your phone. In the folders, you should see a Junk or Spam mail folder. Just click and you’re there!

Customizing Your Junk Email Folder
Moving right along, you’re now in the junk email folder. In that folder, you’ll likely see a lot of messages. Hopefully most of them, if not all, are actually junk mail. As mentioned, you don’t want important emails in that inbox! However, if you do see important emails in your junk email inbox, click on the message or messages in question and find the “Not Spam” button. Click that and those messages should start appearing in your inbox. Additionally, if you have spam or junk messages appearing in your inbox, simply find the “Mark Spam” button. Click and send them to your junk email folder!

What to Do After
Unfortunately, there are often more junk emails than important emails. This means that your entire inbox, not just the junk email folder, can get filled up quickly. This means less storage for important mail. If you notice you’re close to exceeding the amount of space in your inbox, consider investing in an inbox cleaner. Inbox cleaners detect unimportant emails, effectively cleaning them from your inbox. This will save you time, money, and inbox space!

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Furthermore, Uber is known for its contentious relationship with its drivers, many of whom cannot make a living wage even when working over 40 hours. Even so, the ease Uber offers to consumers makes it a healthy competitor to the classic city transport, and taxis will have to fire back in some serious way if they want to survive.

Taxis and Uber are both making strides to retain and poach drivers from each other. Both Yellow Cab and Uber have recently opened up centers in Astoria, Queens for drivers to come in, relax, take lessons, and get support from trained staff. This is reminiscent of all advancements on both sides of the aisle — whatever one company tries, the other can attempt to combat by doing it better.

Read More: These Laws Could Stop Uber and Google’s Self-Driving Cars

Taxis, meanwhile, have one thing that still makes them unique: the curbside pick-up. While ordering a taxi is by all means possible, a huge majority of their work comes from picking people up when they hail a cab, something Uber just doesn’t do. And there is, as with everything, an app aimed at improving that service.

StreetSmart uses AI and previous data on pick-ups to best guide taxi drivers to where people will be at a given time of day. By trawling streets with known patrons on them, the cabs are more likely to find customers. Early tests look good: over a three-month test period, taxi drivers reported that they were 22% busier and that their income increased by 15%. Those are promising numbers. Though StreetSmart can also route them, most taxi drivers still use their own knowledge of the city to get customers where they need to be.

It’s unclear if this effort (or if other competitors) will be enough to stave off Uber, or if an app is even the right way to go. Uber can just as easily use StreetSmart — it isn’t necessarily affiliated with the yellow taxi cabs. In truth, the battle will continue, and be fought in more ways than the technological. In the end, it may just come down to public perception, and whether or not yellow taxi cabs are something city dwellers are willing to give up.

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Religious Technology Center v. Netcom (1995)
Wondering what the Internet looked like back in 1995? While it was still an incredibly new service (without sites like Google or Amazon), there were still avid bloggers and lots of commentators. This case specifically established that linking to another website did not equate to stealing their content. While it seemed like a small victory at the time, it’s hard to imagine something more central to the Internet than the ability to link to other articles.

Read More: Chromebooks and iPads in Modern Classrooms

Reno v. ACLU (1997)
A few years later, Congress attempted to regulate some of the content on the Internet and beyond, specifically crude elements like pornography and hate speech. The ACLU tackled this bill, and ended up winning, which translated to guaranteeing free speech on the Internet. Regardless of your stance on the decision, it’s impossible to imagine the modern Internet landscape without porn or hate speech.

Zeran v. America Online, Inc. (1998)
As another year passed, the Internet continued to increase in popularity and be well-used in 1998. As this happened, another case came before the Supreme Court that further dealt with the issue of backlinks on websites. At the center of this case was the issue of whether or not websites were able to post content from others without the fear of prosecution if someone published something that was illegal or potentially dangerous on the other website. While it seems like a no-brainer that another party shouldn’t be held responsible, this decision helped to confirm that the Internet is a communal space that allowed for linking and cross-communication without fear of litigation.

While tough to foresee at the time, these cases — and a handful of others — helped the courts to decide the future of the Internet, which they determined would be more free in form and collaborative. Had their decisions gone differently, we could have an entirely different Internet — certainly far from the one we know today.

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The first step you can try is to remove old photos, GIFs, audio files, and videos from your Messenger app. Our dfndr performance app has a feature called facebook messenger cleaner that can do this function and help manage your storage  to avoid the dreaded “you don’t have room on your device” pop-up.

Now check out these tips and tricks to make it easier for you to free up space on your phone when you need it most!

Read More: Google’s Newest Feature: Backup and Sync for Drive

Clean Out the Downloads Folder
Similar to on your computer, your phone keeps a downloads folder that quickly fills up with every attachment you open. It even includes junk files that could have been downloaded from the web by different apps, perhaps in the form of ads. To clean this folder out and to free up space, open the app drawer and tap “downloads.” There, click the three-line menu at the top corner and sort the attachments by size. Tap and hold the different files to delete anything that you no longer need.

Remove Backed-Up Photos
Since the Google photo app so conveniently allows users to back up their photos from a wireless device, it makes it easier to free up space when it comes to your favorite pictures. Get rid of anything that’s already been synced to your Google account and you’ll love having an abundance of extra space on your Android. To do this, open the photo app and tap that three-line menu button in the top left corner. Next, tap “free up device storage.” The app will then let you know how many pictures you can delete from the device’s local storage.

Erase Offline Areas in Google Maps
You probably don’t immediately think of your maps app when you think of what’s hogging space on your Android, but it’s certainly something that can stand to be trimmed down. Since this app now lets you navigate offline, it stores more information than it used to. Start by checking how much space your offline maps app is consuming by tapping that left corner menu and then choosing “Offline.” Each individual offline map will then be displayed with the amount of data it’s taking up. Tap the map and then hit “delete” to get rid of what you don’t want.

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Net Neutrality, the Cliff Notes Version
AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and other providers of fixed and mobile internet access have morphed into full-service broadband providers with their own content networks that compete directly with Netflix, Amazon and other internet companies that likewise offer programming but don’t have their own means to distribute it. Internet companies and their consumers are concerned that broadband companies might promote their own programs by charging additional fees to access Netflix or Amazon programs, for example. Such tiered pricing would also have the effect of discouraging startups that don’t have the resources to pay for faster internet speeds.

The FCC passed its Open Internet Order in 2015 in an effort to prevent those scenarios from playing out. With a new administration in the White House, however, the FCC has now decided to reverse that order and let broadband companies, content providers, and consumers figure all of this out for themselves.

What Does This Mean For You?
That ongoing uncertainty is a problem because, as the net neutrality drama drags on and ISPs battle it out, access to your favorite content could be in jeopardy. This is why more people are turning to a VPN to cloak their identity online and access restricted content. A VPN stands for virtual private network and most apps are easy to install and activate.

Our dfndr vpn app, for example, hides your IP address from ISPs, allowing you to use the internet at home, work or on public Wi-Fi so you can access games or stream content. And the other benefit? Our free app protects you from hackers too, by blocking any suspicious links that appear in your browser.

The Sky Isn’t Falling
Things aren’t as dire as they might seem. This month’s vote boils down to this: the FCC will essentially hand internet regulation over to Congress, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the legal system. The thinking is that Congress should pass legislation that would define the terms of net neutrality rather than having the rules change every time a new administration takes over the White House. The courts would also likely take up the issue as companies sue one another whenever the new law is violated. The FTC, meanwhile, would monitor internet access to make sure that neither broadband companies nor content providers are engaging in any practices that are anticompetitive. Let’s hope this new approach falls in the consumer’s favor. Meanwhile, consider using a VPN to access content you enjoy watching and interacting with.

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Ease of Access
This one goes both ways. While it may be easy to store your information online in order to have it wherever you end up going, it also means that it’s easier for hackers and other individuals to access that information if you forget to log off of a public computer or if someone whom you’ve shared a file with fails to practice online safety etiquette.

Read More: Can’t Stop Clickbaiting? Anti-Hacking Will Protect You

It’s Out of Your Hands
What can be frustrating about cloud storage is that the data and files are often out of your hands. A personal hard drive enables you to better protect your information, and it gives you a physical copy that you can see. But keeping the information online means that you aren’t the one with control over your information. Should Google Drive be down, or hacked, the information you have stored in the cloud isn’t in your control. You’re only as strong as the companies your information is kept with.

Even If You Don’t Lose Your Information, It Can Be Viewed
As previously discussed, if your information is at risk of being out of your hands, and if the files that you have stored in the cloud are unavailable, what many consumers fail to understand is how your files can be viewed — and at risk — without being downloaded or stored anywhere else. Oftentimes, it’s possible for hackers to view files stored in the cloud, and copy down the information on their own, or make their own copy to have and keep. It is another subtle way that hackers can manipulate the cloud to get their hands on your information.

While storing your information on the cloud may be incredibly easy and allow you to share information readily, it can also be a tremendously risky endeavor. Make sure that, before you store sensitive information online, that you know the risk you’re taking and are prepared to suffer the consequences (if and when they should happen).

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