Privacy – Daves Computer Tips

How Much Account Verification Is Enough?

Jim Hillier — Wed, 06 May 2026 04:02:00 +0000

I’m all for enhanced online account security, but has it maybe gone a bit too far? These days, I find myself needing to sign in to some accounts over and over, and others are now putting me through hoops to prove my identity. All my online accounts are secured by 2FA where available. I use a password manager (Bitwarden) protected by a master password to manage all my passwords.

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The Surprising Facts About TV Licenses

Marc Thomas — Tue, 05 May 2026 05:44:35 +0000

In my naïveté, I always thought the UK was the only place on Earth where a TV license was enforced. But no, around two-thirds of European countries require you to pay for a license, as do many countries in Africa and some in Asia. In the UK, the TV license is used to partly fund the BBC, a publicly owned corporation, and it’s strictly enforced, as I remember only too well from my childhood.

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Operating System Age Verification – Are They Crazy?

Marc Thomas — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 04:51:17 +0000

No one would disagree that children need to be protected from unsuitable content on the internet – the UK OSA and recent Australian laws are good examples of this kind of government intervention – but age verification at the operating system level? You’ve got to be kidding, right? No, I’m not. California, Colorado, New York, Brazil, and the EU are introducing laws that require operating…

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AmneziaVPN: An Undetectable VPN

Jim Hillier — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 04:01:17 +0000

AmneziaVPN is a relatively new service that utilizes its own open-source AmneziaWG protocol, which closely mimics normal/standard traffic, making it virtually undetectable. The problem with most VPNs is that their characteristic patterns make them readily identifiable via DPI (Deep Packet Inspection). In contrast, AmneziaWG utilizes constantly changing headers and packet sizes…

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How To Manage Your Google Profile Visibility

Jason Shuffield — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 04:33:57 +0000

If you were here last week, I talked about how to remove third-party apps from your Google account. If you missed it, you can find it here: How To Remove Third-Party Apps from Google This week, I want to stick with the Google subject and teach you more. What are you teaching us this week? Good question. I’m going to show you how you can manage who sees your Google profile.

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How To Remove Third-Party Apps from Google

Jason Shuffield — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 04:21:20 +0000

Last week, we covered how to enable clipboard alerts on Samsung. If you missed that one, you can find it here: How To Enable Clipboard Alerts on Samsung This time, I wanted to show how you can remove third-party apps that you have connected to your Google account. You might not realize that when you connect an app to a website, it has access until you delete it from your Google account.

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How To Enable Clipboard Alerts on Samsung

Jason Shuffield — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 05:16:56 +0000

Last week, I covered how you can blur your home on Google Maps. If you missed that one, you can find it here: How To Blur House On Google Maps I want to stick with the subject of privacy and security. This time, we will give you a safety tip for your Samsung Android phone. You might know that apps might try to look at your clipboard without your permission. No one wants anyone accessing parts…

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How To Blur House On Google Maps

Jason Shuffield — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 05:03:02 +0000

Last week, we continued our lessons on ChatGPT, and I showed you how to disconnect it from apps. If you missed that one, you can find it here: How To Disconnect App From ChatGPT We are going to jump subjects again and talk about Google Maps. Like most people, I have looked up my address on Google, and I bet you have too. If you didn’t notice, this is a little invasion of privacy.

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Enhance Your Privacy With DoNotSpy11

Jim Hillier — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 05:11:21 +0000

DoNotSpy11 is a free application to enhance privacy in both Windows 11 and Windows 10. It was first released as DoNotSpy10 and the developer has updated the software so that it now also reflects Windows 11’s settings. DoNotSpy11 is a typical tweaking tool designed specifically to allow users to adjust settings relating to privacy. What I like most about this tool is its clear and comprehensive…

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How To Stop ChatGPT Notifications

Jason Shuffield — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 05:47:49 +0000

Last week I started a lesson on the new subject of ChatGPT. We talked about how you could stop this AI from taking your information to teach all its AI systems. If you missed that, you can find it here: How To Stop ChatGPT Using My Data I would like to stick with this subject and teach you something else about AI. As with all programs and websites, they love to send you notifications.

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How To Stop ChatGPT Using My Data

Jason Shuffield — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 05:05:56 +0000

Last week, we covered How to Create a Shortcut on your Android phone from Google Chrome. If you missed that, you can find it here: How To Create Shortcut On Android This week, I wanted to jump off this subject and talk about ChatGPT. ChatGPT has been taking over the world in the last few years. Many people use it for their jobs or personal projects. I know many companies even use it for…

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What Is The Most Private Browser?

Jim Hillier — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 05:01:50 +0000

The latest story doing the rounds on tech sites is based on the results of a “study” by a company called Digitain to ascertain levels of browser privacy. According to the Digitain report, Google Chrome is by far the least private browser… well, no sh*t Sherlock. In the study, rankings for browsers were evaluated on how they handled privacy, anti-fingerprinting, tracker and data blocking…

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How To Stop Gemini From Reading Screen

Jason Shuffield — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 05:04:20 +0000

Last week, we covered how to adjust Facebook Display Settings. If you missed that article, you can find it here: How To Adjust Facebook Display Settings This week, I want to cover something on privacy. Not on Facebook, but a Google AI feature called Gemini. I want to bring this up because I received a notification that Google turned on Gemini, and it would automatically capture information on…

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Turn Off Activity History For Privacy

Terry Hollett — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 05:03:11 +0000

After watching some YouTube videos, I discovered that Microsoft keeps a log of your activities in a file called “ActivitiesCache.db”. I thought it was only for Windows 11, but I also found the file on all of my Windows 10 computers. The path to the file on my system is C\Users\Terry\AppData\Local\ConnectedDevicesPlatform\L.Terry\ActivitiesCache.db It’s a hidden file, so you have to show…

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