Email Accounts

[Meaghan McLeod 179664]

So, I'm the absolute worse at email accounts and keeping personal and business separate. I have a gmail for personal and a gmail for business. My facebook is gmail too. I even created a new yahoo account specific for a new site, and its now going to my gmail account.

 

With the recent glitch with the pm's going to personal email accounts, I'm thinking I need to really re-evaluate how I set up my accounts. I've also seen that it's important to use a different browser for facebook that you don't use for other sites to keep things separate.

 

There is a real cross-contamination of personal information and business information that I'm not comfortable with.

 

I've also had a scare of a virus that sent out emails to my contacts, that I didn't send, so I know I'm really at a loss of how to fix this once and for all.

 

So, I need a new personal email, business email, and a personal business email. I also need to find a new browser that does not mine my information and sync it to other sites.

 

I have a computer and a cell phone. I use both to do business and pleasure, but don't really know how to separate them so everything stays safe.

 

I recently did a search on facebook for an inquiry, and the next day, he showed up as a possible friend option. So, now, do I need to create a separate facebook account for business. How do I separate them, so they don't link?

 

Do I need to get a separate computer? I'm thinking I'm so lost and the hacks are faster and smarter then me.

 

I've always been a google girl - don't even like chrome, as I like what I'm used to. However, I've come to realize I need to get with the times. Now I understand why nerds have so many computers.

 

So - suggestions on email accounts and browsers. Lets keep everything separate, and simple. Oh, of course I really need to invest in the proper system protection - but still don't know where to start on them either. I'm someone who clicks on something that looks interesting. A hackers favorite dream. Also, assistance on passwords? I know that there is something that can help keep track of passwords, so you don't use the same password for every site.

 

It was so much more simple before the internet, but no where near as fun as it is now.

 

Thank you! xo

[nerdnerd 449]

You need a computer that doesn't run windows, so that you don't have to worry about "system protection". (Mac and Linux/Ubuntu, or even Chromebook)

With firefox you can easily create multiple profiles, or if that's not enough, create multiple logins on your computer. You can do this with Chrome, but it is harder, might just prefer to have multiple logins

[Phaedrus 209521]

So, to add to the answers above...

 

I guess the main issue here is keeping your various online identities separate and not cross-pollinating them. This, alas, is tricky, because many services - especially free ones - are very much geared to hoovering up as much of your personal data as they possibly can.

 

Cellphones are a real problem. All apps you install on your phone request some permissions; a lot of them request enough permissions to access things like your contacts and... make use of them. There isn't much you can do about this; either live with it, or don't use the apps in question. Given that most of us want to access things like email, FB, Twitter, etc from our phones, that really means you'll need to make sure you have separate phones for your separate lives... and you have to be very careful to ensure you NEVER access Meaghan's email from your real-life cellphone, or vice versa. As soon as you do that, another address-book gets pillaged by the wrong accounts, and before you know it you'll have sent all your clients FB friend requests from your real-life account, or something equally bad.

 

On other devices... be careful of being tracked across sites. Many websites place cookies on your machine to track what you do online, mostly so that they can then target ads at you. So, using separate browsers for separate things is a good idea - as an example, I have one browser that I use for FB and nothing else. There are plenty of browsers out there (IE, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Opera - that should be enough for most people). Install a plugin in each browser to block known trackers - I use Ghostery (https://www.ghostery.com/), but others exist. Other plugins like Adblock and Flashblock are also useful. Configure your browser to remove all personal information when you close it (cookies, form data, history, etc) - yes, that means you'll have to log in every time, but I consider it worth the inconvenience.

 

There's probably other stuff, but that's all that springs to mind right now...

[nntsci 11076]

Over the years I've had 5 facebook accounts and hundreds of email accounts.

 

Currently I have two separate emails and separate Facebook accounts. I never let one know about the other and I do not let the computer save my passwords... for a laugh I friended myself, he he... (I'm my own best friend).

 

Gmail is not the best choice because gmail wants to know everything about you and will set up a google plus account.

 

I would highly recommend using Hotmail for your accounts; it seems to respect keeping your accounts separate more then gmail or yahoo.

 

Don't use your business email as a backup email for your person Facebook etc... just keep everything separate.

 

If you need a backup email for your accounts, create a third email.

 

I would recommend never saving your passwords to ensure that you don't mix em up.

[nerdnerd 449]

I agree with Phaedrus, you probably can't get away with a single mobile device.

On Android, I suggest installing firefox, and use that to access your personal business email as webmail. I don't know what to suggest for SMS; I suggest a second (non-smart) phone.

 

I disagree with nntsci, if you use seperate browser profiles, gmail is just great. Yeah, they might create G+ profiles, but that's even arguably a feature. hotmail seems to drop lots of email thinking it's spam.

[nntsci 11076]

you can adjust the spam settings on Hotmail.

[backrubman 64800]

I agree with Phaedrus, you probably can't get away with a single mobile device.

On Android, I suggest installing firefox, and use that to access your personal business email as webmail. I don't know what to suggest for SMS; I suggest a second (non-smart) phone.

 

I disagree with nntsci, if you use seperate browser profiles, gmail is just great. Yeah, they might create G+ profiles, but that's even arguably a feature. hotmail seems to drop lots of email thinking it's spam.

 

Well at least with the Google Apps for Work or Business (whatever they are calling it these days), you can turn off Google+ entirely. It's completely disabled on my account.

 

An associate of mine uses Bria (SIP client) exclusively with is smart phone (he has a tablet plan with data only, no voice but bell gives him voice anyways) and uses SIP with a LES.NET account (finds it much less expensive than paying for voice on cellular the normal way) and Bria lets him send and receive SMS via his VoIP number. So right there he has something of interest to many ladies -- I know you can have a phone with dual SIM cards but only one of them can be active at any given time. His VoIP account and his normal cellular telephone number are both active at the same time.

 

Different phone numbers active at the same time on the same phone. He can make calls from either but chooses not to use the cellular side at all as it's 0.20/minutes as he doesn't have a meaningful voice plan.