security

With the new year here, it's a good time for a refresher on how to make strong passwords and help keep them safe. With phishing still on the rise , ever-present social media hacks , and general security breaches and unsavory shenanigans,…

The ladies who live on my quiet, suburban neighborhood street have gone full-on neighborhood watch this week, because we've had a rash of packages stolen off front porches. Our delivery services are at maxed-out capacity, and they're hur…

We're all finding clever, different ways to celebrate Halloween this year (thanks for the nudge, 2020), so we figured we'd share something we're doing with our kids: listening to some spooky podcasts. On this episode of Out-Tech Your Kid…

Let's talk HEPA air purifiers and the coronavirus. I've started to hear some noise about how these appliances might help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, so I've been reading up to see if buying one is worth the money. The TL;DR ve…

With the news last week that Zoom had some big security concerns to patch up, educators of all kinds started seeking out Zoom alternatives for schools and other kinds of remote learning. Especially after the NYC DOE took the big step of …

There are some folks on our lists who love tech gifts, but prefer the more practical tech gifts to the gaming systems or the entertainment consoles. Or hey, maybe they love both but just have some specific needs this year. If that's the …

Yesterday, I spent a good two hours live tweeting the bigger Apple announcements at their 2019 developer conference that would be of interest to parents. Like, news about parental controls, photo sharing, and home security? Yes please! N…

When it comes to digital parenting , there's a seemingly endless number of conversations we need to have with our tweens and teens. And according to a recent survey, moving " how to make a strong password " to the top of the list is pret…

Forget the hoverboards and watches that talk. The future is here and it is the Barisieur Coffee Brewing Alarm Clock . Yes, it makes pour over coffee (or loose leaf tea) when your alarm goes off. And it even has a refrigerated compartment…

If you're a frequent Facetime user, you might want to turn it off until Apple fixes a recent glitch that actually allows callers to listen and see the people they're calling, even if they don't answer. Creepy much? Related: Watch out for…

Yes, we're all still getting a lot of mileage out of "there's an app for that" because...well, it's true. Especially on iOS , though Android is doing a little better keeping up these days. Over the past year, there are a few apps that I'…

Keeping our kids safe and healthy is our number one job as parents. And with so many of them using smartphones and other electronic devices, their online safety has become a huge part of that. At Cool Mom Tech, we have always provided pa…

As Twitter has just informed all 330,000,000 of its users in an apologetic but so far underreported post, you should really change your Twitter password right now, this very second. Not to be alarmist -- but out of an abundance of precau…

It's not surprising that as of late, there's been a magnifying glass on privacy issues when it comes to technology, particularly as it relates to kids. Remember those WIFI-connected stuffed animals ? Yikes. Well, in a recent study, resea…

Updated on 4/11/18 below Today, Facebook will be rolling out a feature to help you check to see if your data, along with around 87 million other people, was stolen by Cambridge Analytica. While we haven't seen anything on our own Newsfee…

With all the recent data breaches and Facebook privacy issues , we're getting lots of questions about private browsing, also known as "incognito mode." Should you be using it? If you already do, is your information safe? Here's what you …

If we didn't know before, we've certainly learned very recently that Facebook knows a whole lot about us. But today I discovered that they're assigning us to marketing categories, which are chosen based on the data gathered from your Fac…

Since CES 2018 , we've been featuring our favorite tech picks for parents and I'd be remiss if I didn't share the incredible new high-tech baby monitors that I got a chance to check out. While there are certainly a lot more that we'll be…

If you're like us, then you've got a ton of fingerprints on your computer and way too many photos on your smartphone. But to start 2018 with a clean slate (or at least, a clean screen), we're sharing 20 tech to-dos to help you get more o…

Home security has gotten really high tech lately, and we're not talking about cameras. Smart locks are helping families stay safer. Whether you want to be able to check on the kids getting home from school alone, or let a neighbor in to …

My kids were all a little too old when the video baby monitor hit peak popularity. And way too old for this trend of parents chasing their kids around with a video camera to catch their every move. So, when I saw Google had launched thei…

Over the years, you've probably heard a few different suggestions on how to create strong passwords , one of which was pioneered by Bill Burr, formerly of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. However, he's now saying that …

With the recent CloudPets hack , and others like it (remember Hello Barbie ?), it's becoming clearer that smart toys, particularly the stuffed animal kind, could pose a privacy risk that parents should know about. Don't get us wrong, we …

If you own an Internet-connected VIZIO smart television, you might have heard that they've been collecting data on your viewing habits for years, and surprise, it's a serious breach of privacy. We took a close look at the reports and the…