October 1, 2013
How To Keep Your Personal Information Personal In a Social Media World #ESETProtects
Social media plays a huge role in my life. It is the number one way I stay connected to family overseas, friends from high school and network with new friends and bloggers. You can instantly share updates on your children, success stories and pictures. Sometimes without even realizing it we can share too much information and make information public that we may regret later.
Facebook is one of the largest social media sites that many of us use on a daily basis. If you are not careful about your privacy settings you can unintentionally share information not only with your friends but their friends as well! ESET shares with us their top tips on how to protect your privacy on Facebook. Our eldest son has already started to ask for a Facebook account even though he is not yet thirteen. He has many friends that have been allowed by their parents to join the social media site. We were firm with our decision that no he is not ready for a social media account. A certain level of maturity is required to safely manage a social media account and to prevent the sharing of inappropriate or unsafe content that will later be regretted.
Some key tips to remember when setting up a Facebook account:
- Do not over share! If you give away to much information online it is easier for your identity to be stolen. Your friends and family members know you already – there is no need to share more than the basics.
- Keep your private information private. Actively go in to your privacy settings and update them. You do not need to share every status update and photo in public mode nor should you want to. If you do not change your settings most of the updates you share will be public.
- Update your Timeline settings. Did you know you can choose who can or can not see your Timeline? If you did not then you should look – you can chose to review posts that include your name, items posted to your timeline and so on.
- Third party access – every once in a while check out who you have allowed to view your information (i.e. – birthday, friends, etc..). If you do not use the app remove that access they have.
- Before you chose to log in with Facebook on some accounts or sites make sure you trust that site. You are giving them access to view your personal information!
- Look at your Facebook friends. Every once in a while go through who you have added, accepted friend requests from, etc. Do you really know this person? Are you comfortable sharing information with them? If not then you may want to remove them from having access to your page.
Remember my post from last month about all the awesome features of ESET Smart Security 6? They even have you covered on Facebook with a Social Media Scanner! The scanner works to protect your Facebook and Twitter accounts from any form of malicious content. Pretty awesome, right?
Now that we have covered the basics of protecting ourselves on our social media accounts, what would you do if you were to lose your mobile device or laptop? I can not even begin to think of the nightmare that would bring! If you are like a lot of the people I know your mobile device is your calendar, it stores important dates/information, contact information, your social media accounts and so much more!
I was so surprised about how likely the chances of your mobile device or laptop being lost or stolen were. There are a few ways you can help to protect your personal information if your mobile phone or laptop are ever lost or stolen.
- Password protect your devices. This will help to slow down anyone who may have stolen your phone (not to mention keeping your little ones out of your phone and posting updates on your behalf!).
- Back up your devices. You can only really know the importance of this after losing all of your important papers or documents, pictures and so on. Safe yourself the hassle and regularly back up your devices.
- Tracking software. ESET Smart Security 6 comes with tracking software that can help to locate your laptop. ESET also has mobile security for androids!
- Do not tempt thieves. Be careful with your devices. Do not leave them out on a table and walk away. Guard your personal devices like you do your personal information.
- Encrypt sensitive data or better yet remove sensitive data from your devices.
Have you had the online social media chat with your pre-teens and teens yet? What advice do you give them?
ESET is offering an incredible giveaway open to CDN/US residents! Enter now: a Rafflecopter giveaway
ESET Smart Security 6 is a PTPA award winner! Check out their full line of products here. Don’t forget to follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
Disclosure: As part of the ESET Brand Ambassadorship I received compensation for this post. All opinions expressed are my own and I only support products that I love!
September 29, 2013
Purex plus Oxi #Review and #Giveaway
Laundry. The number one dreaded word in our household! Neither my husband nor I look forward to laundry day on Sunday. The piles are never ending and the stains are always there.
Finding the right detergent is quite the job! We need a laundry detergent that is strong enough to work on my husbands work clothes that are stained daily from working with steel to our eldest who seems to love to clean the dust off the school gymnasium floor! Our youngest is a whole new world of stains usually food and dirt stains. On top of that the laundry detergent needs to be gentle enough for our sensitive skin! Just a small order right?
I was delighted to be given the chance to try out Purex plus Oxi laundry detergent! Purex plus Oxi is formulated to work against over one hundred and one of the toughest stains your family can throw at it! Not only has it been tested against a wide variety of stains but it is also hypoallergenic – perfect for those little ones with sensitive skin (and big kids!).
Finally it was time to put Purex plus Oxi to the test! We had a tough laundry week with lots of final soccer practices and tryouts, the Terry Fox run, work clothes from my husband and not to mention all the dirt stained pants from everyday fun out in the sun that had piled up so we were ready to go!
Purex plus Oxi has a light, fresh scent that both my son and I loved! We tested the bottle against my husband’s work clothes and it worked well at removing any residue left over from chemicals from work along with leaving a pleasant, fresh smell. It worked wonders on our kids clothes that were covered in dust, dirt from outside and food stains. Purex plus Oxi even removed the coffee stains from my scrub pants (for some reason I am constantly spilling coffee at work – I am so clumsy!).
A pretty awesome tip I found out? Purex plus Oxi laundry detergent is so powerful you can even use it to pre-treat your toughest stains! There goes having to purchase multiple bottles for laundry around the house!! All you have to do is pour a little bit of the Purex plus Oxi onto the stain and rub the stained fabric together using your fingers. Wait five minutes and add the clothing into the washer as usual. Pretty awesome, right?!
Purex plus Oxi is now giving you the chance to try out their stain fighting formula and put it to the test in your home! Enter to win two free product coupons for a free bottle of Purex plus Oxi laundry detergent! Two winners will each receive two free product coupons valid for a free bottle of Purex plus Oxi laundry detergent. This giveaway is open to Canadians only, 18 years of age and older.
GOOD LUCK!
Disclosure: Purex provided me with a sample of Purex plus Oxi detergent in exchange for a product review. However, all opinions expressed here are my own.
September 26, 2013
The Game of Life: CAA Life-side Edition – It’s Back!
Did you love the Game of Life as a child? Do you love to win prizes? CAASCO has a fantastic contest for you!
CAA has brought back their online Game of Life life-side edition back for the 2013 season. This year is set to be the biggest yet!!! There are over 2,700 prizes to be won daily – those are fantastic odds! You could even win a dream vacation.
The contest runs from September 30th until November 24th, 2013 and is open to residents of the South Central Ontario region. You can start getting those spins in now here.
Wishing you the best of luck. This is such a fun and great game to play – loved playing it daily last year (and not to mention all the fab prizes!!).
What is your dream vacation??
Disclosure: This post is part of the CAASCO affiliate program. I receive compensation only from the amount of referrals generated from my post.
September 26, 2013
Mucho Embajadores Program
Do you love Mucho Burrito? Not familiar yet with them? Here is your chance to receive more info and if you are already fan why not consider joining their Mucho Embajadores program?
Mucho Burrito is one of Canada’s fastest growing Mexican restaurants. From our visits to their restaurant we have learned that they place a strong emphasis on fresh produce, excellent portion sizes, prompt service and fresh food prepared in front of you and exactly the way you want!
Mucho Burrito is currently searching for Mucho Embajadores to learn about their restaurant and represent them in the public eye. They are looking for individuals from five areas: digital/creative people, connected moms, Mucho fans, foodies and health/fitness lifestylers. If this is you head over to their page and enter your info!
September 26, 2013
Organic Dairy #FightPesticides
When I had children I began to question a lot of our habits and purchases. One of the first areas we looked at were the type of food products we were purchasing and where they were coming from. Our children and their health mean so much to us! We began the long road to educating ourselves about organic vs non organic food products.
Image from pixabay.com
So what does organic mean?? Organic refers to the process in which food and fiber are grown and processed. Organic farmers do not use pesticides, chemical fertilizers, antibiotics and synthetic hormones. Do not confuse natural with organic! Stonyfield has an awesome table on their website that outlines the great differences between these two tables and you can find it here.
Dairy plays a huge role in our family. Our children love their yogurt, cheeses and milk. You can imagine my shock when I found out that non organic dairy is produced from cows that are injected with synthetic hormones. These hormones work to increase the weight of the cattle along with milk production. These hormones can actually lead to increased infections in cows.
Image from Pixabay.com
I feel it is important for us to know where our food is coming from. We 100% support buying locally grown produce, dairy and meat from our local farmers. It is important that our children learn to appreciate all the care and love that has gone into our growing our food by our local farmers.
Check out this fantastic video from Stonyfield: Obsessively Organic, Purely Delicious. What are your thoughts on purchasing organic dairy?
