Kim’s Q&A: speed up Windows, surveillance and phone security

Sunday Signal
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By Kim Komando, Signal Contributing Writer

Each week, I receive tons of questions from my listeners about tech concerns, new products, and all things digital.

Sometimes, choosing the most interesting questions to highlight is the best part of my job. This week, I received questions about clean installs, search histories, commandeered security cameras and more. 

Fight phone stalking

Q: My ex works as a computer tech. How can I check my phone for a keylogger? He seems to know a lot about my life, and it’s creepy.

A:  hope you are keeping your distance from this guy in every other aspect of your life. If you believe your ex is capable of spying on your phone, take immediate action. Sadly, keyloggers and other spyware systems are often difficult to detect because they are designed to hide. 

A quick way to find out whether you’ve been hacked is to look for the telltale evidence, which has more to do with your phone’s behavior. Maybe your phone is frequently warm to the touch even when you haven’t used it. There could be messages on your phone that you have not sent. 

Search history transgressions

Q: I looked up a few old flames on Facebook. How did my wife know that I was doing this? It was only out of curiosity, I swear!

A: I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. We wonder about old classmates, past coworkers, and former sweethearts who used to mean so much to us. Even if we have no intention of rekindling old relationships, the lure of social media and all its photos and information can prove irresistible. 

In your case, I think you may have a trust issue you need to work out with your spouse. But if you need to delete your search history on both your browser and on social media, there are simple ways to do this. 

Facebook really likes to keep tabs on you, including your search history, to show you targeted ads. To keep some semblance of privacy on the site and app, follow the steps below to clear your Facebook search history:

In a web browser, log in to Facebook and go to your profile page. Click on the View Activity Log button.

Click on More in the left sidebar, under the Comments filter.

Click or tap on Search History.

You’ll now see a list of every search you’ve made on Facebook up until this point. To delete this history, choose Clear Searches in the top left part of the page.

If you’d like to delete single search history items instead of your entire history at once, click on the circle with a line through it to the right of each search in the history list. That will remove just that one search.

Stop surveillance hackers

Q: I have a security camera at my house. What steps do I need to take to be sure hackers can’t see in? I’m freaked out about that.

A: s the saying goes, you can look two ways through a window. In this case, the “window” is a video surveillance system designed to protect your house. Criminals don’t even have to be on the same side of the planet to break into your system and commandeer that equipment. 

Click here for more information on camera security: https://bit.ly/2PA2Qwg

For information on Kim Komando on today’s digital lifestyle, from smartphones and tablets to online privacy and data hacks, visit her at Komando.com.  

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