If you are researching divorce and related information, which you obviously are, you need to be careful. Don’t be in divorce denial or believe that your actions and information won’t be scrutinized by your spouse.
If your spouse has the ability to access phone records, social media information, emails or your computer, please be cautious.
Regarding your home phone and cell phone, blocking calls can be a big help. Incoming callers can block their phone numbers by preceding the number dialed by *67. When you make a call, the same holds true. My clients know that if I call them with my phone number blocked and for some reason it doesn’t go through, I will not unblock my number in order to connect. Your privacy and safety is of utmost concern to me.
Some of you are knowledgeable in how to erase phone history. If you are not, do some homework.
If you think there is any possibility…not probability but possibility… that anyone can access your computer, take precautions. That even applies to your children and friends. If you are concerned about the repercussions of any of your actions, it is crucial that you find ways to protect your privacy.
Some Suggestions for Protecting Your Privacy
- Erase all history with each and every use.
- Remove all cookies with each and every use. If you don’t know what a cookie is, I’ll explain in a very non technical way. Basically cookies are data that is stored on your computer after you visit a particular website. They are kind of like what your store card does each time you check out. Your data regarding purchases is stored. That’s how the stores know to print out the exact coupons for products that may interest you.
- Do not save any passwords on your computer or iPhone.
- If you have used any passwords that your spouse might know or guess, change them. In fact, change them anyway.
- Create a new and different email address. Gmail is great.
- If you use Firefox you can use private browsing. There is a an explanation of how to do that available on Firefox.
- If your spouse has administrator access to your computer, he can see everything. Even if you use Windows file permissions, a savvy administrator can access your information.
- If you need to save personal information, you can use a USB flash drive or an external disk but remember that you must have a private and secure place to store them.
- The other option might be to use a public library computer but remember that anyone can access the information you leave on that one.
The take away from this post is that you can never be too careful when you are anyplace in the divorce process. You should only “tip your hand” when you are intentionally doing so.
Photo: o5com
