✓ Accepted Answer
To protect your privacy online the most impactful thing you can do is use a password manager. Most people reuse passwords across sites, which means one breach exposes everything. Bitwarden is excellent and free. 1Password is worth paying for.
Enable two-factor authentication everywhere you can, especially email, banking, and social media. Use an authenticator app (Google Authenticator or Authy) rather than SMS, since SMS can be intercepted.
For browsing, use Firefox or Brave instead of Chrome. Install uBlock Origin as an ad blocker — it blocks trackers, not just ads. Use DuckDuckGo instead of Google if privacy matters to you.
Be careful what you share on social media. Your date of birth, phone number, home city, and workplace are enough for identity theft. Review your privacy settings on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter regularly.
For sensitive communications, Signal is the gold standard for encrypted messaging.
by sadenwoke4679
· 81 upvotes
To recover deleted files, act quickly. When a file is deleted it isn't immediately erased — it's marked as available space. But new files can overwrite it. The sooner you try recovery, the better.
Recuva is the best free recovery tool for Windows. Download it from Piriform's website, install it, and run a deep scan on the drive where the file was. It will show recoverable files — save recovered files to a different drive than the one you're scanning.
On Mac, check the Trash first. If it's not there, Time Machine is your best bet if you had it enabled. System Preferences > Time Machine. If not, PhotoRec is a free cross-platform recovery tool.
For accidentally deleted cloud files (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive), check the trash within the web interface. Cloud services typically retain deleted files for 30 days.
If these fail and the file is critical, professional recovery services exist but cost several hundred pounds/dollars.
by bonganindlovu7154
· 12 upvotes