And now "smart" TVs are being subjected to cookies. All in the name of improving our user experience. What a load of cod's wallop they are trying to feed us. The reality is that it is all about making money.

As a browser I sometimes use Firefox Focus which does not save cookies or browsing history. In that case when I get the cookies pop-up I just accept all knowing that they will be deleted automatically.

Many people recommend DuckDuckGo as a more privacy oriented search engine. I have used it and I am not sure why I don't use it more often.

If you use any Google products where you log in (YouTube, Chrome, Google search, etc.) make sure you go to your account privacy settings and set them to match your requirements.

If you use any "social" apps on your mobile devices make sure that you have permissions to use the microphone turned off or set to have permission only whilst you are using the app or to "ask every time". Make sure that when you exit the app it is not still running in the background.

Avoid have "personal assistant" apps listening for wakeup phrases; "Hey Google", "Hey Siri", "Hey Alexa", etc. I do use some voice funtions but only activated on a button press: the most common use is "Timer xx minutes" for timing the pasta 😋

As far as the IP address is concerned our service provider dynamically assigns IP addresses when the router is started so every so often I restart the router.

Peter

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