Digital Spring Cleaning Tips

It’s that time of year to sweep behind the furniture, clear out the dryer vent, change out smoke alarm batteries, deep-clean the refrigerator, and more. But spring cleaning isn’t just for your home, it’s also the perfect time to tidy up your digital life. Here’s a few tips for how to digitally declutter to make sure you’re cyber safe and organized.

1. Update sensitive account passwords.

It’s good practice to regularly change the passwords for your most important online accounts, like email and banking. Make sure to use strong, unique passwords with a mix of capital and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. Pro Tip: Add multi-factor authentication to keep your account locked down behind an extra layer of security.

2. Organize your local and cloud-based files.

Delete old documents and duplicate photos, screenshots, and downloads you no longer need. Check to make sure any cloud storage systems you use (Microsoft OneDrive, Apple iCloud, or Google Drive) are syncing properly to ensure you have backups of your important files and photos.

3. Review your app and program usage.

Consider deleting those you no longer use. Update those apps that are out of date.

4. Clean up your email inbox.

Keeping old emails takes storage, especially if they contain large images or video clips. If your storage is full, you won’t be able to receive emails and might miss out on important communication.

5. Audit your privacy settings.

Privacy options and agreements change, and it can be easy to miss important updates.

Courtesy of your neighbors at Direct Link.