Spring cleaning: how to remove digital junk from your computer or smartphone

[zakiyatasnim]

In the realities of quarantine, many have taken up cleaning and brought order even to those corners of the house that their hands have not reached for years. Why not do the same with the digital space? We will not describe obvious things like deleting unnecessary images and documents from your computer desktop. Instead, we will talk about the not-so-obvious moments.


Turn off notifications
This is familiar to many: a new app asks you for permission to link notifications and gets it. After a while, it starts notifying you about subscription discounts, and it’s annoying, but not enough to purposefully georgia number data disable notifications. However, they will continue to distract you further, so it’s better to go into settings and select services that can notify you about something. It’s best to leave this right only for communication apps. An exception can be made for one favorite news app.

Organize your photo folder
Taking photos is easier than ever, so we have tons of photos stored on our smartphones. Many of them are almost identical, but we can't decide which ones turned out better, so we keep them all.

As a result, finding the right shots becomes more difficult. Artificial intelligence helps a little in this: Apple is quite good at searching photos by people, events and locations, Google does the same job even better, but with compromises on privacy issues. However, if you want your photos to not only be stored, but also be convenient for viewing, you will have to clean them up.

Delete unnecessary screenshots, keep one of 15 similar events and only the most spectacular selfies. This will not only simplify photo management, but also save space in cloud storage.

Set up a password manager
Living without a password manager is dangerous. It's impossible to remember login details for all the sites you need, which is why many people admit to using the same password for "unimportant" platforms.

But hackers often steal logins and passwords from one site to hack another. Download a password manager like 1Password or Dashlane: they are usually more convenient than the built-in solutions from Apple and Google. Also, take the time to replace simple passwords with stronger ones.

Enable two-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication requires you to enter not only your password but also a one-time code. This improves protection against phishing attacks. Try to avoid receiving codes in text messages: instead, install an app like Authy or use special tools in your password manager.