Episode 72 - Personal Privacy Within Your Home

Home is our private place. But in the digital age, how private are our homes? And what can we do to protect our privacy from home invaders? 66% of us rate our highest privacy concern as being viewed through cameras in our own homes, according to a safehome.org June 2021 survey. Explore in this podcast how home devices are watching, listening, collecting, and sharing our personal data and steps we can take to limit unwanted intrusions. Terry Rankhorn, a 22-year FBI veteran and founder of Rankhorn & Associates, conducts home and business sweeps to protect clients’ personal data and safety. Computers, televisions, smart thermostats, Alexa and Siri, even dog bowls collect and broadcast our personal data in unimagined ways, jeopardizing our privacy and security. Mr. Rankhorn explains the first step to increase home privacy is to know what devices we have and which ones collect and broadcast our data. We can delete devices we don’t need or want and use privacy setting choices and common-sense steps to limit sharing. We can adjust our smart thermostats when away for an extended time, to prevent hackers from knowing from thermostat data when our homes are vacant and so are ripe burglary targets. We can protect our personal data from devices we literally live with. This podcast episode offers practical advice about how to do that. If you have ideas for more interviews or stories, please email [email protected].