NEW YORK (AP) — It’s time for the holidays, which means robust family conversations and seemingly never-ending courses of food. But for the more tech-savvy among us, the journey home could also mean we’ll be called on to provide a backlog of tech support to parents, grandparents and other family members.
And with generative AI being used to supercharge some major cyber scams this year, it’s also a good time to teach and not just fix.
Here are some tips on how to manage your tech encounters this holiday season:
Set devices up for automatic updates
Whether it’s Windows, macOS, iOS or Android, simply keeping your operating system and apps up-to-date will help protect your family’s computers and devices against a surprising number of security threats, such as malware, viruses and exploits.
Most operating systems, especially those for mobile devices and their app stores, typically have auto-updates turned on by default. Be sure to double-check the device to make sure it has enough storage space to carry out the update. (More on this below.)
Keeping apps updated may also reduce the number of “Why isn’t this app working?” type of questions from your relatives.
Freeing up storage space
Chances are someone in your family is going to have a completely full mobile device. So full, in fact, that they can no longer update their phone or tablet without having to purge something first.
There are many approaches to freeing up space. Here are a few you can easily take without having to triage data or apps.
— Use the cloud to back up media: iPhone users can free up space occupied by songs and pictures by storing them on iCloud. Android users can use the Google Photos app to back up and store their photos on their user space.
— Clear browsing data: Each major browser has an option to clear its data cache — cookies, search and download histories, autofill forms, site settings, sign-in data and so on. Over time, these bits take up a significant amount of storage space on mobile devices and home computers. So cleaning caches out periodically helps free up space and, in some cases, improves system performance.
What’s my password?
According to some admittedly unscientific studies, the average person has hundreds of passwords. That’s a lot to remember. So as you help your relatives reset some of theirs, you may be tempted to recycle some to keep things simple for them. But that’s one of the bad password habits that cybersecurity experts warn against.
Instead, try introducing your forgetful family member to a password manager. They’re useful tools for simplifying and keeping track of logins. And if you want to impress a more tech-savvy cousin or auntie, you could suggest switching to a more secure digital authentication method: passkeys.