I was hanging up Valentines decorations the other day (I do this kind of thing sometimes) when I heard a teaser for the Note to Self podcast's new series The Privacy Paradox, which is  a weeklong series giving people a series of easy ways to regain some control of their internet privacy.

Up until recently I was a little willfully ignorant about internet privacy. Obviously since I've been blogging for about 15 years and I write under my own name I am not the world's most private person. But the election has turned me into a more paranoid person. I have started conjuring up a half-dozen Black Mirror type scenarios where everything and anything we've ever shared online turned against us (and it's really not that farfetched--just look at what happened at the poor people at Comet Pingpong). But I had a hard time prioritizing "figure out personal data situation" above all the other stuff I had going on, and then that made me feel embarrassed for being a slacker.

This is was why the newsletter challenges and accompanying podcast were the perfect way for me to feel a little more in control in a way I can handle. I've done Day One already and I'm pleased that it revealed that while I have some control over my privacy already there is reasonably room for more. I like that the challenge provides Idiots Guide versions of its prompts in its newsletter, which makes them pretty hard to ignore (and easy to do.)

If you're like me and always had a little nagging feeling that you could take a second to get your privacy setting's straight but didn't know where to start, the Privacy Paradox's weeklong challenge is worth a listen.