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Dear Reader,


This semester I have been taking several program language classes. PHP, SQL, Python, HTML, CSS...they are all very useful when working with things on the internet. However, I have realized by taking them that it is EXTREMELY important to be careful with our technology. I referenced a song a few years ago, Online, which talks about how you can fake a lot of things on the internet or social media. It is even more apparent now that we need to be careful with everything we ever post in order to care for our physical, financial, social and emotional well-being. I'll give just a couple of examples of what I mean.

In my python class, my teacher showed us how very easy it is to spider websites to find information. Granted, the examples he showed us were about finding all the sports statistics of a specific team or all the LDS General Conference articles with a particular theme, but the tricks he showed us could also be used for finding personal information about everyone and their dog. There are software programs a person could write that can have the appearance of a real person, but are really just the program working by itself.

While learning PHP, which is a web programming language, I learned that if the right security is not set for different websites or the different apps on your phone, someone could very easily access your information or pose a someone who can gain your confidence enough to swindle you or rob you.

I guess I just wanted to write a quick reminder to all of you that being safe with technology is very important. Make sure you are always updating your passwords, checking your online security settings and watching what you post to your social media.

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