Introduction to “Is Your Digital Front Door Unlocked?” a book by Gary Davis

“Is Your Digital Front Door Unlocked?” explores the modern implications of our human nature: our inherent inclination to share our experiences, specifically on the internet. Our increasing reliance on technology to connect with others has us sharing far more information about ourselves than we realize, and without a full understanding of the risks involved.

While we’re posting innocent poolside pictures, we’re also creating a collection of highly personal information. And not just on social media. It happens by simply going about our day. Whether it is the computers we use for work and play, the smartphones that are nearly always within arm’s reach, or the digital assistants that field household requests—all of these devices capture and share data about our habits, our interests, and even our comings and goings. Yet we largely don’t know it’s happening—or, for that matter, with whom we’re sharing this information, and to what end.

I wrote this book for anyone who wants to live online as safely and privately as possible, for the sake of themselves and their family. And that should be plenty of us. With news of data breaches, companies sharing our personal information without our knowledge, and cybercrime robbing the global economy of an estimated $600 billion a year, it’s easy to feel helpless. But we’re not. There are things we can do. It’s time to understand how we’re creating all this personal information so we can control its flow, and who has access to it. The book takes an even-handed look at the most prevalent privacy and security challenges facing individuals and families today. It skips the scare tactics that can dominate the topic, and illustrates the steps each of us can take to lead more private and secure lives in an increasingly connected world.

The notion that binds the book together is the idea of a personal data lake. “Data lake” is a widely used term in business to reflect a large repository of data that companies collect and store. In the book I explore how we create personal data lakes as we go about our digital lives. I explore how our data lakes fill as we do more and more activities online, and offer insights that can be used to protect our personal data lakes, so that we can live more privately and enjoy safe online experiences.

This book is for people in families of any size or structure. It looks at security and privacy across the stages of life, and explores the roles each of us play in those stages, from birth to the time we eventually leave a digital legacy behind, along with important milestones and transitional periods in between. You’ll see how security and privacy are pertinent at every step of your digital journey, and how specific age groups have concerns that are often unique to that stage of life. The structure allows you to easily navigate to the chapters and sections that most relate to the life stage you are in, and offers guidance.

This book, like most things in life, is about choice. You can choose to roll the dice and hope that you’re not one of the hundreds of millions who are victims each year of phishing scams, ransomware attacks, and identity theft, or among the handful of people who still fall for the Nigerian prince lottery scam. You can also choose to use your computers, tablets, smartphones, and personal assistants as you have been, letting companies grift all kinds of personal information from you, without your knowledge or consent. Or you can choose to embrace the guidelines outlined in the book and make it extremely more difficult for a bad actor or cybercriminal to make you or your loved ones a victim.

Gary Davis’ book, Is Your Digital Front Door Unlocked?, is available September 5, 2019 and can be ordered at amazon.com.