Secria Blog

Insights on post-quantum encryption, email security, and digital privacy.

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Does a VPN affect ping? When it adds lag and when it can help

Usually, a VPN adds a little to your ping, because your game traffic takes a detour through the VPN server before it reaches the game server. Sometimes it can lower ping, but only when your internet p...

Adrian Maverick · · 7 min read
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Does a VPN hide your search history? It depends who is looking

A VPN hides your searches from your internet provider and from whoever runs the Wi-Fi, because it encrypts your traffic before it leaves your device. It does not hide them from Google or any search en...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to change the email on your Google Account, and which one you mean

Changing the email on your Google Account starts with knowing which email you mean, because a Google Account can hold up to five kinds. Most people searching for this want a new recovery email or cont...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to delete your TikTok account, or just deactivate it

To delete your TikTok account, open the TikTok app, tap Profile, then the Menu button, Settings and privacy, Account, and Deactivate or delete account, and follow the instructions to delete. TikTok th...

Adrian Maverick · · 7 min read
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Yahoo Mail hacked? What to do, step by step

If your Yahoo Mail was hacked, change your password right away from the Yahoo Account security page, or use Yahoo's Sign-in Helper at login.yahoo.com/forgot if the hacker already changed it. Then sign...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Does a VPN hide your IP address? Who still sees what

Yes. A VPN hides your IP address from the websites, apps, game servers and email recipients you connect to, because they see the VPN server's address instead of yours. It does not hide your address fr...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to change your email on Spotify, even without a password

You change your Spotify email on your account page under Edit personal info, or in the app under Settings and privacy Account. On the web you confirm the change with your Spotify password, so if you ...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to delete your Discord account, and what happens next

To delete your Discord account, open User Settings, go to My Account, and select Delete Account at the bottom of the page. Discord puts the account in a "pending deletion" state for 15 days, and after...

Adrian Maverick · · 7 min read
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How to recover a hacked Gmail account

To recover a hacked Gmail account, go to Google's account recovery page at accounts.google.com/signin/recovery, enter your Gmail address, and answer Google's questions as best you can, even if the hac...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to tell if your email has been hacked

The clearest signs your email has been hacked are a password or recovery detail that changed without you, a sign-in alert from a device or place you don't know, and friends getting messages you never ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Create a Netflix account without a phone number (2026)

Yes. Netflix's own sign-up steps on every device come down to the same line: "Create an account by entering your email address and creating a password." A phone number is optional. Netflix suggests ad...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Create a Signal account without a phone number in 2026

Not in the regular app. Signal's Terms say "to create an account you must register for our Services using your phone number," and the standard sign-up on iPhone and Android asks for one. What Signal d...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Create a Twitch account without a phone number in 2026

Yes. Twitch's own help center says you can create an account "using your email address or phone number," and you only have to verify one of them. Pick email, confirm the 6-digit code, and the account ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Create a Zoom account without a phone number in 2026

Yes. Zoom's own getting started guide signs you up with an email address, a code sent to that email, your name and a password. No phone number is part of it. Zoom may show a prompt to add one, but its...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Recover a Roblox account without email or phone

If your Roblox account never had an email or phone number, the "Forgot Password or Username?" page can't help you. Your only route is Roblox Customer Support, and you have to prove the account is your...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Create a Steam account without a phone number in 2026

Yes. Steam's sign-up form asks for an email address, your country and a CAPTCHA. There is no phone field. A phone number is optional after that, and Valve's own setup guide even shows how to add the S...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Create a YouTube account without a phone number in 2026

Yes. A YouTube account is a Google Account, and Google lists adding a phone number as an optional step when you create one. You can even sign up with an email you already have instead of a new Gmail. ...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Is using a VPN legal? Where it is allowed and where it is not

A VPN is an ordinary piece of networking technology. Companies use VPNs every day so staff can reach work systems from home, and the UK's National Cyber Security Centre publishes guidance on deploying...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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The most private browser? It depends on who is tracking you

Short answer: there is no single most private browser. If you need to hide your IP address and resist fingerprinting, Tor Browser is the strongest option, with trade-offs. For everyday browsing with s...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to stop companies from selling your data

Many apps, stores and websites pass what they learn about you to other companies, often for advertising. In much of the US you now have a legal right to tell them to stop, and on most phones and brows...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Are password managers safe? How vaults and breaches work

A password manager puts every password you own in one place, which sounds like the worst possible idea until you look at the alternative: reusing a few passwords everywhere, so one leak opens all your...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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Create an email without a phone number on a PC in 2026

Often, yes. On a Windows PC or Mac, Google's own sign-up steps list the phone number as optional, and Outlook.com lets you verify with another email address instead. The one thing a computer can't cha...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Does a VPN affect Life360 location? What your Circle sees

A VPN will not move your Life360 location to wherever the VPN server is. Life360 places you using your phone's location services, which run on GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and cell towers. But Life360's own ...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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Does a VPN affect Netflix? Catalog, E106 and Household

Yes. Netflix says a VPN can make your device look like it is connecting from somewhere other than where you are. When that happens you may see a smaller catalog, get error E106, lose access to live ev...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Does a VPN affect phone calls? Each call type, explained

For regular phone calls, no. A normal call goes over your carrier's cell network, and a VPN only handles internet traffic, so it neither changes nor protects the call. Wi-Fi Calling usually skips the ...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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Does a VPN block ads? What each method catches and misses

No. A VPN by itself does not block ads. It encrypts your traffic and sends it through another server, and ads travel through that tunnel just like everything else. Some VPN apps bundle a separate bloc...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Does a VPN change your location on Find My iPhone?

No. A VPN does not change your location on Find My iPhone. Find My shows the position your iPhone works out for itself from GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and cell towers, and a VPN only changes your IP addres...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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Does a VPN change your location on Snapchat? What it changes

People ask this for two reasons: to look like they are somewhere else, or to stop friends seeing where they really are. Snapchat's own help pages answer both, and the answer is the same either way....

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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Does a VPN drain battery? What really uses the power

If your battery seems to empty faster since you installed a VPN, you are not imagining a cost. You are probably overestimating it, though, and your phone can show you the real number....

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Does a VPN encrypt text messages? SMS, iMessage and RCS

No, not the regular kind. A VPN encrypts internet traffic, and plain SMS and MMS texts are not internet traffic: they go from your phone to your carrier over the cell network, outside the VPN tunnel. ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Free email without verification: what providers check

No. Every free email provider worth using verifies something when you sign up. At the very least it checks that you are a person and not a script, and most also want a phone number or a second email a...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to change the email on your Apple ID: iPhone, Mac, web

Apple lets you swap the email address on your Apple Account the new name for Apple ID without losing anything. Your purchases, contacts and iCloud data stay where they are. What changes is where Apple...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to change your email on Discord (desktop and mobile)

You change your Discord email from User Settings, under My Account on desktop or Account on mobile. The catch is in Discord's own help page: you need access to the inbox of your current address, and D...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to change your email on LinkedIn (desktop and app)

LinkedIn has no single "change email" box. You add the new address, confirm it, make it your primary address and then remove the old one, all from the same settings page. It is quick as long as you ca...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to change the email on a Microsoft account in 3 steps

There is no "change email" button on a Microsoft account. Microsoft treats every address on the account as an alias, so changing your email means adding the new address, making it the primary alias, a...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to change your email on Netflix, and fix the errors

Go to netflix.com/email in a browser, sign in if asked, confirm your identity if Netflix prompts you, then enter the new address and save. Netflix sends an email confirming the change. If it refuses, ...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to change email on Roblox: web, app and 2FA fixes

Roblox lets you swap the email on your account in a minute, as long as you know your password and can open mail at the new address. The catch is that the address does more than receive newsletters, so...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to change email on TikTok, and what to do if stuck

Changing your email on TikTok takes a minute in the app. The part that trips people up is one line in TikTok's help center: both the old address and the new one have to be active and verified, because...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to create an email ID without a phone number (2026)

Yes, you can create an email ID without a mobile number. Gmail says the phone number is optional, though it sometimes asks for one anyway. Outlook lets you use another email address instead of a phone...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to recover a deleted Gmail account and how long you have

If you deleted your Gmail or your whole Google account and regret it, you may still be able to undo it. Google offers a way back for both. The thing that matters most is how long ago it happened, so s...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to stop browser fingerprinting (and what actually works)

Short answer: you cannot stop browser fingerprinting completely, and no tool makes you invisible. What you can do is make your fingerprint either common you look like a crowd of other users or unstabl...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Is DuckDuckGo private? What it collects and can't hide

DuckDuckGo's privacy policy opens with one line: "We don't track you." That is a claim about DuckDuckGo itself, and by its own published policy it holds up well. Whether you are private online when yo...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to remove yourself from data brokers in 2026

Search your own name on a people-search site and you may find your address, your phone number, your age and the names of people you live with. You never signed up for that site. The information came f...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Does Hotmail still exist in 2026? How to sign in and recover

Hotmail still exists, under another name. Microsoft folded it into Outlook.com, and old @hotmail.com addresses kept working through the change. If you have one, you sign in to it the same way you sign...

Adrian Maverick · · 7 min read
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How to check if email is being forwarded: Gmail, Outlook

If someone has had access to your inbox, even for a few minutes, they may have left something behind that keeps working after you change your password: a forwarding address that copies your mail, or a...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to delete an AOL account: steps, waits, what you lose

Closing an AOL account takes five short steps. Most of the work is what comes before them: AOL will refuse the request if you still pay for anything, owe anything, or have extra usernames open....

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to permanently delete emails in Gmail and Outlook (2026)

Pressing delete does not delete an email. In Gmail and Outlook.com it moves the message to a holding folder, where it sits for up to 30 days in case you change your mind. To delete it permanently, you...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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What happens when you delete your email account: 4 providers

Deleting an email account does three separate things: it removes the mail and contacts stored there, it ends your ability to sign in anywhere that address is your username, and it puts the address its...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to create a Discord account without a phone number

Yes. Discord's own sign-up guide asks for an email, a username, a password and a date of birth on desktop and in the browser. No phone number is needed to create the account. The phone question comes ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to create an email without a phone number on Android

Yes, for most providers. Google's sign-up calls the phone number optional, and Microsoft accepts an email address instead. The Android-specific catch comes after sign-up: by default, Android verifies ...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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Create a Facebook account without a phone number: 2026 steps

Yes. Facebook's sign-up form has one contact field, labeled "Mobile number or email," so an email address is enough to create an account. You fill in your name, birthday, gender, an email and a passwo...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Create a LinkedIn account without a phone number

LinkedIn's sign-up form asks for an email address, not a phone number. A phone prompt can still show up partway through, and LinkedIn's help explains when....

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Create a Snapchat account without a phone number: the steps

Snapchat's sign-up asks for a phone number by default, but it has a button to skip that and use an email instead. Snap's own help center documents it, so this is not a workaround....

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Create a Telegram account without a phone number: what works

No. Telegram has no email or username-only sign-up. Its privacy policy says "You provide your mobile number and basic account data ... to create a Telegram account," and its FAQ adds that landlines ar...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Create a TikTok account without a phone number: email steps

TikTok does not make you hand over a phone number to join. Its sign-up offers an email route on the web and in the app, and its help center treats email and phone as two interchangeable ways to log in...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Create a WhatsApp account without a phone number: options

No. WhatsApp will not create an account without a phone number, and it does not offer an email or username sign-up instead. Its privacy policy says: "You must provide your mobile phone number and basi...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to change your Gmail address (and check if you can)

For years the answer was no: a Gmail address was fixed for life. That has changed. Google now lets some accounts swap a gmail.com address for a different gmail.com address, keep all their data, and ke...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to delete an iCloud email address: 3 ways, compared

"Delete my iCloud email" can mean three different things, and Apple handles each one on a different page. Pick the wrong one and you either lose far more than you meant to, or nothing changes at all....

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to see who is logged into my email, and sign them out

To see who is logged into your email, open your provider's device or activity page. In Gmail, that's Manage all devices under "Your devices" in your Google Account, plus the Details link at the bottom...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to stop someone using my email address, step by step

You can't stop someone from typing your email address into a form or into the "From" line of a message. Nobody can, including your email provider. What you can do is stop it from costing you anything:...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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Create an Apple ID without a phone number: what Apple says

Yes, on some routes. Apple's own steps for making an account during iPhone, iPad or Vision Pro setup, and in the Apple Music or Apple TV app on Windows, list no phone step. Two-factor authentication i...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Create an email without a phone number on iPhone in 2026

It depends on the provider, not the iPhone. Gmail calls the number optional but can still demand one, Outlook accepts an email address instead, Yahoo says a mobile number is required, and Apple's iPho...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to encrypt email in Gmail: every option, every account

Gmail already encrypts every message you send with TLS, and you can't turn that off. What most people mean by "encrypt", locking the message itself so only the recipient can read it, depends on your a...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to encrypt email in Outlook: steps for every version

Outlook can encrypt a message in two ways: Microsoft Purview Message Encryption, which is the Encrypt button, and S/MIME, which needs a certificate. Which one you get depends less on the Outlook versi...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to make a second email account: Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo

Plenty of people want a second email address. One for the bank, one for shopping and sign-ups, one for a side project, or one that has never been in a data breach. The question worth asking first is w...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to send a password securely: 5 ways, ranked

Someone needs a password from you: a coworker covering your shift, a parent who can't get into the streaming account, a contractor setting up your website. The quick move is to paste it into an email ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to send large files securely: encrypt first, then share

The file is a 900 MB video, a folder of scanned contracts or a set of design files, and it is private. Email refuses it, and the usual workaround, "just put it in the cloud and send a link," quietly h...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to send medical records securely: safest ways, ranked

You have a PDF of your lab results, a stack of imaging reports or a discharge summary, and someone needs them: a new doctor, a specialist, an insurer, a school or a family member who helps with your c...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to stop Google reading my emails: 5 settings to turn off

Google does not have one "stop reading my email" switch. It has five separate settings, each covering a different use of your Gmail, and turning off one leaves the others running. Here are all five, i...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to unsubscribe from emails, one at a time or all at once

To unsubscribe from an email, open it and use the Unsubscribe button your mail app shows next to the sender's name or in a banner under the header. To unsubscribe from many at once, use Gmail's Manage...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to verify a Google account without a phone number (2026)

It depends on which screen you're on. For an account you already have, choose "Try another way" and use a Google prompt on another signed-in phone, a backup code, a passkey or a security key. If you'r...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Temporary email vs email alias: the 5-question test

A temporary email is an inbox you can use without signing up, usually for minutes or hours, then abandon. It is fine for a one-time code from a site you will never visit again. For anything you might ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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What is Apple Mail Privacy Protection? How to turn it on

Apple Mail Privacy Protection is a setting in Apple's Mail app that hides your IP address from senders and loads the images and other remote content in your email privately, in the background, when a ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Can someone see my IP address from an email? How to check

You emailed someone you don't fully trust: a seller, a stranger from a forum, an ex. Now you are wondering whether that message told them where you are....

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to back up your emails to your computer, step by step

Your email lives on someone else's server until you make a copy. A backup on your own computer means a locked account, a deleted folder or a closed service does not take ten years of receipts, contrac...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to cancel a VPN subscription on iPhone, Android or Mac

You cancel a VPN subscription wherever you paid for it. If you subscribed inside the app on an iPhone, iPad or Mac, cancel in your Apple Account. If you subscribed on Android, cancel in Google Play. I...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to cancel a Proton subscription: web, iPhone, Android

You cancel a Proton subscription in the place you paid for it. If you paid on Proton's website, cancel under Settings, Subscription at account.proton.me or account.protonvpn.com. If you subscribed in ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to delete a Proton account: Mail, VPN, Drive and Pass

One Proton account holds Proton Mail, Proton VPN, Proton Drive, Proton Pass and Proton Calendar. So whether you searched for deleting Proton Mail or deleting Proton VPN, the action is the same, and it...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to download all files from Proton Drive (web, app, CLI)

Proton Drive has no single "export everything" button, but it has five documented ways to get your files onto your own disk. The fastest one depends on how much you store and which device you are on, ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to export contacts to CSV or vCard, app by app

Every big contacts app can hand you a file of your address book. The catch is that they don't all hand you the same file, and the one you get decides where it can go next....

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to export emails from Apple Mail: mbox, EML and PDF

Apple Mail on a Mac can export at two sizes. A whole mailbox comes out as an .mbox file that other mail apps can import. A single message comes out as an .eml file or a PDF. On iPhone and iPad there i...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to export Proton Authenticator codes: new phone, backup

Proton Authenticator gives you three ways to get your 2FA codes out: sync, backups and export. Each one solves a different problem, and picking the wrong one is how people end up locked out of an acco...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to export Proton Calendar to Google, Apple or Outlook

Proton Calendar can save any calendar you created or imported as an .ics file, the format almost every calendar app reads. It takes about a minute on the web. Below is the export, how to load the file...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to export Proton Mail emails and contacts: 3 ways

Proton gives you a free tool that downloads your whole mailbox to your computer, and a separate button for contacts. Neither is hard, but the mail tool runs in a terminal window, which catches people ...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to export Proton Pass passwords to CSV, step by step

Proton Pass can export your whole vault in three formats, from three of its apps. The format you pick decides how careful you need to be with the file afterwards, so choose it before you click anythin...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to move domain email to another provider in 9 steps

Moving the mail on your own domain to a new host is mostly DNS work, done in the right order. Do it in the wrong order and mail bounces or lands in the old inbox for days. Done right, nobody who write...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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How to switch email providers without losing emails: 8 steps

Switching email providers sounds like a weekend of copying and a month of missed messages. It is neither, if you do the steps in the right order. The order is the whole trick: forwarding goes on befor...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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How to switch VPN providers in 7 steps, with no gap

To switch VPN providers safely, set up and test the new VPN before you cancel the old one. Then remove the old app and its leftover settings, turn on the new one's blocking or kill switch option, and ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to tell people your email address has changed: templates

Changing your address is the easy part. The work is getting everyone who matters to write to the new one without sending your new address to every list and spammer that knew the old one....

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to transfer emails from one account to another: 4 ways

Moving mail between two accounts is really two jobs that most guides lump together. One is copying the mail you already have. The other is getting new mail to show up in the second account. They use d...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to transfer Proton Mail to Gmail (free and paid plans)

There is no button in Gmail that pulls in a Proton Mail account. The move still works, it just goes through your computer: export your mail as files, copy them into Gmail with a desktop email client, ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Is Proton leaving Switzerland? Where things stand in 2026

Proton has not said it is leaving Switzerland as a company. In July 2025, Proton said it was "moving most of its physical infrastructure out of Switzerland" because of a proposed Swiss surveillance ru...

Adrian Maverick · · 7 min read
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What's going on at Proton? The CEO controversy, explained

In late October 2026, 404 Media reported that Proton CEO Andy Yen has been pushing staff hard to build with AI, including dismissing an employee's call for pentesting in a security channel as "loser t...

Adrian Maverick · · 7 min read
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How to create a new email account: Gmail, Outlook and more

Creating a new email account takes about five minutes with any of the big providers. What differs is what each one asks you to hand over, and that is worth knowing before you start typing....

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to hide your email address, even when sending an email

Every form, shop and app wants your email address, and every one of them is a place it can leak, get sold, or end up on a spam list. Then there is the other problem: you want to email someone without ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to make an email without Google (and without Gmail)

Gmail is so common that a lot of people assume an email address has to come from Google. It doesn't. Any email provider gives you a working address, and Google itself lets you use YouTube and Google P...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to send a copy of your ID securely: check, mark, then send

A leasing office wants "a quick photo of your license." A new employer asks you to email your passport before your first day. A marketplace buyer wants to "verify you are real." Each request sounds ro...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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Is it safe to email bank details? What someone can do

Your new employer wants your account and routing number for direct deposit. A client asks where to send payment. A tenant wants to set up rent transfers. Or an email lands from your contractor saying ...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Can someone see if I opened their email? How to check

You opened the email. Now you are wondering whether the person who sent it knows. It depends on two things: what was hidden in the message, and what your mail app did when you opened it....

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Create a Yahoo account without a phone number: 4 options

People search for a way around Yahoo's phone step because it looks optional at first. The sign-up form opens with your name, an address and a password, and the number only comes up on the next screen....

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Is AOL Mail safe in 2026? The new owner, privacy, security

AOL Mail is one of the oldest free inboxes still running, and in 2026 it quietly changed hands. If you or someone you help still uses an @aol.com address, "is it safe" now covers three questions: can ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Is RCS encrypted? iPhone to Android, carriers, how to check

RCS is the texting standard that replaced SMS in the default messaging apps on Android and, since iOS 18, on iPhone. Whether a given RCS chat is private depends on three things: the apps on both ends,...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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Is Yahoo Mail safe in 2026? Breaches, scanning and 8 fixes

Yahoo Mail still has a huge user base and a long memory attached to it: the largest data breach on record. Whether it is safe today is a fair question, and the answer splits in two. Keeping strangers ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Can apps see my browsing history? A 2-minute phone check

Short answer: on an iPhone or a current Android phone, an ordinary app cannot read your browser's history, because each app runs in its own sandbox. Apps learn what you browse in other ways: their own...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Can my employer see my personal phone? What IT really sees

If work wants to put something on your own phone, the thing that decides what the company can see is the type of enrollment, not the app's name....

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Can my VPN provider see my browsing history? Item by item

Short answer: your VPN provider can see which websites you connect to, when, and how much data moves, plus your real IP address. It cannot see your search terms, the pages you read or what you type on...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Can police see my browsing history? Phone, Google, your ISP

Short answer: police cannot watch your browsing live, but they can get your history afterward. With a warrant they can search your phone or computer, and with a subpoena, court order or warrant they c...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Can someone hack my email? 6 ways takeovers really happen

No, someone can't hack your email just by knowing your email address. They need one more thing: your password, a code sent to your phone, or a login session copied from your device. They get it by try...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Can websites see my browsing history? Tabs, IP and trackers

Short answer: no, a website cannot read your browser history or see your other tabs. It sees your visit: your IP address, your device and browser, what you do on its pages, and usually which site sent...

Adrian Maverick · · 7 min read
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Create an Outlook account without a phone number in 2026

Microsoft's sign-up can be finished without handing over a phone number, and Microsoft's own help pages say so. The catch is a couple of screens where a number looks like the only option....

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to find out who owns an email address: 6 ways that work

To find out who owns an email address, start free: search the exact address in quotes, look up the domain if it's a company's, and read the email's headers to see where it really came from. For a Gmai...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to make a burner email: the 4 kinds and which to use

To make a burner email, decide first whether you'll log in to that site again. If not, a temporary inbox from a burner email generator works for a one-time code. If yes, use an email alias or a separa...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to make a professional email address: formats and fixes

A professional email address is mostly your name, spelled the way people expect, on a domain that doesn't distract. The hard part is that on Gmail and Outlook, the obvious version of your name is usua...

Adrian Maverick · · 7 min read
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Is Facebook Messenger encrypted? Chat by chat in 2026

Facebook Messenger looks like one app, but it runs two kinds of conversation side by side. Some are sealed so that Meta cannot read them. Others sit on Meta's servers in a form Meta can read. The labe...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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What can someone do with your email address? 7 risks, ranked

With only your email address, someone can send you phishing, try passwords leaked from other sites, send scare emails, fake your address in the From line, flood your inbox with sign-ups and check whic...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Can my employer read my email? Work, personal, after you quit

Most people asking this have a work account and a personal account, and the answer is very different for each....

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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Can my parents see my browsing history? Wi-Fi bill to apps

Short answer: your parents cannot see your browsing history from the Wi-Fi bill or the phone bill. They can see it if they use parental controls on your device, a family safety app from your carrier, ...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to make an anonymous email account: 7 steps and a test

To make an anonymous email account, cut the five things that link an inbox to you: a phone number, recovery details, a payment in your name, your home IP address, and clues in what you write. Sign up ...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Can my phone carrier see my browsing history? Run this test

Short answer: yes, on mobile data your phone carrier can see every website and app your phone connects to, when, and how much data moves, including in incognito mode. It cannot see the specific pages,...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to recover an email account without a phone number

Use whatever else the provider knows about you: a recovery email, backup or recovery codes, a passkey, a recovery contact, or a device you are already signed in on. Without any of those, each provider...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Who can see my Google search history? The 5 who can look

Short answer: your Google search history can be seen by anyone who uses a device or browser where you are signed in, by a parent, school or employer that manages your Google account, by Google itself,...

Adrian Maverick · · 7 min read
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Can my school see my browsing history? At home, in incognito

Short answer: on a school Chromebook or laptop, yes. Assume your school sees the sites you visit and often your searches, at home too, and in incognito. On your own phone on school Wi-Fi, it sees site...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Create a Gmail without a phone number: what works in 2026

Sometimes. Google's sign-up steps call the phone number optional, but its help center also says phone verification is "sometimes" required to confirm you are a real person. You can't switch that step ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Why does Google ask for my phone number? Its 4 uses

Google asks for your phone number mainly to block spam sign-ups and to give you a way back into your account. Its own pages list two more uses: helping people find you, and making the ads you see "mor...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Do I need a VPN at home? 6 situations, decided one by one

You do not need a VPN at home to be safe from hackers on your own Wi-Fi. A password-protected network that only your household uses is already private from outsiders. You need one if you want to keep ...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to change your email address everywhere in 6 steps

Changing your email address is easy. Changing it everywhere is the real job, because the address is not just where mail lands. It is the username, the receipt box and the password reset channel for mo...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to create a strong password you can remember (2026)

To create a strong password, make it long, random and used in only one place. For a password you have to remember, pick five or six unrelated words at random. For everything else, let a password manag...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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Secria named a top 10 startup at The Ventures SF 2026

Secria was selected as one of the top 10 startups at The Ventures Startup Award San Francisco 2026. Our co-founders, Adrian Maverick and Filip Balik, pitched Secria Workspace at the in-person final in...

Adrian Maverick · · 2 min read
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How to delete a Yahoo account permanently, on phone or PC

Closing a Yahoo account takes three clicks. Getting it to stay closed, without losing mail you wanted or leaving a door open to your other accounts, takes a bit of planning in the right order....

Adrian Maverick · · 7 min read
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VPN usage statistics 2026: US, UK, free VPNs and business

In the United States, 42 percent of adults said they use a VPN in an August 2026 survey of 1,008 people by Security.org, up from 32 percent in 2025. In the UK, daily VPN app users more than doubled af...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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What to do if you clicked on a phishing link (7 scenarios)

If you clicked a phishing link, what to do depends on what happened next. If you only opened the page, close it and you are probably fine. If you typed a password, change it now from a different tab a...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Does a VPN slow down your internet? Measure it yourself

Yes, a little. A VPN adds an extra stop to every connection, a few dozen bytes to every packet, and some encryption work to your device, so some loss is normal. How much depends on your line, your dev...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to close a Microsoft account (Outlook and Hotmail too)

A Microsoft account is one login for Outlook.com, OneDrive, Xbox, Windows and anything you bought from Microsoft. Closing it closes all of them, which is more than many people searching for this actua...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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What is a passkey? How it works and what a lost phone means

A passkey is a sign-in credential that replaces your password. Your device creates a pair of cryptographic keys for one website, keeps the private key, and proves it holds that key when you unlock the...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Email tracking statistics: how many emails are tracked?

Between a quarter and 85 percent of emails contain tracking, depending on which emails you count. Large samples of all incoming mail find a tracking pixel or link in about 25 percent. Samples of comme...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to download all Yahoo emails to your computer (4 steps)

Yahoo Mail has no button that hands you your mailbox as a file. What Yahoo does offer is quieter and works well once you know the server name, the password it wants and the three settings that silentl...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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VPN vs Tor: who sees what, and which one to use

A VPN sends all your traffic through one company's server, so you trust that company and get every app covered at normal speeds. Tor sends your browser's traffic through three volunteer relays, so no ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Has my email been in a data breach? Free check, next steps

To find out if your email has been in a data breach, enter the address at Have I Been Pwned. It is free, needs no account, and lists every known breach that contains your address along with what was e...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to export iCloud Mail on Mac, Windows and iPhone (2026)

Apple gives you three official ways to get your mail out of iCloud, spread across three different help pages. Which one fits depends on the device in front of you....

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to tell if your VPN is working: 5 leak tests and fixes

Your VPN is working if four things are true while it is connected: sites see the VPN server's IP address instead of yours, your DNS lookups go to the VPN's servers and not your internet provider's, no...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to forward Gmail to another email automatically in 2026

Gmail can send a copy of every new message to another address the moment it arrives. The setting takes five minutes, lives in one place only, and has a few rules that are worth knowing before you depe...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to tell if an email is spoofed: 3 checks anyone can do

An email is spoofed when the sender shown is not the sender who sent it. To tell, expand the sender to see the full address, look for the warning your mail app adds to unverified senders, and check th...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Phishing statistics 2026: attack volume, losses, trends

Phishing is running at about one million attacks a quarter. The Anti-Phishing Working Group counted 1,069,681 in the second quarter of 2026, and 3.8 million across 2025. In the United States, phishing...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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How to delete a Gmail account, or your whole Google account

To delete a Gmail account without losing the rest of your Google account, open Manage your Google Account, go to Data & privacy, and use Remove data from services you no longer use to delete Gmail. Th...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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VPN vs proxy: which one you need, plus a 1-minute test

A proxy and a VPN both put a server between you and the internet, so sites see that server's IP address instead of yours. A proxy does it for one app at a time and usually adds no encryption of its ow...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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What to do if your email is hacked: 6 steps, in order

If your email is hacked, act in this order: scan your device for malware, change the password or run account recovery if you are locked out, sign out every other session, and turn on two-factor authen...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Email statistics 2026: users, daily volume and spam share

About 392.5 billion emails are sent and received every day in 2026, by roughly 4.73 billion email users, according to The Radicati Group's forecast. Close to 45 percent of email traffic is spam, based...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to read email headers in Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail

To read email headers, open the message's original source, then read the Received lines from the bottom up to follow its route. Check the Authentication-Results line for SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and compa...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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WireGuard vs OpenVPN: speed, security and which to pick

WireGuard is the better default for most people in 2026: it is a much smaller protocol with fixed modern cryptography, it lives in the Linux kernel, and it reconnects quickly when you change networks....

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to export emails from Outlook (classic, new, web, Mac)

Outlook is four different programs sharing one name, and each one exports mail in a different place. Most failed exports come from following the right steps for the wrong version, or from a default se...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to spot a phishing email: 7 signs that still work

To spot a phishing email, ignore how polished it looks and check three things: the real sender address behind the display name, where the links actually lead, and what the message wants you to do. If ...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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What does a VPN hide? What it doesn't, and a 2-minute test

A VPN hides where your traffic is going from whoever runs your network: your internet provider, the Wi-Fi owner, your mobile carrier. It hides your IP address from the sites and apps you use. It does ...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Are text messages private? What carriers and police can read

"Text message" used to mean one thing. Today the same app on your phone sends SMS, MMS, RCS or iMessage depending on who is on the other end, and their privacy is very different. Some can be read by y...

Adrian Maverick · · 12 min read
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Can my employer see my browsing history? Work, home, phone

The answer changes with two things: who owns the device in your hand, and whose network it is connected to. Incognito mode and deleting your history change nothing....

Adrian Maverick · · 14 min read
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Can the Wi-Fi owner see what I search and my history?

You are on someone else's Wi-Fi: your parents' router, a roommate's plan, the landlord's building network, a friend's place, a cafe. You want to know whether the person who set up that router can pull...

Adrian Maverick · · 13 min read
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Does Gmail encrypt emails? The 3 layers and who has the key

Gmail encrypts your email more than once on its way to the recipient, and it still isn't private from Google. Both halves of that sentence are true, and the confusion comes from treating "encrypted" a...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Gmail vs Outlook privacy and security, compared side by side

Most comparisons of these two inboxes settle the privacy question in a paragraph, usually with a claim nobody checked. This one uses a single rule: every statement about Gmail comes from a Google page...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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Is it safe to email your Social Security number? Safer ways

Someone in HR, a leasing office or a bank just asked you to "email over your Social" so they can finish the paperwork. You are right to stop and check first....

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to send tax documents securely: 4 ways, safest first

A tax return is the most complete identity kit you own. One folder holds your name, address, Social Security number, employer, income, bank account and, often, the same details for your spouse and chi...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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How to stop Google from tracking you: every 2026 setting

Google's privacy controls are not in one place, and they keep moving. In 2026 the setting most guides tell you to turn off, Web & App Activity, stopped being the one that covers your Google searches. ...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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How to stop spam emails: 7 steps for Gmail, Outlook and more

You mark a message as spam, block the sender, and three more arrive by lunch. Almost half of all email is junk: Kaspersky measured 44.99% of global email traffic as spam in 2025https://securelist.com/...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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How to switch from Gmail in 7 steps, without losing email

Most people who want to leave Gmail never do, and the reason is rarely the new provider. It is the fear of losing fifteen years of mail and locking themselves out of forty accounts. Both problems have...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Is hotel Wi-Fi safe? The real risks and a 2-minute check

Most advice about hotel Wi-Fi was written for an internet that no longer exists, one where most sites sent your password across the room in plain text. The risks that remain are real, but they are dif...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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Is iMessage encrypted? What Apple can read and how to check

The lock is real. What decides whether your iMessages stay private is not the message itself but the copy of it that ends up in iCloud, and one setting that most people have never opened....

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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Is Outlook encrypted? Each account type, and a 2-minute test

Outlook has an Encrypt button, a lock icon and a long list of Microsoft security pages. None of that tells you the one thing most people are asking: can anyone besides you and the person you wrote to ...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Is Telegram safe? What it encrypts and 8 settings to change

Telegram describes itself as a messaging app "with a focus on speed and security," and more than a billion people use it. Whether it is safe depends on which kind of chat you are in, and most people a...

Adrian Maverick · · 14 min read
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Is two-factor authentication safe? Every method, ranked

Two-factor authentication gets recommended by everyone and explained by almost no one. You are told to turn it on, then told that text codes are broken, then told that authenticator apps can be phishe...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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Is WhatsApp safe? What Meta sees and 10 settings to change

"Is WhatsApp safe" is really four questions. Can Meta read my chats? Can a hacker get in? Are my photos private? Can the police get my messages? Each has a different answer, and most depend on setting...

Adrian Maverick · · 13 min read
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Is WireGuard quantum-safe? How to check your own tunnel

WireGuard is the protocol behind most modern VPN apps, and it was designed in the mid-2010s, before post-quantum key exchange was practical. Its authors knew that and left a door open. Whether your tu...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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Separate email for banking: is it worth it? 20-minute setup

Should you use a separate email for banking?...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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When is Q-Day? Every expert estimate and deadline, sourced

When is Q-Day?...

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Will quantum computers break encryption? RSA vs AES-256

Search this question and you will find a 2019 headline saying "not for decades" next to a 2024 one saying it already happened. Both are wrong, and the true answer is more useful than either....

Adrian Maverick · · 10 min read
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Are free VPNs safe? What a study of 281 apps found

A VPN sends every site you open and every app that phones home through one company's servers. Your internet provider stops seeing where you go, and the VPN company starts. So a VPN never removes the p...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Can Slack admins read your DMs? Each plan, and how to check

You typed something into a direct message you would never say in a meeting. About your manager, a recruiter, your salary, your health. The header said "Direct message," and it felt like a closed door....

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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Can my internet provider see what I search? A 1-minute test

Short answer: no, your internet provider your ISP cannot see what you search, but it can see every website you visit, even on HTTPS, in incognito mode, and after you delete your history. It sees each ...

Adrian Maverick · · 13 min read
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Does Google AI read my Gmail? What Gemini sees and opt-outs

Every few months a headline says Google's AI is reading your inbox, then Google says it isn't, and both are partly right. They are talking about different things. Here is what actually happens to your...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
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How to keep your email private: a 10-step checklist

Most advice on email privacy fixes one thing. Alias guides hide your address and stop there. Security guides tell you to turn on two-factor and call it privacy. Encryption guides skip the inbox you al...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How to send an encrypted email: Outlook, Gmail, iPhone, free

Most guides to sending an encrypted email stop at "click Encrypt." That gets the message past snoops on the network, but it rarely stops your own email provider from reading it. Below are the exact st...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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How to stop email tracking: Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail steps

Open a marketing email and, before you have read a word, the sender often knows you opened it, when, and roughly where you were. That is a tracking pixel at work, and in most mail apps the off switch ...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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Is Gmail private? What Google and others can see in 2026

"Google doesn't read your email anymore" is one of the most repeated reassurances on the internet. It is half true, and the half that is true is the least important part....

Adrian Maverick · · 7 min read
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Is Google Drive private? Who can see your files, and a test

Your Google Drive files are encrypted. That sentence is true, and it is also the reason so many people assume Drive is private when it is not. The question that matters is not whether the files are en...

Adrian Maverick · · 12 min read
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Is my email encrypted? Check Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail

Your email is almost certainly encrypted on its way between servers. Whether it is encrypted so that nobody else can read it is a different question, and the padlock in your inbox does not answer it. ...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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Is Signal safer than email? Side by side, and a simple rule

Ask whether Signal or encrypted email is safer and you get a quick answer: Signal. For a private conversation, that is right. But it answers a narrower question than most people are asking, because Si...

Adrian Maverick · · 6 min read
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Is Zoom private? How to check your call's encryption

You have probably said something on a Zoom call you would not want read back to you. A diagnosis. A salary. A lawyer's advice. Whether that call was private depends on a setting most people have never...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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Most private email service in 2026: 4 tests that decide it

Every "best private email" list puts a brand at number one and moves on. That skips the part you actually need: how to tell whether a provider can read your mail, and whether it will still be private ...

Adrian Maverick · · 7 min read
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What does zero-knowledge mean? 2 meanings and a 5-point test

Search "zero-knowledge" and you get two sets of answers that seem to disagree. One says it is a way to prove something is true without revealing why. The other says it is a way to store data so the co...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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What is a tracking pixel? How it works and how to block it

There is probably an image on most pages you visit today that you will never see. One pixel wide, one pixel tall, usually transparent. It does nothing for you. It exists to tell a company that you arr...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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Metadata privacy: what the envelope reveals about you

Picture a sealed envelope going through the post. Nobody opens it. But the outside still says who sent it, who it is for, the postmark, and the date. Do that once and it means nothing. Do it for every...

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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What is post-quantum encryption? And how to check you use it

Somewhere, someone is saving encrypted data they cannot read yet: login sessions, medical portal traffic, old email. They are betting that a future machine will open it. That bet is why "post-quantum"...

Adrian Maverick · · 7 min read
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Secria V2 Is Here

Secria turned one this week. We marked it by shipping v2, the biggest update in our history: Secria Mail and Secria VPN, both rebuilt. Mail v2 is live for every account right now, web and mobile. Noth...

Filip Balik · · 3 min read
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Is my car spying on me? What it collects and who buys it

Some drivers found out their car was tracking them the same way you find out about a hidden charge. Their insurance quote jumped, and nobody could explain why....

Adrian Maverick · · 9 min read
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Is incognito mode private? Who can still see your history

Short answer: no, incognito mode is not really private. It only keeps your browsing off your own device: history, cookies, and form entries are deleted when you close the window. Your internet provide...

Adrian Maverick · · 11 min read
Apple iCloud encryption encryption backdoor

Is iCloud encrypted? Apple's UK backdoor fight, explained

Picture a person in London. iPhone in their pocket, iCloud switched on, photos and notes and a full device backup syncing to Apple the way they have for years. This week Apple went to court to defend ...

Adrian Maverick · · 7 min read
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Why quantum is suddenly everywhere (and what Q-Day means for your data)

Quantum is everywhere now. It's in the headlines, in government budgets, in every major tech company's roadmap. A few years ago it was a physics topic. Today it's an industry. And when something moves...

Filip Balik · · 4 min read
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Is Apple Intelligence private? The new Google Cloud alert

There is a new box that pops up on iPhones this summer. You are using an AI feature, generating a shape in an iWork app or sketching in Freeform, and a permission alert appears telling you the request...

Adrian Maverick · · 7 min read
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Are tracking pixels illegal? The 2026 court fight, explained

If you followed privacy news this year, you saw the same headline over and over. Tracking pixels are illegal. Courts are cracking down. Meta and Google are in trouble....

Adrian Maverick · · 6 min read
launch VPN post-quantum

Secria Launches Post-Quantum VPN, Expanding Its Privacy Ecosystem to 25,000+ Users

Backed by the Mach37 cybersecurity accelerator, Secria adds a post-quantum VPN with no activity logs to the encrypted email platform that launched less than a year ago. DOVER, DE, UNITED STATES, July ...

Adrian Maverick · · 3 min read
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Why You Actually Need a VPN (And Why We're Launching One)

Your internet provider can see every website you visit. Not a summary, the actual site names, with timestamps. In plenty of countries it's perfectly legal for them to use and share that data. That's n...

Filip Balik · · 3 min read
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Instagram removes end-to-end encryption from DMs: what to do

As of today, May 8, 2026, end-to-end encryption is gone from Instagram direct messages. Meta confirmed the change earlier this year and is rolling it out to all users today. This is a notable moment f...

Adrian Maverick · · 5 min read
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The state of email encryption in 2026

Email is over fifty years old. The encryption protecting it is, in most cases, a thin layer of TLS bolted on decades after the protocol was designed. In 2026, the gap between what people think their e...

Adrian Maverick · · 8 min read
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How email encryption actually works: TLS, E2EE, zero-access

You've probably seen the little lock icon in your browser and assumed your emails are safe. They're encrypted, right? Technically yes. But that word covers a lot of ground. And most of the time, it co...

Adrian Maverick · · 5 min read
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What zero-knowledge email actually means, and how to check

"We take your privacy seriously." You've seen that line a thousand times. Usually right before a company explains how they process your data to serve you better ads. Email providers love the word "enc...

Adrian Maverick · · 4 min read
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Secria launches mobile apps for iPhone and Android

Secria Launches Mobile Apps: Bringing Post-Quantum Encrypted Email to iOS and Android Quantum-resistant email now available on all major platforms...

Adrian Maverick · · 2 min read
post-quantum encryption email security

Why post-quantum email encryption matters now

The encryption protecting your emails right now has an expiry date. RSA, ECC, Diffie-Hellman. All of it will be broken by quantum computers. And the scary part isn't some far-off future scenario. The ...

Adrian Maverick · · 4 min read