Avoid logins entirely with Bug Me Not!

This website is very cool. It's a consolidated list of user name and passwords for common websites and services. This gives you the ability to log in without giving up your precious information.

This is particularly useful for sites that promise not to use your information and don't require a fee for access. If those two conditions are true, then they don't need your info anyway! So you might as well not waste the time filling it in.

The key is that you don't really want an account, you just need one-time access to something and figure you'll probably never come back. Give it a try, but use it responsibly. I have never, and never plan to use it for sites that require a fee for access (which they shouldn't have anyway)

Self-destructing short-term e-mail address

Here's a useful tool;a self-destructing e-mail address!

The way it works is you go to the website, click the link and it will provide you with an e-mail address you can use when filling in account creation forms on a website. When that site sends you the confirmation e-mail, it will show up on the 10minutemail.com screen where you can respond to it (which all happens online and doesn't require any software download).

After you've confirmed the e-mail, you can forget about it forever as 10minutemail will destroy it after… 10 minutes (see how that works?). The main reason to use this is if you never want any communication from the site you're registering with (remember that means you won't be able to reset your password either).

If you're unsure if you want further communication, you should use your buffer e-mail account instead. On the other hand, if you're sure you have no need of an actual account with the site (other than this one time), see if there's a name and password available on BugMeNot.com (and if not, consider sharing your newly created account there when you're done.

In most cases, the only thing that protects your money, your reputation, and your livelihood are the passwords you use to protect them. Computer security, online accounts, and everything else all pretty much rests on your ability to make and keep good passwords. So why is it that the average person spends so little time and effort doing it right?

Chances are it's because they were never taught how or why they needed to do so. Well, let's change that!