Answering online quizzes about yourself like what was your first car and what was your high school mascot could allow people access to your personal information. Washington Police Chief Jim Lester advises people avoid posting such quizzes on social media, especially while they spend extra time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. He says the answers could inadvertently provide people your personal information to access different accounts, “All those things that are mentioned in those different quizzes are also things that are used for your security or password information to get security to either your social media accounts or even your bank accounts. If you do online banking, if you think you know some of your security question answers are some of those same answers. You know: what was your first car? What was your high school mascot? Where did you grow up? What street did you grow up on? Things like that.”

He adds that now is also a good time for parents to closely monitor their children’s online activity. Lester encourages parents to have their children show and explain the different apps they use on their phones or websites they visit online.