Any CWA here? Don't dox yourself, just wondering.

Here's just 2 huge steps you can take today to reclaim your privacy and protect yourself from identity theft. I'm sharing these because I procrastinated on doing them because they required snail mail and I wish that I had not. Do yourself a favor and start on this today.
Permanently Opt-Out of Pre-Screened Credit Offers
No more junk mail credit or insurance offers for life! This is huge. It means no more half filled credit apps waiting to be stolen out of your mailbox and just less junk mail in general. Why did I wait so long to do this? The permanent opt-out requires sending in a form with a copy of your drivers' license.
I can't deep-link the form unfortunately, so you will have to follow the directions here:
https://www.optoutprescreen.com/
Permanently Freeze Background Checks (The Work Number)
The Work Number is an Equifax subsidiary that sells your very accurate work history to requesters, often to potential employers. it's a very good idea to freeze this so that it can't be used for identity theft and so that employers can't do a background check without your consent:
https://employees.theworknumber.com/empl...ata-freeze
Again, it requires snail mail, but I hope you'll learn from my procrastination and get on it!
Do you have some high-powered opt-outs I've missed? I'd love to hear about them!
Here's a wish-list of opt-outs that I am pretty sure don't exist:
Facebook - Meta tracks you EVERYWHERE across the internet and even with a VPN, I bet it strings together your browsing sessions and identities. How can we stop it? No idea.
Google tracking - Again, especially in the US we have no legal rights here, so no idea how to stop that.

Translation: they gon do butt stuff 
   

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You've heard of the Pump and Dump: 

Quote:Pump-and-dump is a manipulative scheme to boost the price of a security through fake recommendations based on false, misleading, or exaggerated statements.

I've been looking into self-diagnosing autism lately. 
It answers a lot of questions about why I've always felt like an alien. But at the same time, I'm hesitant to actually say I'm definitely autistic because I don't know what that would change for me.
like I've gotten along 40 years being the way I am without knowing. 
anyone else here on the spectrum? Any thoughts, advice, tips, on what comes after diagnosis? Is it worth getting an official diagnosis? Especially in current US political climate?

So uh...how's everyone's mental health considering, y'know, all of this?
After the initial few weeks, I think I've mostly settled into a semi-sustainable "just have to wait and see, and keep an eye out for signs I, a trans person, need to GTFO." I mean, the signs are already there for me, but financially I can't upend my entire life to flee to ...where? at this point.
I'm trying to limit my reddit doom-scrolling, but still keeping up generally with the never-ending shit-stream of executive orders and federal firings.
I have really locked down my spending, and am trying to get my health stuff in order while I still have a job and good insurance. I work for a program largely funded through federal grants, and the paranoia about my job vanishing continues. Though I'm not a federal employee, I foresee some pretty awful ripple effects from all of the federal layoffs and funding freezes. I suppose only time will tell what actually ends up happening.

Quote:Apple is taking the unprecedented step of removing its highest level data security tool from customers in the UK, after the government demanded access to user data.

Quote:Data with standard encryption is accessible by Apple and shareable with law enforcement, if they have a warrant.

The Home Office told the BBC: "We do not comment on operational matters, including for example confirming or denying the existence of any such notices."

In a statement Apple said it was "gravely disappointed" that the security feature would no longer be available to British customers.