Quote Originally Posted by Alan View Post
This makes me wonder about your stated hatred for smart phones, which as you imply are essentially computers with telephone capabilities, as if one hardware platform was inherently more dangerous than another. Of course it's none of my concern but I do find it odd, am I missing something?
Yes, you're overlooking the fact that some hardware and some software and some computer operating systems are indeed more dangerous than others. I use a reasonably safe operating system running reasonably safe software vetted by the FLOSS community that oversees that operating system. My computer is hardwired to the internet via a modem that has a password of my choosing protecting it's settings. That modem acts as a NAT router. There is a hardware firewall+router between the modem and my computer. My computer OS also has a built-in firewall, which is turned on. And installing or updating software or the OS requires entering the password of my Admin account, which is only used for that purpose, never for general internet access.

So on the whole I'd say my internet access is safer than the average wifi user and much safer than using a smartphone. Therefore I'm definitely more cautious than the average bear, even though none of us can be completely safe online or IRL.