Posted on March 30, 2022
Grantee Highlight: Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières is caring for people caught in the effects of the climate crisis
Note from the CREDO team: This April, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will enable MSF to provide free, quality, life-saving medical care to those who need it most in over 70 countries.
Read this important blog post from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières below, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com to cast your vote to help determine how we distribute our monthly grant to this organization and our other amazing grantees this April.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization providing aid to people around the world without regard to race, religion, or political affiliation. Founded in 1971, MSF has 50 years of experience providing impartial medical humanitarian aid combined with a commitment to speaking out against the causes of suffering and the obstacles to providing effective assistance. Each year, we provide care for around 10 million people caught in war zones, epidemics, natural disasters and more.
MSF teams respond to some of the world’s most high-profile emergencies—as well as many of the least visible. Often, MSF patients live in temporary shelters or camp settings, while others suffer from the impacts of direct violence, disease, or malnutrition near their homes.
Caring for people caught in the effects of the climate crisis has been an increasing element of MSF’s work, and we have observed the impacts of climate change on the people we treat and on our medical humanitarian activities. Climate change is having catastrophic effects on already vulnerable people in many of the places where MSF works. The evidence of a changing world includes increasingly intense and frequently extreme weather-related disasters, among them severe droughts and floods, violent hurricanes and cyclones, and heat waves. MSF medical teams are seeing the onset of other consequences of climate change in many countries: from water scarcity and food insecurity to worsening malaria and dengue fever outbreaks. In South Sudan, MSF teams have helped to manage and prevent outbreaks of malaria and provided food aid to people living in regions that have been impacted by increasingly severe seasonal floods. In southern Madagascar, MSF mobile clinics deliver therapeutic food rations and medical care to people who are struggling to farm in the midst of a historic drought.
MSF staff recognizes that we have a social and ethical responsibility to understand and minimize our environmental impact while providing medical humanitarian aid to our patients.
In 2021, we launched the Climate Smart MSF initiative to advance our commitments to address climate change into concrete action that sets the stage for our organization to significantly reduce its environmental impact and become progressively greener and more environmentally sustainable. MSF has always been a leader developing innovations in global health approaches and providing emergency medical humanitarian care, and Climate Smart MSF directs our organization’s expertise to improving our role in planetary health.
In practice, Climate Smart MSF initiatives allow MSF to prioritize the creation of sustainable systems that work in a variety of contexts. In Kenema District, Sierra Leone, MSF operates a pediatric hospital with an intensive care ward that is vital for local patients. But the hospital was not fully connected to the local power grid, creating logistical challenges. MSF installed a hybrid electrical system utilizing solar panels that is planned to provide 100 percent renewable energy for the hospital in the future. Similar systems have been planned and executed at other MSF projects around the world, to help offset the often considerable power needs that providing necessary medical care can produce.
Frequent air travel, the choice of training locations, supply chain logistics, the use of plastic materials, medical waste, and fossil fuels for vehicles and buildings are all possible impacts to be examined, avoided where possible, and reduced.
Climate Smart MSF is a unique initiative created to measure and mitigate MSF’s carbon emissions and waste production, map the supply chain and increase sustainability, and share best environmental practices. The ultimate goal is to help scale environmental sustainability across MSF globally and transform a medical humanitarian aid organization into a more responsible, responsive, and resilient one for future generations.
Posted on March 23, 2022
CREDO calls on Texas lawmakers to stop anti-LGBTQ efforts
Hate has never had a home at CREDO — and it never will.
We have been especially appalled at the recent attempt to criminalize a parent for helping their transgender child access medically necessary, age-appropriate healthcare in the state of Texas.
That’s why we recently joined the Human Rights Campaign and dozens of businesses to publish a full-page ad in the Dallas Morning News earlier this month calling on our public leaders — in Texas and across the country — to abandon these shameful efforts to write discrimination into law and policy.
We know that our customers choose CREDO because we share their values — for climate justice, civil rights, economic justice — and especially equality for the LGBTQ community, our employees and allies.
CREDO has a long record of standing up for the LGBTQ community that dates back more than 35 years. Since our founding in 1985, we have donated more than $15 million to groups like the National LGBTQ Task Force, the Transgender Law Center, the ACLU, Freedom For All Americans and dozens of other groups fighting for equality and civil rights.
To all our members — especially those in Texas and other states where trans, queer and non-binary people and other groups are marginalized and targeted for discrimination — always know that CREDO and our employees have your back. We will continue supporting and funding our allies who are fighting on the frontlines everyday to create a world where everyone is free to be who they are.
Posted on March 17, 2022
Don’t throw away your old phone. Here are 6 things you can do with it.
Americans throw away more than 416,000 cell phones every single day — that’s nearly 152 million each year!
These cell phones, along with the millions of tons of other e-waste that end up in landfills each year, are regularly incinerated, releasing toxic, carcinogenic and climate-harming chemicals into the air.
Instead of tossing your old phone in the trash or a drawer to never be seen again, you can repurpose, reuse and recycle your old smartphone and give it a new life.
In this week’s tip, we have 6 things you can do with your old phone instead of throwing it out.
Recycle your phone
According to the United Nations, less than 20% of all e-waste is recycled, with the rest ending up in landfills and potentially harming our environment and the health of workers.
So, if your phone is no longer usable, whatever you do, don’t throw your old phone in the trash. Consider recycling it instead. Recycling conserves natural resources and helps avoid water and air pollution that comes with mining and manufacturing the precious metals in modern phones that can be recovered in the recycling process.
Apple has its own, easy-to-use recycling program for its iPhone, iPad and other products, and the EPA has a great list of options for recycling other phones and electronics.
Donate your phone
Whether or not your phone is in good shape, you can donate it to a number of charities that can repurpose a working phone for use, or recycle it and collect proceeds to fund their operations.
The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence accepts old phones, working or not, and other electronics to raise money for its programming to help survivors of domestic violence. Likewise, you can check to see if local charities that assist with survivors of violence or people experiencing homelessness accept cell phone donations.
Turn your phone into a webcam
If your old phone is still only a few years old, it likely has a higher resolution camera than the one built into your computer. So, why not turn your phone into a dedicated webcam? It’s a quick and easy switch, and it will improve your overall experience.
Check out our recent tip on how to turn your phone into a webcam to get started.
Home security camera
Again, utilize that great camera in your old smartphone as an inexpensive home security camera. If you have more than one old phone, you can set up multiple cameras for maximum coverage. It’s a little bit of a DIY project, but it’s a great way to repurpose your old phone.
To start, you’ll need to download and set up a home security camera app, like Alfred (available for iOS and Android). Next, position your phone’s camera in a location that you would like to monitor, like a front door or window and ensure it’s close to an outlet. Finally, you will want to mount the phone — with a tripod or a suction mount — and plug it in.
Baby monitor
Wifi-connected baby monitors can be pricey and analog monitors aren’t connected to the internet. Enter the old smartphone baby monitor. By repurposing your old phone as a baby monitor, you can keep an eye on your little one from anywhere safely and securely from your newer smartphone.
To pull off this cool hack, you’ll need to download a baby monitor app to both smartphones (Cloud Baby Monitor for iOS or Dormi for Android) and ensure both are connected to your WiFi. Position the older phone near the crib just like you would with a regular baby monitor and ensure it remains plugged in at all times. Double-check the app’s security features as well to ensure the streams are accessible only by you.
Universal TV remote
If you’re always searching for your remote, it might be time to turn that old smartphone into a universal remote that’s a lot harder to misplace. (Here’s a reminder about finding a lost phone)
If you have a smart TV, the manufacturer or a third party developer has likely created an app that you can use to control the television. Search the App Store or Google Play for your television manufacturer to see which remotes might be available.
If you own a streaming device like Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV or something similar, you can download the manufacturer’s app straight to your old smartphone and begin using it as a remote right away.
Posted on March 15, 2022
Thanks to CREDO members, The Fairness Project is making progressive change across the country
When politicians fail, our grantees at the Fairness Project help grassroots organizations run ballot initiatives to support working families. Since 2015, the organization has won 23 campaigns to raise wages, expand health care, deliver paid leave, curb predatory lending, and more – changing over 18 million lives across the country.
In July 2021, CREDO members voted to distribute $50,796 to the Fairness Project to help empower voters through ballot initiatives to win progressive policy change for economic, racial, and gender justice. We’d like to share some of their recent victories and new initiatives that CREDO members helped to make possible.
Election Day 2021 Victories
Election Day 2021 resulted in another batch of wins for the Fairness Project, bringing the organization’s winning record to 23 out of 24 campaigns.
In Cleveland, voters approved Issue 24, a charter amendment that ensures real accountability for police misconduct by providing Clevelanders with permanent and powerful civilian oversight on policing and community safety policies.
In Austin, voters defeated Proposition A, which would have forced Austin to cut essential services to spend hundreds of millions more solely on the police department, with zero accountability.
In Tucson, voters approved Proposition 206, ensuring a minimum wage increase to $15 by 2025 and several protections for workers.
New Initiatives by the Fairness Project
Since receiving its grant from CREDO, Fairness Project has expanded its current programming to include work defending the ballot measure process itself. With the Ballot Measure Rescue Campaign, the group will support litigation, state-level legislative advocacy, and statewide ballot measure campaigns because maintaining access to citizen-initiated ballot measure processes is both vital to American democracy and to the Fairness Project’s core mission.
A number of states will likely vote on whether to raise the win threshold on ballot measures, or otherwise make the ballot initiative much harder if not impossible to use, in 2022. Fairness Project is monitoring developments in Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Dakota and may engage in campaigns in some or all of these places to defeat these questions and protect the ballot process for the future.
On top of this new portfolio of work, we are continuing to fight for progressive change at the ballot box.
South Dakota: Expanding Medicaid
- South Dakotans Decide Healthcare, a broad coalition of patient advocates, nurses, healthcare providers, farmers, faith leaders, educators, and others officially qualified for a place on the ballot in November 2022. South Dakota voters will have the opportunity to expand healthcare coverage to more than 42,500 residents and bring hundreds of millions of tax dollars back from Washington.
Michigan: Ending predatory payday lending
- Michiganders for Fair Lending, a campaign to cap interest on predatory payday loans to 36% APR, has begun collecting signatures to qualify its measure. This would be TFP’s third campaign aimed at reining in predatory lending. We have also worked in Nebraska (2020) and Colorado (2018).
Michigan: Protecting reproductive freedom
- Michigan for Reproductive Freedom is a groundbreaking ballot measure that would ensure the right to reproductive freedom for all in Michigan’s constitution. This is critically important because if Roe v. Wade is overturned or scaled back in June, an abortion ban from 1931 would go back into effect, meaning millions would lose access to abortion services, and doctors would face up to 15 years in prison for providing abortion services.
Arizona: Relieving burdensome medical debt
- Healthcare Rising Arizona is leading a ballot initiative that would limit asset seizure due to medical debt, and help ensure that no one can lose their house or their car simply by going to the hospital. This campaign is currently gathering signatures to place the question on the ballot.
Posted on March 14, 2022
Grantee Highlight: Earthjustice is Going Zero to 100
Note from the CREDO team: This March, Earthjustice is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help Earthjustice take on the most consequential legal fights of our time, moving urgently to zero emissions and 100% clean energy to address the climate crisis and ensure a healthy environment for all.
Read this important blog post below, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com to cast your vote to help determine how we distribute our monthly grant to this organization and our other amazing grantees this March.
We have less than a decade to avoid further climate catastrophe, and we have the tools to do it. We must address this crisis by moving urgently to zero emissions and 100% clean energy. At Earthjustice, we’re using the power of the law to stand up to polluters, to advance clean energy solutions, to protect public health, and to fight for justice for the planet and its people. It is past time to move beyond fossil fuels, it’s time to go zero to 100.
Earthjustice attorneys are tackling some of the biggest fights facing our planet. But we can’t do this alone. We’re partnering with climate leaders and communities on the frontlines of pollution to:
1. Move Beyond Fossil Fuels.
Our reliance on coal, oil, and gas drags us backwards and hurts our communities. Earthjustice is holding the powerful accountable to reject more pollution and deal with the toxic legacy of fossil fuels. Our work includes demonstrated progress around:
- Keeping fossil fuels in the ground
- Stopping the rush to gas
- Cleaning up coal ash
2. Clear the way for clean energy.
Earthjustice is fighting for policies that get us to 100% clean, pollution-free energy and removing barriers that stand in the way. We’re expanding access to solar for low-income families and standing up for consumers. From transportation to buildings to the energy grid, we’re working to power our entire economy with clean energy. We are advancing this work by:
- Setting ambitious goals
- Removing barriers to clean energy
- Electrifying everything
3. Ensure everyone benefits.
Earthjustice partnered with frontline environmental justice and national environmental groups to develop The Equitable & Just National Climate Platform. We’re putting this shared vision into action to make sure climate solutions confront racial, economic, and environmental injustice while building a clean energy economy that works for everyone. Other examples of our work here include:
- Expanding access to solar. If designed and implemented wisely, community solar can unlock benefits for more people.
- Defending tribal lands
4. Take on the next frontiers.
As we transition to 100% clean energy, Earthjustice is committed to tackling other major contributors to the climate crisis that threaten to undermine our progress. We’re:
- Protecting vital forest lands
- Promoting climate-neutral agriculture
- Stopping the petrochemical buildout
So far, Earthjustice’s work across these initiatives has contributed to more than 50,000 megawatts of coal retired, more than 6,000 megawatts of gas blocked, an estimated $10 billion per year in in avoided climate-related costs, and some of the first-ever protections to curb methane pollution from oil and gas, as well as federal safeguards against coal ash pollution.
To keep up this fight, Earthjustice has doubled our Climate and Energy Program in recent years, with 80 full-time attorneys and advocates across the country and around the world fighting the climate crisis. Additionally, our attorneys have brought legal expertise to more than 20 state public utility commissions and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and our policy advocates are working in Washington, D.C., and seven state houses to advance legislation that will move us towards a clean energy future.
But this work needs you. Voices from everyday supporters in the form of public comments, messages to officials, and other official actions must be heard and are an important step to hold our leaders accountable and save our planet. Earthjustice Action Alerts make it easy to do your part. Right now, important actions that need your help include:
- Telling our U.S. Dept of Interior to protect our public lands and waters from fossil fuels
- Demanding the Dept of Energy to stop subsidizing the booming petrochemical industry
- Asking Congress to defend the Arctic Refuge from reckless fossil fuel drilling leases
Posted on March 10, 2022
How to free up storage space on your smartphone
It’s happened to all of us. We use our smartphones to store all of our photos, videos, music, podcasts and more — but then receive that dreaded “Storage is Full” warning on our home screens. Before you start sending your favorite photos to the trash, you can free up a lot of space without sacrificing your precious personal data.
In this week’s tip, we’ll show you how to clear space on your Android and iPhone devices and make use of the storage you already have in a few easy steps.
Find out what’s hogging space
It’s important to know which categories of data are using up the most space on your device, so you know which files and apps you can safely delete and which ones you want to save.
For iPhone users, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
Here, you’ll see how much space is available on your device, a chart noting how much storage each data category is using, and an ordered list of all the apps using the most storage space on your iPhone. On this screen, Apple may also present you with a few recommendations to offload unused apps, review attachments or delete old conversations that could be using up a lot of space.
For Android users — depending on your version or device — go to Settings > Storage, or Settings > Battery and device care > Storage.
Android users will also see a chart showing which data are taking up space on your device. Tapping on each category should give you more detailed information. Many Android users will also have the option to use the built-in “Free Up Space” tool, which will walk you through some steps to delete junk files, large photos or unused apps.
Backup your files to the cloud
Automatically backing up your smartphone is always a good practice, especially in the event that your device is damaged, lost or stolen. It’s also a great way to free up space on your phone.
By backing up your data to an online cloud service, you can delete files on your device — say, those old photos from your vacation in 2015 — but you’ll always have access to them through your backup.
Both Apple’s iCloud and Google’s OneDrive offer a small amount of free cloud space, but if you have a lot of photos and other data you want to save, you should consider upgrading your storage plan for a small fee. Once backed up, you can then delete the data that’s hogging all that space.
Our previous tip, “Don’t lose your photos and data. Here’s how to easily backup your phone,” will walk you through the steps.
Optimize your photo and video settings
Newer smartphones have incredible photo and video quality. That increased quality comes with some incredible file sizes, too.
Luckily, you don’t need to store your HD photos and videos directly on your device. Instead, you can optimize storage on your smartphone to a lower quality version (after all, you’re looking at it on a small screen) while your original, high quality file is backed up in the cloud, and can be downloaded at any time. This may also be a good time to sort through some of those blurry photos and delete them, too!
For iPhone users, go to Settings > Photos > Optimize iPhone Storage. For Android users, go to the settings for Google Photos and choose “Free up space.”
Clear out your cache
Cached data are the little bits of information that remain stored on your device after you visit a website. This temporary data can build up after a while and take up a lot of space on your phone.
To clear cache on Apple’s Safari, go to Settings > Safari > Tap Clear History and Website Data, then confirm.
To clear cache on Chrome on Android, open the Chrome app > tap three dots for More > History > Clear browsing data and follow the instructions to clear out cookies, site data, cached images and files.
Delete unused apps
The apps on your phone typically store the bulk of the information on your device, and apps that you don’t use anymore could be using up a lot of space.
As mentioned in our previous step above, visit the storage settings on your device and browse through the apps in the list. You’ll likely see a number of apps you never use, so feel free to tap on the app and delete it. You can always download the app again when you need it, but be aware that some of the data for that app may not be accessible once you download it again, so choose wisely.
Posted on March 10, 2022
Grantee Highlight: The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence is working to make our communities safer
Note from the CREDO team: This March, the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding this month from CREDO members will help EFSGV advocate for effective gun violence prevention policies that save lives.
Read this important blog post from [name and title] below, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com to cast your vote to help determine how we distribute our monthly grant to this organization and our other amazing grantees this March.
Gun violence in America
Gun violence in America is a public health crisis. Solving the problem will require public health-centered solutions focused on the conditions that create gun violence. That’s what the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence (EFSGV) works toward every single day: advancing evidence-based solutions to save lives and make communities safer.
As EFSGV strives to make gun violence rare and abnormal, we do so from a strong, mission-driven foundation. EFSGV was founded in 1978 in the wake of the civil rights movement and other nonviolent movements of the 1960s. Our first president, Mike Beard, interned for John F. Kennedy and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His understanding of how gun violence destroys lives and communities was shaped by watching both leaders struck down by assassins’ bullets. His dream was an America where families would be free from gun violence – one where we settle our differences peacefully and democratically.
Advocating for change
Decades later, EFSGV remains driven by that same purpose. We have made real progress in tackling the epidemic of gun violence by helping to pass more than a dozen new state laws in the last two years. Additionally, Our executive director, Josh Horwitz, testified before Congress about the life-saving impact of extreme risk protection order laws, convincing even pro-gun lawmakers like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to acknowledge the positive nature of these laws. We have also faced the problem of armed insurrection head on by issuing a new report with recommendations for states and localities fighting extremism.
EFSGV is committed to centering racial equity in our work. Gun violence and societal inequities are inherently connected. We have drawn attention to the linkage between permissive gun laws and racist violence that undermines the community trust necessary to reduce gun violence and sought policy changes to disarm hate. Only by achieving equity in the gun violence prevention movement will we see lasting change that saves lives and creates safer communities. One such invaluable resource that will lead to effective and equitable policies is our new racial equity impact assessment tool, which helps gun violence prevention groups place impacted communities and their lived experience front and center in their work.
While advocating for change, EFSGV has also stood strongly against efforts that would make communities less safe by undoing the progress we have made. With two dozen co-signers, EFSGV led an effort to file an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in NYSPA v. Bruen, arguing against efforts to weaken firearm regulations in public spaces. As states seek to impose dangerous “stand your ground” laws, EFSGV has been fighting back against the deadly impact of such legislation that disproportionately impacts communities of color.
You can help
While we have achieved so much progress, many challenges lie ahead. That’s where you come in. With additional resources, EFSGV will be better able to provide support for lawmakers and local partners in states where pro-gun advocates are making a concerted push to expand the rights of gun owners at the expense of community safety. While the public’s attention is often focused on Congress and the White House, in truth many of these battles are being waged locally, often out of the headlines. With your help, EFSGV can continue to provide a counterbalance to these groups at the state and local level and help defend our right to live in safe communities and prevent future victimization from gun violence.
EFSGV is hardly alone in the fight for gun violence prevention. But many of our peer organizations look to us for our unique public health perspective, and with your help our support of the greater gun violence prevention movement will be even greater.
You have the power to make our movement stronger. Join us.
Posted on March 8, 2022
Grantee Highlight: When We All Vote is fighting for equal access to the ballot box
Note from the CREDO team: This March, When We All Vote is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the generous support of CREDO members will help the group change the culture around voting, increase voter participation, and close the race and age voting gap ahead of the 2022 election.
Read this important blog post written by Stephanie L. Young, Executive Director of When We All Vote and then click here to visit CREDODonations.com to cast your vote to help determine how we distribute our monthly grant to this organization and our other amazing grantees this March.
When We All Vote is a leading national, nonpartisan initiative on a mission to change the culture around voting and increase participation in each and every election by helping to close the race and age gap. Created by Michelle Obama, When We All Vote brings together individuals, institutions, brands, and organizations to register new voters across the country and advance civic education for voters of every age to build an informed and engaged electorate. We empower our supporters and volunteers to take action through voting, advocating for their rights, and holding their elected officials accountable.
In 2020, When We All Vote ran a robust, multifaceted campaign and reached more than 100 million people to educate them about the voting process and get them registered and ready to vote. The initiative also led in voter education, registration, and volunteer engagement. As a result, over 512,000 people checked their voter registration or newly registered, and nearly 500 media, corporate, and nonprofit partners joined our efforts.
Following unprecedented voter turnout in 2020, especially among young people and communities of color, over 500 voter suppression bills aimed at these voters have now been introduced in state legislatures across the country and dozens have already become law. These new laws – including strict voter ID rules, restrictions on Sunday voting, and polling place consolidation – will disproportionately harm voters of color. As we look ahead to the midterm elections, voters will have to navigate disinformation campaigns and a barrage of new hurdles to voting that threaten to reverse momentum towards a more inclusive and participatory democracy.
When We All Vote remains committed to changing the culture around voting, countering attacks on voting rights, increasing voter participation, and closing the race and age voting gap by doubling down on voter registration, education, and turnout heading into the 2022 midterm elections.
In 2021, we launched our Advocacy & Campaigns program to educate and mobilize our community to take more than 20,000 actions via our civic engagement tools in support of federal voting rights legislation. While we will continue these efforts, we will focus the majority of our work on building national energy and momentum around the midterms with innovative and tested strategies to reach voters where they are and inspire them to get registered and out to vote.
In today’s climate, we know people want to engage— we give them the tools and resources to do so efficiently, effectively, and collectively. We have developed a tested strategy with proven results. This year, we will continue to leverage this model and our existing infrastructure to build our national movement towards civic education and engagement.
We’re helping to bring even more people into the voting process because our country is strongest when everyone has a say. It is our responsibility to protect our democracy, and every vote matters.
Learn more and join the fight to protect our freedom to vote.
Posted on March 3, 2022
Our February grantees thank you for your support
Each month, CREDO members vote on how we distribute funding to three incredible nonprofits. Those small actions add up – with one click, you can help fund groups working for civil rights, climate justice and women’s rights. In February, CREDO members voted to distribute our monthly donation to Innocence Project, Sunrise Movement and Women for Women International.
These donations are made possible by CREDO customers and the revenue they generate by using our services. The distribution depends entirely on the votes of CREDO members like you. And for that, our February grant recipients thank you.
Innocence Project
$37,592
“I want to say many thanks to the many people who are responsible for helping to make my dream of freedom a reality.” – Eddie Lee Howard, Innocence Project Exoneree and Survivor of 26 Years on Mississippi Death Row
To learn more, visit innocenceproject.org.
Sunrise Movement
$33,026
“Thank you for your support of our movement to win the Green New Deal. It’s because of you that in less than three years, our movement has grown to more than ten thousand volunteers in 350 local hubs in all fifty states plus DC and Puerto Rico.” – Varshini Prakash, Executive Director, Sunrise Movement
To learn more, visit sunrisemovement.org.
Women for Women International
$29,382
“Thank you for supporting the power of women! CREDO members like you make WfWI’s work possible — CREDO Grants have helped thousands of women in conflict zones unleash their true potential and transform our world.” – Laurie Adams, Chief Executive Officer of Women for Women International
To learn more, visit womenforwomen.org.
Now check out the three groups we are funding in March, and cast your vote to help distribute our donations.
CREDO members who use our products are the reason why we are able to make these donations each month. Learn more about CREDO Mobile, the carrier with a conscience.
Posted on March 3, 2022
How to safely scan a QR code with your smartphone
If you’ve been to a restaurant lately, you’ve probably scanned a funky-looking symbol to pull up a menu on your smartphone. Those symbols — known as QR codes — have been the go-to, no-contact menu option during the pandemic, and they’re popping up everywhere for coupons, deals and more.
A QR code even made an appearance during a recent Super Bowl commercial. However, some QR codes can be dangerous. The FBI recently warned that cybercriminals could use QR codes to steal money and personal information from unsuspecting people. The good news is many QR codes are safe. In this week’s tip, we’ll show you how to scan a QR code safely to help avoid being tricked.
In its January announcement, the FBI warned that smartphone users could open themselves up to a cyberattack by scanning a malicious QR code, saying:
Cybercriminals tamper with both digital and physical QR codes to replace legitimate codes with malicious codes. A victim scans what they think to be a legitimate code but the tampered code directs victims to a malicious site, which prompts them to enter login and financial information.
Luckily, many QR codes are perfectly safe, but you should use caution and some commonsense before pulling out your smartphone to start scanning.
Here are some tips to stay safe when scanning a QR code:
- Don’t download a QR scanner app, which could increase your risk of downloading malware. All you need to scan a QR code is the built-in camera app on your phone.
- Likewise, don’t download apps from a QR code scan.
- Only scan QR codes from trusted sources. If you’re at a restaurant, you’re probably safe. If there’s a QR code sticker by an ATM or gas station that looks suspicious, you’ll want to steer clear.
- Make sure the QR code hasn’t been tampered with or that a sticker hasn’t been placed over the top of another code.
- Double-check the URL (the internet address in your browser) of the website you visit after scanning the code. Malicious sites are built to look legitimate, but the URL will likely look suspicious.
- Don’t enter financial information on a site navigated through a QR code — and be very careful entering login and password credentials, too. It’s always a good practice to verify that the website you are using is legitimate and secure before entering your personal information.
- There is never a need to scan a QR code in an email, especially when a link will do. If a company sends you an email saying you must scan a QR code because of a payment failure, call the company to verify (and not the one included in the email).
- Lastly, trust your gut. If the QR code or the site you visit seems fishy, it probably is.
