Source.

What do you do when someone you don’t know on a social or business network site tries to become a “friend” or otherwise connected to you?

I don’t use social networks. If I receive a connection request on LinkedIn from someone I don’t know, I ignore it.

Do you worry about the data being collected by websites and search engines and what do you do to protect yourself? What do you advise for those who are not as technically skilled yet concerned nonetheless to do?

Somewhat. I use a privacy-focused open-source browser not affiliated with a for-profit company, LibreWolf, in its default strict protection setting My searches all go through my own little helper. I don’t (knowingly) use websites that egregiously track users or otherwise try to violate end-user privacy. I pay for my email hosting. I don’t use Cloudflare to terminate my TLS, and the analytics I use I collect myself.

For those concerned, I would start by recommending using a similar browser — an enormous amount of our digital life is negotiated through browsers, so it makes a difference. Firefox is OK, but you might as well use LibreWolf or Waterfox (nice!) or something. There are probably similarly-oriented Chromium-based browsers but I haven’t looked into it deeply — I use ungoogled-chromium when I need to test in one. (Please don’t use Brave, they consistently engage in shady practices.)

Next is probably email, because it’s typically full of personal stuff! There are many good email hosts that aren’t Google or Microsoft. If you don’t have to pay for your email hosting, there is a reason, and it’s not good. I use Fastmail. Here’s a Lobste.rs “ask” post with more suggestions. Ideally find something in a jurisdiction close to you. Or not, if you live in the United States.

How do you reward yourself for completing a difficult task?

Make a cup of tea, though that often happens at both ends. Lately I’ve been playing little bits of games between larger or more difficult tasks, or reading.

Have you or your family been affected by a natural disaster?

Not particularly. Australian drought culture of the late 90s/early 00s felt a little bit like one. Does a pandemic count?

Have you ever called in a request or a dedication on a radio show or online radio stream?

Nope!