Apple has been prompting me to add some additional security to my account for a while now, and I’ve actually put off some purchases simply to avoid answering these questions…

Answering questions like these honestly can be a bad idea

Firstly, I tend to feel like answering questions like these honestly can be a bad idea. I doubt it would take much interrogation for even a complete stranger to strike up a conversation about first cars, worst jobs or how you celebrated the millennium. Other answers, like what your childhood nickname was or where your parents met, might be common knowledge to some of your friends. Worse still, information about your previous employment, childhood friends and musical tastes might already be on the web for anyone to find, thanks to LinkedIn, Facebook, LastFM etc.

Then I question how memorable the answers to these questions even are. I can’t think of good, memorable answers to most of them. Others I’d simply rather not think about every time I buy something from Apple (school, ugh).

I don’t drive, so scratch all the car questions. I don’t remember infant school, and at primary level I had lots of teachers, so who was my first? My first album was probably Alvin and The Chipmunks or some crap. And there’s no way I could single out any one job I’ve had as the worst.

My trick for these things is to come up with completely fabricated answers, and keep a note of them in LastPass. Sometimes I’ll even generate some more random passwords and use those, though sometimes they wont be accepted (looking at you HSBC!).

Anyway, my point is, be careful.