Posts Tagged ‘Privacy’

I learned about Startpage in an article on Reuters. Here’s a nugget:

Startpage — also known as Ixquick outside the United States and Britain — had already offered private searching, but users would leave the company’s protection when they clicked on a search result and entered a third-party website.

The new service offers use of a Startpage proxy that means the user is invisible to all websites, though pages load more slowly since Startpage must first retrieve the contents and then redisplay them.

“My wake-up call came last year,” says Katherine Albrecht, who runs U.S. media relations and marketing for Startpage and who says she noticed Google Inc had installed a program monitoring users who typed in terms indicating they had influenza — and was sharing the information with the U.S. Center for Disease Control.

So I decided to play around with it for a while.

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There was an uproar recently when Facebook changed its privacy settings routine. This proves one thing:

There is an uproar when Facebook changes anything.

Most of the uproar seems to have been that the new default settings are, in the opinion of many, biased towards making more, rather than less, available to “Everyone.” Even the ACLU and the EFF joined in, as this report in the Vancouver Sun points out.

I find the critics’ reaction a bit over the top. The critics seem to assume that Facebook users will accept Facebook’s suggested defaults, which do in my opinion make the settings far too liberal.

Maybe many persons will, but, frankly, I think that is their problem, not Facebook’s. Somewhere along the line, folks who use computers need to also use their heads and realize that the internet is a public place.

The New York Times today had a good how-to for the new Facebook settings.

Oddly enough, I ran into the same problem the author of the article ran into: When I followed the link from Facebook’s annoying pop-up announcement/tutorial on the new settings, made some changes, and tried to save my changes, they did not save; I had to exit the tutorial and then go into the privacy settings from the “settings” link on the top right of my Facebook page to get the changes to take effect.

And I always remind myself when I’m doing stuff on Facebook or on my own blog that I’m doing it in public.

I have not concealed my skepticism about “cloud computing.” I see only two reason for sticking my data out there somewhere in the care of who knows who, except for off-site backups and collaborative projects. (For anyone who has invested deeply in time or money or both, in websites, software, and data, offsite backups are a good thing.)

“Because it’s there” is an insufficient reason for using any technology.

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By someone’s losing an unencrypted thumb drive containing the names and addresses of over 100,000 adult education students, according to the Norfolk, Va., Virginian-Pilot. The drive was lost track of on September 21 and is probably just lost, but the incident is still going to cost the Commonwealth of Virginia a lot of money before it’s over:

The 77,577 former adult education students whose addresses were available will receive letters from the department this week advising them of the loss and the steps they should take to protect themselves from identity theft.

The drive also contained data for 25,693 former students whose addresses were unknown. Those who took an adult education course between April 1, 2007 and June 30, 2009, or who passed a high school equivalency test between January 1, 2001 and June 30, 2009, should call the department (Virginia Department of Education) at 877-347-5224 for information on the loss.

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Busy Week
Thanks for coming to the site. We had another great week – busy week. It was a lot of fun and really productive.

Post – HPTF

Of course, we went to Vegas the week before to cover the HP Technology Forum Expo. Andy McCaskey, Kara Karsten and myself were working hard with interviews, product reviews and more. This week was planning to get some of the videos out to you. So far, we’ve posted the HP POD video on Friday and have a lot more coming soon.

Summer of Podcasts – Podcast Carnivale

This is what really took up the majority of the week. The last month I have been working hard in getting prizes together. Now it’s time to put a contest together. That is where the Summer of Podcasts comes in. Each week, Podcasters will be giving out codewords during their shows. We will be giving away a USB wireless VGA from IOGEAR (See the video below), a WebAround Web privacy screen and a lot more. The best part is a lot of prizes are from the Podcasters themselves. Caffination is giving some Coffee, Bageltech News gave a NYC canvas print, Bwana.org is giving Team Fortress 2 for PC and a T-Shirt, SDRNews is giving a MagicJack, Techpodcasts (Geek News Central) is giving an iPod Touch: there is a lot more.

Wednesday, July 1st is when the contest starts. Check out the site before hand to which shows are giving codewords for the week.

Bands

It’s summertime, so the band ramps up in it’s playing. It’s all well and good – I enjoy taking the trips and playing the gigs. This last weekend I played 3 shows and it wasn’t even Sunday. This afternoon is one more show. Next week is just about the same.

Interview

This last week, I was interviewed on the Isthmus – a local tabloid – style paper in the Madison area. The interview will be out next week, when that happens, I will post it.

PC/Mac Smackdown

Had lunch with Cal last Wednesday. He said – “Hey, why don’t you come on the show”. I said “Sure, why not?”. Therefore, I was on the PC / Mac Smackdown with Cal Davis and Rachel Baker.

Windows 7

Pre-Orders of Windows 7 means a significant discount. I have Windows 7 RC on my Dell D600 and really like how it works. What is even more interesting – Windows 7 works a lot better on that machine than when I put on Ubuntu 9.04. Ubuntu would lag when I was working – and I mean REALLY Lag. I would litterally select something, count to 5, then watch it execute.

I am really impressed with this OS, so I am excited this is coming out.

MJ, FF and EM AND BM

It was a sad week for a lot of people. Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson took the Trifecta this week as all three passed. Ed McMahon was the sidekick of Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show, Farrah Fawcett was the poster girl of the 70’s and of course, Michael Jackson was the King of Pop. While I was never a big MJ fan, I do appreciate his music and also how he let Weird Al Yankovic to make fun of his music.

I remember when I first heard “Eat it” 0n the radio. While I never listened to “Bad”, I did have the “Even Worse” album which featured “Fat”.

*Update – Just as I published this, the Internet found out that Billy Mays – the Oxy Clean promoter (as well as Mighty Putty, Big City Sliders, Kaboom and a lot more) was found dead at his  home. He was 50. I guess it’s more than a Trifecta…

Studio

This week was a lot of work with the studio. Only problem – I can’t find my staple gun. I had it, then it dissapeared. I am not sure where it went. AUGH!

Still, the new studio is doing well. I am hoping to record the first video there by Mid-week. My bedroom is getting cluttered with PC stuff and that needs to head down to the Dungeon. The door to that room is the main reason why I call it the Dungeon.

Looking at Phones

I have to admit, I have been looking at the iPhone 3GS. The one thing I like is I have fatter fingers. I was able to use the screen a lot better than with the 3G. For instance, when I hit the “N”, on the 3G, I would always miss and hit the “M”. However, with the 3GS, I have not done anything different and seem to be hitting the “N” key and actually getting an “N”.

I still have some tests to go. I am also looking at the Palm Pre, but in order to do that, I would have to switch to Sprint, which I don’t know if I am ready to do. Android is a possibility, but I really don’t want the G1. I am waiting for the Lenovo version.

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That’s pretty much it this week. Keep watching the site for more info on the contest. Of course if you want to give a prize for the contest, let me know.

The New York Times reports here that Paypal compiles dossiers in advance of applications for membership. That’s why it is able to approve new applications so quickly:

Mr. (Scott) Thompson (president of Paypal) said risk management had been the key to the company’s success. Even before it was purchased by eBay, PayPal was willing to let individuals selling on eBay accept credit cards, when banks and eBay itself found that concept of trusting someone who appeared out of nowhere over the Internet too frightening. (There is greater potential for fraud by a seller than a buyer, because someone could sell a lot of stuff then disappear without shipping it.)

What PayPal has learned is that the Internet actually reduces risk, Mr. Thomson said, because
it provides so much information to identify potential fraud artists.

“If it’s a fraudster, you can’t find footprints,” Mr. Thompson said. “They go out of their way not to leave traces about who they are.”

In this video pod we talk about TINYURL

The website basically is a re-aggrigator or web links. Everybody has recieved a weblink like whatever.com/?fh=876&sk=9876&whattheheck=y679s&thisistoomuch=0du7…. TINY URL uses an algorhytm to condense the web page to an “Easy for the eyes” link. You can then post the link, email it or whatever.

We also talk about the “Preview Feature” so you know what website you are going to before you go to it. TinyURL also has a Terms of Use.

Hear the Radiocast

Drinking, Smoking, Alzheimer’s -

Facebook Privacy issue with Blockbuster

Feature:
What’s the big deal with Psystar?

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.0MB)

Privacy Policy. Something many people don’t read, but when they are faced with it being misused, they are ready to take action. Privacy policies are vital to both consumers and companies - Mostly dealing with the statement of how they handle personal information. Yet some try to test those waters and bend the rules a bit. Still, the question boils down to ”when was the last time you read through the Privacy Policy”?

Facebook launched a new ad system that really tested the boundaries. The end result - consumers got upset in how the Social Networking site managed their information. On Thursday, Facebook changed their policy around. Now in reading the Privacy Policy, you will see the following: Read the rest of this entry »