Byte-sized bites of technology
In light of the bulk surveillance issues that have found their way across the web, the Free Software Foundation has launched a guide to help secure your email communication. The guide recommends free software tools like GnuPG and Enigmail to secure your email. All you need is a computer with an Internet connection, an email… Continue reading Email Self-Defense – Secure your email in 30 minutes!
With Big Brother spying and advertising agencies attempting to give you targetted advertisements, protecting your privacy online is getting even more important than earlier. Meet the "Cookie", the biggest helper to tracking your movement is sitting on your computer via your browser. If you've never heard, here's a direct definition from Wikipedia: A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in a user's web browser while the user is browsing that website.
By default, Facebook allows search engines like Google or Bing to index your public timeline. This allows people to search you out even if they are not on Facebook. While they won't be able to access your profile, you might not want to let your timeline be viewed on search engines.
I love LinkedIn. At the time of this post, I am nearing 1,000 connections there. Unlike generic social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn has managed to maintain its niche of being a business connections site.
A few weeks back, we posted about the reawakening of an age old chain message that concerned Facebook users posted in an attempt to protect their privacy. I don't think it is in response to this, but Facebook released a new feature that aims to put privacy controls more into the hands of the users instead of tucking them away into screens they won't get through. You'll find the new settings in the top right of your Facebook just next to your photo.
It is a hoax! Over the past 24 or so hours, I've seen quite a few people posting this message: In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, professional photos and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berner Convention).
Almost every site on the web today has some kind of tracking inbuilt, be it the simple ads that you see or the pieces of code to track site visits or even the social networking buttons. Some may retain this information as you browse from site to site, while others don't. The power to choose who to stop tracking is present, but is limited with most browsers requiring some kind of an addon / plugin.
Ever register on a site and then find out that your inbox is clogged with emails from there? Hence, it is usually recommended that you signup at sites with a secondary email address. Or, you can create a disposable email address at temporaryinbox.
Google Adsense Team announced the launch of interest-based advertising. This will be offered to a limited number of advertisers over the next few months as part of the beta before a full fledged launch in late 2009. So, what is interest-based advertising To develop interest categories, we'll recognize the types of webpages users visit across the AdSense network.
Jennifer of JenSense.com has written a detailed article explaining some of the common mistakes that website owners commit when integrating Google Adsense in their sites. She's covered the following problems: Clicking on your own ads Creative attractions around your ads Asking users to click on your ads Using code to modify the size of the ads Drop down navigation covering your ads?