How to Protect Your Privacy Online

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Michael Gabriel

A lot has been said about your privacy online. More and more people are getting victims of phishers, scammers, and identity thieves in a range of privacy violations – from getting embarrassing status updates put up on their social networking sites, to downright criminal acts like unauthorized use of credit cards and money stolen from the victims’ Paypal or online bank accounts.

Here are the top 5 ways to protect your privacy online.

1. It is not limited to social media networks.
When talking about online privacy, social media sites like Facebook and MySpace immediately come to mind. While they are the most prevalent sites that identity thefts and other cyber criminals use to carry out their crimes, they are not the ONLY sites. You could get in trouble using e-mail, backing up your files online, or even through searching.

This is not to say that you should go lax with your privacy on social media sites, it is just the opposite: you should safeguard the personal information you have on your social media sites because they could be used for other sites as well.

To do this, you should use the site’s privacy option, which effectively makes your profiles invisible to people who are outside your contacts list. You be careful on adding people to your contacts list as well. If a stranger asks you to add him or her to your contacts list, think very carefully before you click that approve button.

Further, you should not post private information online, or information that would tell people where you would be at a particular day and time. Nor should you post pictures, blogs, and other content that may be deemed offensive, racist or reveals too much about you or your life that it could be used against you at some later time.

Lastly, do not share personal information online. This includes that of your friends. There may be sites that ask you to refer a page to a friend, and if you like their page, chances are you will input not only your name and contact details, but your friends’ as well. When asked to sign up with your e-mail address, you might want to create a new one for use on these sites, protecting your primary e-mail address.

2. E-mail is not secure.
A lot of people think that they can pour out their most private thoughts on an e-mail to their friends, but remember, e-mails are not secure. Aside from the rare mishaps of sending your e-mail to the wrong person, or –horrors!– to the general office address that carbon copies every single person you work with, there are also other people who can eavesdrop on the contents of your e-mails and even have the access to change its contents.

Remember that an e-mail message goes through several servers before getting delivered to your recipient. At each stop, there are people who could view your e-mails and read what you wrote.

To ensure that your sensitive e-mails are protected, encode it with an e-mail privacy program like Pretty Good Privacy or PGP. There are other similar software for you to use.

3. Everything you do on the Internet is being recorded… and USED.
If you have ever made a search online, you would notice that suggestions are made when you start typing out your search keywords. Upon closer inspection, you would see that some of these suggestions are for sites that you have visited recently.

The same goes for searches using the search engine’s own Web site. If you have noticed the ads coming out on the search results, they are likely to be related to what you have searched for.

Remember that everything you do online is recorded. A desktop search tool like Google Desktop, for example, will record all your searches while a Web-based e-mail provider like Google Mail will chronicle every e-mail you have sent or received. The information they gather would be used for marketing products and services to you.

4. Beware of browser cookies.
Browser cookies are like the bread crumbs that Hanzel and Gretel used to find their way back home. These cookies form the body of evidence of your activities online right down to where on the site you visited and how much time you spent on each page. You might want to turn off your browser’s option to accept all cookies and manually approve or deny cookies as necessary and always delete browser cookies after every session.

You can also use third-party cookie management applications and software like Internet Junkbuster Proxy or interMute.

5. Your IP is visible.
Remember that a numeric footprint would identify you everywhere online. By using your IP address, people could track where you are and what ISP you are using. If you use Internet broadband at home, your ISP could also associate your address with your IP.

If you do not want to be located, for some reason, then go use a different computer in a different location, where you have a different IP or you could use an anonymizer that hides your IP.

4 Ways to Enjoy a Risk-free Online Social Networking Experience

Posted on October 23, 2009 by Michael Gabriel

4 Ways to enjoy a risk-free online social networking experience

Perpetrators of phishing, scamming and identity theft have found a veritable gold mine in social networking sites. All too often, users of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter inadvertently make themselves easy targets for these kinds of activities.

Here are four ways to protect yourself and your information online.

1. Always check your privacy settings.
While Facebook sets your privacy setting to your contacts by default, other social networking sites do not. In fact, some display your profile to the general public. Make sure that you make use of a site’s privacy settings to allow only your friends, family, loved ones and contacts to view your profile.

In line with this, do not add just anybody as your contact. If you are keeping a personal profile, then make sure that you only have people you personally know in your contact list. If you are on social networking sites to play online games, or to market your brand, it might help to create a separate account for this purpose. You can limit the amount of personal information you have on these accounts.

2. Think twice before you post something.
For one, do not post your hometown if this has been set as your secret password question. Make sure that your post does not have personal information in it, or other identifiers like a landmark near where you work.

In no circumstances should you announce where you would be at a particular time. This way, lurkers would not be able to pinpoint where you are at any time.

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Privacy Risks with Social Networking Sites

Posted on October 20, 2009 by Michael Gabriel

Privacy Risks with Social Networking Sites

Most of us are under the impression that social networking sites are safe havens for our thoughts, feelings and just about anything that we want to share with our friends, family and contacts. However, one must not forget that whatever you put online is up for the whole world to see, not just your close friends, family or coworker.

As such, we have seen “scandal” photos taken off people’s MySpace, Facebook and other social networking accounts circulating in the Internet.

Your best bet, of course, would be to be prudent about what information you make available online. Before you post photographs or blog posts, make sure that it is something that you are comfortable having your mother, spiritual adviser or boss read through your blog post or seeing these photos. If you do not think they will approve, better not post them.

This goes for relatively tame personal information. If you are planning a party, you might think that posting the details on MySpace is the easiest way to get the word out. You might indicate the time of the party and your home address in the invites.

On the day of your party, people you do not know show up at your doorstep or someone might obtain that address for other reasons. Make sure that you do not post personal information, such as your home address, mobile number, where you work, where you are going to be, online. This would only help strangers find you.

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Social Networking Sites: How It Affects an Individual’s Privacy

Posted on September 15, 2009 by Michael Gabriel

Facebook’s Privacy Policy as of November 26, 2008

The success of Facebook in harvesting millions of users in such a short span of time stirred the world with speculations on the effects of social networking sites.

Social networking sites such as Facebook, Friendster, My Space and Multiply have become popular because they provide venues for individuals to express themselves. Using these sites, users are able to design their pages with graphics, texts, videos and music that convey their thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Through these sites, users connect conveniently with other people from across the globe with whom they may share similar interests.

With the social networking sites’ emphasis on the individual and on expanding his network, the issue of privacy inevitably raises many eyebrows. The surge of social networking sites also triggered the occurrence of virtual crimes such as identity theft, and unlawful usage of personal information, to name a few. Along with the functional benefits and entertainment brought by these sites, pertinent privacy issues have also been rigging these virtual social circles.

Social networking sites are assured of privacy protection as provided in the privacy agreement between the user and the site made upon by the former’s registration.

These sites also have privacy options and settings that users can customize to control who can view their personal information. However, one of the problems of users is that the settings in some social networking sites do not offer enough flexibility. This causes unreliable information protection on the part of the users.

Facebook, for example, asks for basic personal information upon a new user’s registration. Users are asked to give two kinds of information:

those that the user willfully provides to disclose and display on the site, and
those that the site collects in order for the user to use and interact through the site.

The first type of information is composed of personal details that users choose to share such as interests, telephone number, occupation etc. The second type is simply the pertinent registration details such as name and email address. The same information and privacy policies are observed in the use of MySpace, Tagged, and Friendster.

However, another website, QMPeople.com, features a different set of policies from that of these mainstream social networking sites. QMPeople.com allows its users more flexibility in their information input. This makes users feel safer in meeting and interacting with other QMPeople users all over the world. This site provides privacy features that users can fully enjoy without worrying of the possible risks of disclosing information online.

Another major privacy concern of social networking site is that they cannot possibly control what users can say to their fellow users. At this time and age when economy and technology, among other factors, fuel people to be more and more aggressive in attaining higher goals, even the technology of the internet is used for monetary gain and other personal intents.

Yet in the cases of legal separation or divorce, information such as photos and wall posts gleaned from social networking sites can be used in the court room as evidences. Thus, the general rule of caution is imperative in the use of any social networking site.

Social Media and How it is Used in Online Marketing

Posted on April 4, 2009 by Michael Gabriel

It used to be that a company’s online marketing efforts consist of having a Web page, sending out e-mails, and advertising on high-traffic sites. However, in this age of social networking sites – like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace – these efforts are no longer enough!

Social networking sites have allowed businesses big and small to be more interactive in the way they present their companies, brands, products, and services. Online marketing has ceased to be a one-way street where the businesses do all the talking and hope that their potential customers listen and try out their goods and services. Interactivity has become the key feature of online marketing on social networking sites.

Businesses can still advertise their products and services by sending out a Tweet or updating their Facebook status for all their followers and friends to see, or update them about the latest promotions and discounts. Meanwhile, customers can post questions and complaints in real time.

A company doing business on social networking sites can further keep itself ahead of the game by easily developing customer relationships and loyalty. You are no longer an
e-mail address promoting a product via spam, or a Web site they stumbled upon, but a profile with a real person behind it. This personal touch, which is an additional way of interacting with your customers, can make them feel connected and supported and in turn leads to more positive feelings and loyalty to your business. Anne Rice, for instance, just does not write great novels, she goes on Facebook to discuss any aspect of her characters as her fans ask her questions about them, or she conducts online writing workshops for her fans. Rice also speaks to them, making them feel that they are friends and that she, too, has her own hopes and dreams.

Social networking sites also provide a way for businesses to talk about their products in a more natural setting. You are not a business that intrudes on people as they read e-mails from friends and family, but you are part of the social network. That means that people will be more receptive to your pitch. If you provide a link to your Web site, people are also more inclined to click on it and visit your site.

More importantly, these links on social networking sites become new inbound links to your site, which makes your site rank higher on search engines. Few people realize that the links they put up on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook do not only point their friends and family to their site, they also point search engine spiders to their sites, making it seem more important and therefore making their site rank higher on Google, Yahoo and other search engines.