Posts Tagged ‘privacy’

What is the ‘Do Not Track Law’?

May 8th, 2011

What is the ‘Do Not Track Law’?

In February of this year, US Congresswoman Rep. Jackie Speier introduced a package of Bills to Congress that includes an online “do not track” policy for companies that collect personal information. The proposed law has caused considerable stir amongst the online advertising world as it braces itself for the possible effects it might take on targeted advertising. The suggested Do Not Track legislation works on the premise of making internet usage more private. The principle initiative of the legislation is that web users can opt-out of being tracked which would in turn lead to a small portion of code called a “header” being inserted into a Web server that tells a Web site that the user does not wish to be tracked.

Possible Obstacles for the ‘Do Not Track Law’:

The main concern is that with the legislation in place, so few users will actively opt-in to being tracked that advertising networks will cease to invest in the infrastructure necessary to create target-based advertisements. On top of this, one of the principle features of modern Mobile Marketing is targeted advertising. Marketers often research the online behaviour of customers in order to tailor their campaigns to engage with key, target demographics. With the Do Not Track Law, this entire initiative could be compromised.

Who is already adhering to the ‘Do Not Track Law’?

Many of the top web browsers worldwide are already following the Law and have hopped on to the “Do not track” bandwagon. Apple’s next version of Safari includes a “Do Not Track” setting. Likewise, Firefox and Internet Explorer have followed suit and included similar features, but Google Chrome will not be supporting the feature. Google spokespeople state that the definition of “tracking” is still unclear and, as such, there is not a fully fool proof and sufficient solution at this time. In spite of this however, Google Chrome will include a “Keep My Opt-Outs” option in its next version that will prevents users from deleting “opt-out” cookies from ad networks when they delete their cookies wholesale.

What does the ‘Do Not Track Law’ mean for mobile?

There is no question that the proposed bill could be a severe hindrance to mobile marketing. It is still uncertain as to whether or not the marketing and Internet industries will combine to form an anti-tracking mechanism available. There may be some reprieve for marketers if they employ similar behavioural analysis as Facebook. The legislation will not affect the profiling practises of Facebook because the company collects information from the user when they log in to their accounts, focussing on what the user tells the company about themselves as opposed to Google’s DoubleClick ad system, which watches what people do around the Internet.

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Ethical Guidelines To Obtain Emails

November 1st, 2010

It is pretty annoying when our privacy on the internet is invaded with unwelcomed visitors and offers we did not even request for. You sometimes feel like blocking every access to your address but we also need these addresses to monitor what happens around us, the services, the goods and what they offer us. Which way then is the best for people who want to advertise their wares use to get attention.

These are three approved steps to obtain electronic addresses without using spam.

You do not stand a chance of holding down customers when you get to them with a spam. People preferred to be well informed before they will fill the sign-up boxes, so you surely need to furnish them with the catching and interesting bits you have to wit their interest and to secure them.

What the-would be customer wants is a reliable avenue where he or she can be assured of a good offer. So you can allow them to have sample of your offer to at least assure them or let them know how effective you will be.

2. There is a lot of controversy over email addresses. Some acquire them from other sources other than their rightful owners, this is a vital piece of information you can give to your prospective customers when you contact them.

Sometimes many of the email addresses people work to secure do not always have valid owners. Again you do not assume you can relate or deal with prospective customer’s because you paid for their emails. Quite a number of them might not accept your offer because they did not grant you their addresses. So you can always make your prospective customers feel at ease when you can let them where you fetched their addresses.

3. It is not so pleasant to tell and broadcast your offers with short read out through spam. Think about templates and you will have a wonderful way out for your adverts and you can make much of it to gain. One other good way is to fish out for service providers who do things in common wit you and look at a possible work together. With links to their websites you have a good opportunity to hold down prospective customers when you have some very spectacular offers to appeal to customers.

What really this writing seeks to do is to discourage spams because most of the times they end up offending a lot of would be customers, and it might ruin the good fortunes of getting some fine internet dealings

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Online Surveillance Will Be The End Of Online Freedom And Privacy

October 18th, 2010

For many years, individuals who have communicated over communications networks made available by the Internet have communicated in complete privacy. Traditionally, only hackers were a threat to the privacy of individuals who communicated in this virtual space. Today though, there are greater threats on the horizon. The U. S. Government is actually attempting to tread the ground only hackers have gone before. Their Internet wiretapping will be the death of Internet privacy as we know it today.

Historically, the public has always known that someone might be listening to their conversations while they use telephones. The government has not really done a great job in hiding the fact that they monitor activity on landlines. Instead, public officials have always been rather brash with their promotion of wiretapping activities.

Today, the government states that their wiretapping policies are absolutely essential to the security of the nation. As this belief continues to grow and thrive in the hearts of some public officials, the policies these officials promote continue to grow and thrive as well.

Even though these officials have almost always gotten their way when it comes to intruding on the privacy of citizens, they are now facing an issue they have never faced before. Today, due to the astonishing technical advances that have been developed in the communications industry, even the network providers themselves cannot access some of the information that is transmitted over their networks.

Since the communication networks themselves have no idea what is being transmitted over their completely secure encrypted connections, the government cannot really access this information. The government is attempting to require communication providers to build back doors into their networks in order to give them access though.

In order to gain access to these private and encrypted communications, U. S. Organizations sometimes require companies to develop systems that will decipher the information being transmitted. The process of developing these back doors can be time consuming and costly.

High ranking employees in the technologies industry believe that the opening of these back doors will pose multiple problems for customers and the communications companies. If these back doors are opened, not only will the government have access to the encrypted information, but hackers will potentially have easy access to this information as well. Not only that, but these companies will no longer be able to make promises about absolute security to their customers if they willingly let third parties view the information that is being transmitted over their networks.

If these back doors are opened, customers who highly value their privacy may find the services they need elsewhere. These networks provide perfect security to their clients today, but if the government has their way, the lack of security communications companies can provide their customers with will likely lead to their downfall.

Once consumers can no longer access secure networks, they will no longer give these corporations the capital they need to expand their operations and develop new features and programs. For this reason, many people believe Internet wiretapping will be the death of Internet privacy. Consumers who need to use communication portals that are completely secure can always utilize third party programs and systems that are not regulated or susceptible to the requirements of government organizations though. Communications networks might be hurt by the intrusive attitude of governments, but consumers will always have a way to sneak by their all seeing eye.

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How Spywares Can Track Your Passwords And Invade Your Privacy

October 2nd, 2010

One of the most concerning thing about browsing the internet is spyware virus protection. There are millions of spyware programs roaming the net looking for a computer to monitor the users browsing habits. Like this they can then take all of your important passwords and even get a hold of your credit card information.

Does your computer seem to be taking longer and longer to boot up every time you switch it on? Is it constantly showing you ‘pop up ads and randomly changing your homepage into one that you did not choose?

It is a 90% surety that you have adware if you answered yes to all of these questions. Everybody who is browsing the net is at risk of adware. It will simply install itself onto your computer directly from a website. You do not even have to have ever downloaded and installed a program on your computer to be a victim.

So any skilled programmers are putting their talents to ill purposes making malware. These will infiltrate your computer looking to study your habits and then give feedback to advertisers who need this information.

These advertising companies will then bombard you with banners, pop up ads and even take control over your homepage making it their own site just to make sure they grab your attention.

Spyware programs differ greatly from viruses in that they do not self-replicate once they have penetrated your computer. They are also not created to be malicious. The biggest problem for net users is that the spyware are rapidly evolving into programs that can easily disable your computer just in the same way a virus could.

Protection against spyware programs is therefore imperative. There are anti-spyware software programs that you can use for this. You do not even need to be highly skilled in using a computer to use this software.

Considering the damage identity theft and credit card fraud can do to you, it is imperative to invest in spyware virus protection.

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How To Protect Your Identity When Browsing Online

September 26th, 2010

When the Internet was first introduced into the mainstream population, people could go online and surf anonymously without much worry. That is no longer the case these days as information is captured and stolen online on a regular basis. That does not have to be the case always however, thanks to anonymous surfing technology.

Surfing the Net anonymously means that your private information stays private. Individuals and companies that use cookies and other tracking methods to harvest your personal information can use it for either malicious activities in the case of the individual or sell your personal data and habits to other companies to try to sell you products and services. When you use anonymous surfing you are putting a stop to these practices being used.

Proxy servers have come on the scene to ensure our privacy on the web. What they do is block your IP address from those who would use it against you and use their own server’s address in place of it. This little technique has worked wonders in keeping one’s information private and allowing them to surf the Web in peace.

You can utilize the services of these proxy server businesses online to maintain your privacy from phishing attacks and the like. There are numerous companies online that offer this service for anonymous browsing. You can also use certain browsers that offer private surfing but they do not work the same as the proxy companies and are less reliable.

Other methods you can use to ensure a private browsing session is to go into the control center of your computer and delete your browsing history, your cookies and your cache of any information stored in them. This way each time you surf the web you do so anonymously without compromising your private data.

Surfing the Web anonymously is a growing concern and can prevent tracking and attacking techniques used by those who want your private information. When someone tracks you on the Internet they are using your IP address to log certain activities that you perform online.

Attacking is more of a hacker activity that attempts to access your computer files and extract personal information from them. There are areas in the country that offer restrictive policies that allow their customers to surf privately.

You may have your reasons for wanting to maintain your privacy and that should be respected, using the above methods can help to ensure that what you do on the Internet and your information are not compromised.

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Programs That Can Expose Or Protect Your Identity Online

September 21st, 2010

During the early years of the internet, it was very easy to be an unknown person. There was no way anyone can get information about you. But now, there is a myriad of ways for people to grab information from your computer.

Hiding your identity over the web helps maintain your much worth privacy. People who are always on the internet know about the dangers of leaving your identity open. You get spam emails or even get hacked and worse, get your identity stolen. This is why concealing your identity over the internet is very important and by hiding yourself lowers the risk.

By hiding your IP address, you can roam around the internet free of worries. You can also keep you contact and other private information. By placing a proxy server, people will not be able to track down your real IP address. It becomes very difficult for people to locate your exact location as well as steal information.

People would offer you some random proxy servers and services that helps you surf over the internet freely. Try loading internet browsers that have high security capacities but sometimes, they work differently.

Other than proxy settings, you can also hide your information by means of clearing all cookies and cache from your web browser every time you connect to the internet.

Since identity theft is very rampant these days, concealing your identity is fast becoming a trend. Some people are able to track down your IP address and steal information from you and use it to their advantage.

Hackers attack your computer and steal your personal information for their gain. This is why a lot of people would want to access the internet in a very subtle manner to avoid having their identities stolen.

You may have different reasons as to why you want to protect yourself or arm yourself with proxy settings. In any which way, always know how to defend yourself even from hackers.

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Important Tips Regarding The Use Of Online Logins And Passwords

September 18th, 2010

If you are starting Internet business, you will be required to sign up and become member of various sites depending upon the need. You would have to sign up with social networking sites like Face book, email accounts, membership sites, forums, blogs etc. This means you would have to remember the log in names and password and keep checking latest updates.

Every account that you sign up for on the websites will require you to log in with a user name and a password that is known only to you. Therefore you would need to keep a list of all you log in names along with their passwords. These passwords are never to be shared with others or they can end up using your account without your knowledge.

Use different passwords and log in names while creating different accounts. Ensure they are not similar and never keep the same password in more than one account.

Always follow the safe rule of thumb for building your safe password – Keep it illegible and difficult to read and something that only you will know.

You cannot remember all the login IDs and passwords if you have more than ten accounts. Remembering all the passwords would not be possible.

Though your browser reminds you that you can set the browser to remember the log in ID and password automatically and log in every time without prompting, this should never be resorted to because then you are inviting hackers to access your log in ID and password directly from the browser. Another danger is that if your computer or hard disk crashes tomorrow, you will have lost all your data including the account login information and cannot access all of your accounts.

You might want to use the soft wares like Roboform to help you generate random passwords, save them and maintain an account of all of them. These applications are very safe to use and hackers cannot get the information from the websites because all the data is encrypted. People who have more than a few accounts use such soft wares to manage their long in passwords.

To maintain the data of your passwords back up, you can either take a backup of your files or store them in external storage media or elsewhere. Otherwise check out the option if the software allows you to save your password database on their online server besides saving it on your disk. Thereby you can also access the information from any other remote computer too.

Any method you follow to back up the data but it is very dangerous to write down the log in and password information on diary or paper, for others can get hold of the paper and use the information to log into your account. This should never happen.

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Tips To Ensure The Privacy Of Your Personal Details Over The Internet

September 4th, 2010

Years ago you could easily go surfing on the web anonymously. This is not longer the case. There are a myriad of chances for others to get personal information about you. Despite this, there are ways to protect you and your data.

One way to protect your personal information is to surf the web anonymously. It is important to protect yourself from the use of cookies and other devices that track you while on the internet. Information obtained may be sold to other companies just from your surfing.

It is important to prevent people from getting a hold of your IP address. Anonymous browsing provides for privacy. The remote server is unable to see you when you use a proxy server and thus cannot follow your surfing.

With more and more people trying to protect their privacy, there are numerous proxy servers from which to choose. Although they work slightly differently, you can also find web browsers providing anonymous modes in which to browse.

It is recommended to clear your cookies on a regular basis. Cookies are an access point for someone to track your information. Your history or browsing on the web should also be wiped clean.

The easy manner of following your IP address and getting your private information is called tracking. Because of the prevalence of this taking the added steps to browse with anonymity is being used more and more.

Hacking possibilities open up on your personal computer the moment you connect it to the web. Obtaining data and information in this manner is referred to as attacking. Another reason to surf anonymously is to avoid detection in areas of the world that greatly restrict what sites one can have access to viewing.

Whether you are protecting your data or defending your privacy, using anonymous browsing is an increasingly good idea to consider.

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Things Needed To Perform Hidden Phone Calls

August 10th, 2010

Many times we have had phone calls where we could not see the number of the person calling. There have also been times when the caller ID was from overseas and when it was answered a local accent was on the other end. These are what are commonly referred to as spoof calls.

An email that appears to be sent from one address and turns out to be from somewhere completely different is referred to as a spoof email. Likewise a telephone call that is not what it appears to be is called a spoof call.

It is far too easy now to ring somebody and when they look at the caller ID all they see is not your actual number but that of another person or even a non existent number.

It has also been said that today it is possible to make a man’s voice sound like that of a woman, child or even sound like a machine when they are talking to someone on their phone. Now this may sound like a great prank to play on somebody but as you will see there may be consequences.

So how is this done? Well one way to do this is to buy a card that is currently available from online stores. The card works in a similar way to a normal VOIP card and can cost in the region of $10 for about 60 minutes call time. Once you have the card you can actually customize it so that the person receiving the calls only sees the ID that you want them to see.

This concept is good if you are a business that does not want their phone numbers freely available to the public for some reason. But the good is far outweighed by the bad I am afraid with this system as unscrupulous people can use these to their own devious ends, such as impersonating somebody else’s voice in order to gain access to the mailboxes of the said people.

Even more serious is the fact that people could use these cards to make people think that they are contacting them from their bank. With this kind of trickery the caller could in effect get the persons personal details or bank details in order to swindle them out of their money. They could also be used as a tool for panicking people with bogus calls.

So even though it may sound fun to make prank spoof calls it can also be very serious too with very serious consequences.

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The Concept Behind Data Security And Actions To Secure Data

August 8th, 2010

When you go online you can never be sure that your personal information is safe. Despite tough measures put into place to keep personal information secure at state and national agencies, vital private data is being leaked where criminals can have access to it. This isn’t always the act of hackers, these leaks can be the cause of simple negligence.

Cases like these have come to the attention of the public who then turn to the press to publicize the lapses in security. This is often an embarrassment for the department or company and may cause unknown damage to the person that is the subject of the leaked information.

Hackers aren’t always to blame for data leaks, sometimes people can be careless. Their negligence or ignorance can allow information to get out.

For example, all Americans have a social security number. This number should be well-guarded and given out only in special circumstances. It is what identifies you and can be misused if in the wrong hands.

A lapse at the US Department of Justice caused the social security numbers of many people to become public knowledge. It inadvertently published the numbers on its web site. When the mistake was noticed the numbers were removed, but the damage was done. This demonstrates that even the most reputable organizations can be susceptible to data leakage. Everyone must remain vigilant and alert.

People should know that despite all reasonable precautions being taken, data leaks will occur. This doesn’t have to be the result of malice, it could just be carelessness but the end result is the same.

One way to keep data safe is to make sure it is encrypted. Not all businesses use this system because it is cost prohibitive and the process is complex.

Whatever security measures you adopt to keep your personal information safe, you should do a test run to make sure you haven’t missed any loopholes. This will help keep out hacker and minimize human error. Train staff to handle data correctly so lapses don’t occur.

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