Internet privacy

• Install Anti-Virus Software - This should not even have to be listed, if you don’t have anti-virus software installed, you’re asking for trouble! And if your reason for not installing anti-virus software is because it’s too expensive, then that can reason can be shot down because there are several free anti-virus programs out there that are considered better than commercial software packages.

• Update All Software - Installing an anti-virus program by itself is not enough. There are hundreds of new threats that are found daily and the anti-virus programs release updates regularly to combat the new threats. Make sure you anti-virus program is set to update automatically so that you don’t have to rely on your memory to do it. Also, this goes for all the software on your computer. The most important software to keep up to date is your Windows operating system.

• Install only Trusted Software - If you’re not sure what a piece of software does from it’s name, then don’t install it. Also, don’t install anything you didn’t intend to install in the first place. Sometimes programs will ask you to install other programs during the install of the first application. Be careful of that because it’s usually spyware. Install software from big names sites only, such as Microsoft or Adobe.

(“How to protect your computer from hackers, spyware, and viruses”, 2010)

Protecting your Computer

My Opinion

• Following those steps that the website listed will help prevent those viruses from haunting your computer

• Those free programs such as AVG, are great software that will help decrease those viruses from even starting on your computer

• I completely agree with that website and those are very helpful hints!

Protecting your computer- Cont’• Delete Unknown Emails – If you receive emails from

random people’s names, do not bother to open the email, just delete it. If you have any doubts after reading the name and the subject, it’s probably not someone you know. Never download or open attachments unless you are sure it’s from someone you know. Give the person a call quickly and ask them if you’re not sure. Most large companies that you create online accounts with will not send you attachments unless you specifically ask for them through their web site. Also, be wary of any emails from sites pretending to be banks, auction sites, etc asking for you to verify bank account info or address info. No bank ever does that.

• Do not click on Ads - Avoid clicking on ads if you can. Especially those ads where something is flying around and if you shoot the duck, you win some prize! Ads have become more sophisticated in that they try to make the ad interactive so that you’ll be tempted to play it like a game.

• Be careful what you attach to your computer – This is a more common way to transfer viruses than you might think. Everyone now has a USB flash stick that they carry around on their key chains, ready to snap into any computer. But who knows what your viruses are on your friends computers and what accidentally got transferred to their USB stick. A lot of virus programs will auto launch right when the USB stick is put into the computer, so you don’t even have to open or download any of the files to be infected.

(“How to protect your computer from hackers, spyware, and viruses”, 2010)

My Opinion

• Again I agree with this website. No one can say that they have never seen a game pop up and saying “Win this”, or “ How many circles are there?” all which just may happen to contain viruses

• However I did not realize that someone’s USB could contain a virus that has travelled from their computer. Technology these days and how advanced everything is, especially viruses and hackers are unreal!

Protecting your computer- Cont’• Turn On or Install a Firewall - If you’re running Windows XP, make sure windows

firewall is turned on. A firewall prevents hackers from gaining access to your computer by limiting the number of ports that are open to the public. Also, when buying a wireless router, make sure it has a built in firewall. Having a software and hardware firewall is better than just having one or the other.

• Secure Your Wireless Network – Most wireless routers are set to no security when you install them. Be sure to log into the router and at least set the basic security that requires a password. There are stronger encryption options, but if you don’t understand those, then simply set a password on the router, otherwise anyone can connect to your home network and access everything.

• Use a Complex Password for Login – This means that you should already have a password to login to your computer. Not having a password at all is not a good idea. Create a password for all user accounts and make sure it’s complex. Complex means it should have numbers, upper case characters, lower case characters, and symbols. This makes it way more difficult for a hacker to get into your computer.

“How to protect your computer from hackers, spyware, and viruses”, 2010)

My Opinion

• We have all heard about passwords containing a uppercase, lowercase, a symbol or number. This is almost key to making sure your password is good, but some people need to be aware that if you don’t have a password like that how easy it is for hackers to break into

• Wireless internet and locking the password, a lot of people don’t even know how to do this. This is why some people post how to do certain things, to help others understand the importance of it

About Cookies• Also known as browser cookies or tracking

cookies, cookies are small, often encrypted text files, located in browser directories. They are used by web developers to help users navigate their websites efficiently and perform certain functions. Due to their core role of enhancing/enabling usability or site processes, therefore disabling cookies may prevent users from using certain websites.

• Cookies are NOT viruses. Cookies use a plain text format. They are not compiled pieces of code so they cannot be executed nor are they self-executing. Accordingly, they cannot make copies of themselves and spread to other networks to execute and replicate again. Since they cannot perform these functions, they fall outside the standard virus definition.

(“All About cookies”, N.D.)

My Opinion

• People are always telling you to clean up your “cookies” on your computer. How many people actually know where to go, and how to do it properly is another story

• Some people have the technical advantage and are able to with no problems, others like myself rely on others and websites to teach us. This was a great site to learn what exactly it is and what cookies do, as well as how to clear them

• We may disclose personal information to respond to legal requirements, enforce our policies, respond to claims that a listing or other content violates the rights of others, or protect anyone's rights, property, or safety. Such information will be disclosed in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

• We may also share your personal information with: • Members of the eBay Inc. corporate family—like PayPal, Skype or Shopping.com—to provide joint content and services (like

registration, transactions and customer support), to help detect and prevent potentially illegal acts and violations of our policies, and to guide decisions about their products, services and communications. Members of our corporate family will use this information to send you marketing communications only if you’ve requested their services.

• Service providers under contract who help with our business operations (such as fraud investigations, bill collection, affiliate and rewards programs and co-branded credit cards).

• Other third parties to whom you explicitly ask us to send your information (or about whom you are otherwise explicitly notified and consent to when using a specific service).

• Law enforcement or other governmental officials, in response to a verified request relating to a criminal investigation or alleged illegal activity. In such events, we will disclose information relevant to the investigation, such as name, city, state, postal code, telephone number, email address, User ID history, IP address, fraud complaints, and bidding and listing history.

• eBay VeRO Program participants under confidentiality agreement, as we in our sole discretion believe necessary or appropriate in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringement, piracy, or other unlawful activity. In such events, we will disclose name, street address, city, state, postal code, country, phone number, email address and company name.

• Other business entities, should we plan to merge with or be acquired by that business entity. (Should such a combination occur, we will require that the new combined entity follow this privacy policy with respect to your personal information. If your personal information will be used contrary to this policy, you will receive prior notice.)

(“E-Bay Privacy Policy,” 2011)

• Information You Give Us• You provide most such information when you search, buy, post, participate in a contest or questionnaire,

or communicate with customer service. For example, you provide information when you search for a product; make an order; provide information in Your Account (and you might have more than one, if you've used more than one e-mail address when shopping with us); communicate with us by phone, e-mail, or otherwise; complete a questionnaire or a contest entry form; compile Wish Lists or other gift registries; and provide and rate reviews. As a result of those actions, you might supply us with such information as your name, address, and telephone number; credit card information; names of people to whom purchases have been shipped, including address and telephone number; names of people (with addresses and telephone numbers) listed in 1-Click settings; content of reviews and e-mails to us; and financial information.

• Automatic Information• Examples of the information we collect and analyze include the Internet protocol (IP) address used to

connect your computer to the Internet; login; e-mail address; password; computer and connection information, such as browser type, version and timezone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system, and platform; purchase history, which we sometimes aggregate with similar information from other customers to create features such as Bestseller Lists; the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through, and from our Web site, including date and time; cookie number; products you viewed or searched for; and the telephone number used to call our customer service number. We may also use browser data such as cookies, Flash cookies (also known as Flash Local Shared Objects), or similar data on certain parts of our Website for fraud prevention and other purposes. During some visits we may use software tools such as JavaScript to measure and collect session information, including page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page. (“Amazon.ca Privacy Policy,” 2007)

&

• What About Cookies?

• Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser, to enable our systems to recognize your browser and to provide features such as 1-Click purchasing, personalized greetings, and storage of items in your Shopping Cart between visits.

• The "help" portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Additionally, you can disable or delete similar data used by browser add-ons, such as Flash cookies, by changing the add-on's settings or visiting the website of its manufacturer. Because cookies allow you to take advantage of some of Amazon.ca's essential features, we recommend you leave them turned on. For instance, if you block or otherwise reject our cookies, you will not be able to add items to your Shopping Cart, proceed to checkout, or use any Amazon.ca products and services that require you to sign in.

(“Amazon.ca Privacy Policy,” 2007)

My Opinion

• Since the Ebay and amazon.ca both have privacy policies you are able to see how they are similar.

• You are able to see that not only are they keeping your information but they will also share it with the government if needed.

• Also from experience I know that Amazon.ca will keep your credit card on file, privacy issue….. I think so. Someone could easily hack in and use my identity. Although you need your password to verify, those hackers can be sneaky

Facebook and friends lists• can’t tell you how many people are not aware of their friend lists. For

those not aware of what friend lists are, Facebook describes them as a feature which allows “you to create private groupings of friends based on your personal preferences. For example, you can create a Friend List for your friends that meet for weekly book club meetings. You can create Friend Lists for all of your organizational needs, allowing you to quickly view friends by type and send messages to your lists.”

• There are a few very important things to remember about friend lists:• You can add each friend to more than one friend group• Friend groups should be used like “tags” as used elsewhere around

the web• Friend Lists can have specific privacy policies applied to them

(“10 privacy settings every facebook users should know,” 2011)

Remove yourself from the search• How to Remove Yourself From Facebook Search Results

Now that you’ve decided that you would like to remove yourself from Facebook’s search results, here’s how to do it:

• Visit your search privacy settings page• Under “Search Visibility” select “Only Friends” (Remember, doing so will

remove you from Facebook search results, so make sure you want to be removed totally. Otherwise, you can select another group, such as “My Networks and Friends” which I believe is the default.)

• Click “Save Changes”• By default, Facebook makes your presence visible to the network you

are in. Frequently, people aren’t aware of their visibility, so this is one of the first settings that users wish to modify. By selecting “Customize” from the search visibility drop down you can make your settings even more granular.

(“10 privacy settings every facebook users should know,” 2011)

Facebook and Google

• Facebook gets A TON of traffic from displaying user profiles in search engines. Not all of your profile is displayed though. Currently the information displayed in the search profile is limited to: your profile picture, a list of your friends, a link to add you as a friend, a link to send you a message, and a list of up to approximately 20 fan pages that you are a member of.

• For some people, being displayed in the search engines is a great way to let people get in contact with you, especially if you don’t have an existing website. Facebook also tends to rank high in the search results, so if you want to be easy to find, making your search profile can be a great idea. Many people don’t want any of their information to be public though.

(“10 privacy settings every facebook users should know,” 2011)

Others seeing tagged photos of you

• This is the classic Facebook problem. You let loose for a few hours one night (or day) and photos (or videos) of the moment are suddenly posted for all to view, not just your close friends who shared the moment with you. The result can be devastating. Some have been fired from work after incriminating photos/videos were posted for the boss to see. For others, randomly tagged photos/videos have ended relationships.

• At the least, a tagged photo/video can result in personal embarrassment. So how do you prevent the infamous tagged photo or video from showing up in all of your friends news feeds? It’s pretty simple. First visit your profile privacy page and modify the setting next to “Photos Tagged of You”. Select the option which says “Customize…” and a box like the one pictured below will pop up.

• Select the option “Only Me” and then “None of My Networks” if you would like to keep all tagged photos private. If you’d like to make tagged photos visible to certain users you can choose to add them in the box under the “Some Friends” option. In the box that displays after you select “Some Friends” you can type either individual friends or friend lists.

(“10 privacy settings every facebook users should know,” 2011)

My Opinion

• I put those slides up as facebook changes there privacy settings so often, and you don’t know

• How many times have you been “tagged” in a picture, that you didn’t want anyone to see and couldn’t change it so just you could see it, now you know how

• As well as the search button, ever tried to find someone that you know has facebook but couldn’t search them, they probably removed themselves. A lot of teachers, and others who don’t want anyone to find them will do this

Twitter• Location Information: You may choose to note your location in your Tweets and

in your Twitter profile. If you turn on Tweeting with your location, we may also save exact coordinates to help improve our service. You can control your location information settings in your account settings.

• Log Data: Our servers automatically record information ("Log Data") created by your use of the Services. Log Data may include information such as your IP address, browser type, the referring domain, pages visited, and search terms. Other actions, such as interactions with advertisements, may also be included in Log Data.

• Your Consent: We may share or disclose your information with your consent, such as when you use a third party web client to access your Twitter account.

• Service Providers: We engage certain trusted third parties to perform functions and provide services to us. We may share your personal information with these third parties, but only to the extent necessary to perform these functions and provide such services, and only pursuant to obligations mirroring the protections of this privacy policy.

(“Twitter Privacy Policy”, 2010)

My Opinion

• Yet again, Twitter will provide information to third parties, safe, probably not.

• They also log your data such as your IP address, browser type, the referring domain, pages visited, and search terms

• I cant believe the things you never knew about these websites, all by not reading the privacy policy and just clicking accepting privacy policies to sign up quicker. May be a short way, but a long return when you get a virus!

References• Twitter Privacy. (2010). Retrieved April 4th,2011 from

http://twitter.com/privacy• 10 privacy settings every facebook user should know. (2011).

Retrieved April 4th, 2011 from http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-privacy-2009-02

• Ebay privacy policy. (2011). Retrieved April 4th, 2011 from: http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/privacy-policy.html

• Amazon Privacy Policy. (2007). Retrieved April 4th, 2011 from: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=footer_privacy?ie=UTF8&nodeId=918814#information

• All About cookies. (n.d.) Retrieved April 4th, 2011 from: http://www.allaboutcookies.org/

• How to protect your computer from hackers, spyware, and viruses. (2010). Retrieved April 4th 2011 from:

http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/

how-to-protect-your-computer-from-hackers-spyware-and-viruses/