Yesterday I received an e-mail from Google about the changes to their privacy policy. On the face of it, it seems reasonable that they would like to consolidate all their policies into one. The downside to this is that they also plan on sharing that information across their products which gives them a better picture of all your Internet activities. The question the, is what will they do with this information.

Having stated the above, some sites are very clear on their privacy policies.  For example, look at the Trollbeads privacy policy.  They state that they do not give out your information.  Given that this is a jewelry site, they would gain very little in giving it out.  The site’s goal is to sell jewelry.

Google on the other hand is interested in your information.  They make money based on it.

If you are concerned about privacy, there are two simple steps you can take to obscure the information that any website or search engine sees.

1. Use multiple user names or ID’s when you access a site.  This spreads your data across accounts which breaks any direct linkage to you.
2. Use an anonymous proxy that changes your IP address so that your accounts are not linked to your IP address.  Even better would be to use a shared proxy because many people will be using the same IP addresses thus rendering the information collected by the website useless.

As the world of information technology says goodbye to 2011, it also welcomes the new year of 2012. There was big news in IT within the last year, and there are high hopes that the coming year will yield even bigger news. There are technological changes that happen every day, and analysts expect some of these to happen sooner or later. To them, the next major events and developments in IT will be driven by these three: big data & analytics, security and cloud computing.

There is an expectation that the role of social media in big data and analytics will grow and broaden. Given that there will be new data sources, more organizations will use these in order to generate their transformations. After all of this has been done, there will be more considerable benefits gotten out of social networking. The growth in the number of organizations using the social media command center in 2011 was remarkable. The number is expected to grow even more in the coming year. The familiar use of marketing services agencies is slowly replaced by the more advanced, and more effective use of social media.

Is there a new computer malware that was released in time for Christmas? Yes, and as always, this new malware attack comes in a disguise; this time as a license key. There are spam emails that pretend to come from Adobe, and the license key is supposed to be for Adobe InDesign. This desktop publishing software is one of Adobe’s most useful products at present.

The emails sent bear the subject InDesign CS4 License Key, and looks very convincing. It is not easy for users to suspect that the emails are spam. It uses very subtle encouragement for them to explore what is new about InDesign and how its features were enhanced. The email bears an attachment that supposedly contains tips, tutorials, and eSeminars.

It was noted that there were different versions of emails; each one being slightly different from the other. The emails also used different reference numbers in the subject line. Some attachments bear the filename “AdobeSystems-Software_Critical Update Dec_2011-[random].zip”; others have the filename “License_key_ID[random number].zip”.

Hackers know that users are concerned about their security so they use subtle threats in their emails. To make sure that users open the attachment, they “promise” such things as advanced features. Furthermore, there is insinuation that work productivity would not be enhanced unless users open the file.

Users who do not have sufficient knowledge about how malwares are spammed out are likely to open the attachment. Not realizing that it contains malicious software, they will install it and so, their Windows computers are infected with it. Sophos said that its antivirus software detects the malware as the Troj/Bedo-MY Trojan horse. It also reminded users that Adobe would not send emails to people and attach its updates in them. Users have to always remember that Adobe only uses its own website where users can visit for legitimate updates.

Maliban sa mga pekeng e-cards, meron pang ibang uri ng phishing scam sa internet. Makatutulong ng malaki kung ikaw ay may kaalaman sa mga ito. Kung sakali mang “makasalubong” mo ang ganitong mga estilo, alam mo na ang iyong gagawin. Sa ganoon, mananatili kang ligtas sa ibat-ibang paraan ng panloloko.

Kung ikaw ay naghahanap ng trabaho gamit ang mga online ads, umiwas sa mga nanghihingi ng iyong mga personal na impormasyon. Marami sa mga cyber criminals ang nagtatago sa likod nga mga legal na job sites para lamang magmukhang tunay din sila. Ang iba sa kanila ay gumagamit pa ng mga sikat na logo o ng mga salitang nakapanghihikayat nang sa ganoo’y makuha ang iyong atensyon. Malalaman mo na lang na peke pala ang mga links na kanilang ginagamit. Kapag pinindot mo ang mga ito, dadalhin ka lamang sa website ng isang kompanyang animo’y totoo, subalit wala palang ganoon.

Kung hindi manghihingi ng iyong personal na impormasyon, meron namang pagbabayarin ka kapalit ng isang serbisyo. Marami nang naging biktima ng ganitong estilo at sa katunayan, dumarami pa ang naloloko. Pagkatapos magbayad, saka palang nila malalamang wala naman palang ganoong klaseng serbisyo. Mahirap pa naman silang mahuli dahil biglang “nagsasara” ang kanilang kompanya at hindi mo na sila mahahagilap.

Law makers have submitted to the appropriate committee a Congressional bill entitled “The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011”. Concerns have been raised by privacy advocates who said that so far, this would be the greatest threat yet to civil liberties. According to them, many internet users believe that this legislation is necessary and relevant to address child pornography. Such line of thinking is expected because every person in their right mind would always detest child pornography.

But why are these privacy advocates reacting negatively on the proposed law? The reason is that such legislation would turn each person who uses the internet into a victim. They argue that this law, if passed, would oblige all internet service providers, or ISPs, to track all on line activities of every user and save the information for 18 months. As an additional requirement, ISPs are supposed to store this data together with the user’s name, home address, bank account and credit card numbers, and their assigned IP address.

An argument raised says that tracking all of the user’s internet activities is not the solution to the problem on internet child pornography. Compared to the millions of internet users, there are only very few child pornographers who are hiding online. So why place everyone under “surveillance” where all internet users would become suspects of a crime that most of them would not even think about? Its final effect would be detrimental to freedom of speech and threatening to the online privacy of every American.

Today’s parents have to always keep themselves one step ahead of their kids when it comes to technology in order to make sure that their children stay safe and secure in their online dealings. In school, many children are using phones and other web enabled devices in order to cheat during tests. Teachers are finding it difficult to stop this combined effort among children to get around school rules and regulations. The more tech savvy kids teach others how to bypass the filters on school computers. If teachers are not as up to date with technology as their students, this behavior would remain unnoticed and unchecked.

The same is true with parents who care less about being involved with their children’s online activities. Children nowadays own gadgets that enable them to get connected online at anytime, even in their bedrooms. If kids are just left on their own, these tech gadgets could lead them to become victims of cyber bullying, cyber sex, identity theft, and the likes. It is best if parents, especially mothers, have a thorough understanding of what kind of technology their kids bring into the home.

When a child asks for a new device, game, or phone, parents should get some information from him or her. Before finally giving in to their child’s request, they need to ask some questions. They can start by asking their child about what the device can do. In doing so, they can get an idea about the device and have a “feel” for it. From here, they can decide whether they would be comfortable letting their child have it. It would help a lot if parents can do their own research on the device.

The development of internet technology has helped businesses a lot. Business executives have widely used the internet in their companies. They now have more options available to them when it comes to communicating with clients and, they can complete their financial transactions anytime and anywhere. They can do online banking so they no longer have to make frequent trips to the bank. They can choose to use teleconferencing so now, there are less face-to-face meetings.

The earlier technology versions of online transactions were mostly done using desktop computers. Later, laptops and notebooks became more accessible and transactions were made even easier. Companies can easily keep track of their financial records from almost everywhere. Today, the use of smart phones is slowly becoming more popular among businessmen. In the past, these gadgets were largely used in social networking, more particularly Facebook and Twitter.

A new survey showed that more and more people are using their smart phones to transmit personal and financial information. The purposes of uploading these pieces of information are mostly for online banking, shopping or social networking. Among users, about 17% use their smart phones for money matters. This fact has attracted the interest of online criminals to take advantage of making money at the expense of companies.

Critics said that doing online transactions with the use of a mobile device is both fun and time saving. Clearly, criminals are also on their toes, ready for every chance to see how they can benefit out of the situation. That is why businessmen should not be overly confident, but should remain cautious. There is a new technique used by online criminals that is concealed under the guise of “the good stuff”.

The ongoing increase in the demand for smart phones and mobile and web applications has given online criminals the “go” signal. They have seen the benefits of using malicious software (or malware) in order to get into users’ accounts. Hiding behind online application stores, these criminals would lure smart phone users to download rouge apps. Without noticing it, the user also downloads a program that would allow the swindler to take control of his phone. With the rouge apps, criminals would eventually gain access to all personal and payment data of the phone owner.

Smart phone users have to take full control when deciding to use their device for accessing the web. Furthermore, they should be careful about applications they are going to download. They should learn lessons from those previous victims who suffered unauthorized charges against their accounts. Some were made to pay for premium calls that they did not make. As smart phone users, you are expected to be smarter than the online criminals, right?

A majority of the world’s population today is connected to the internet for many different purposes. There are those who find that social networking can be an effective tool for individuals, organizations, schools, institutions, businesses, governments, etc. Along with this are the billions of devices that are interconnected via an array of wired and wireless networks. These devices come in a wide range of sizes, including those that are small, hand held gadgets to bigger devices that are powerful enough to get connected to the whole world. It is much easier now to communicate with anybody, anywhere in the cyber world.

Behind the scenes of the beneficial effects of internet technology are those unscrupulous criminals who use that same technology to carry out their own agenda. There is a very high risk of cyber attacks, coming in different forms. There is espionage, malware, denial-of-service, cyber war, and terrorism that lurk behind the interconnected systems. This is one concern that needs to be addressed not only by individual networks, but by the cooperative effort of all.

Network protection is becoming more and more important, and researchers in Germany have proposed a new approach to it. They believe that the risk of cyber attack could be reduced by rewarding those organizations that support their own network security. They have observed that those organizations who have implemented this strategy have greatly reduced the spread of malware and other problems. Today, communications that are internet and computer-based are, for the most part, done anonymously. This results in systems becoming ever more vulnerable to cyber attacks and harassment.

Many areas of human society have been benefited by DNA technology. In crime investigation, the use of DNA has helped the police for a number of years. From the unheard of, to notorious cases, the use of DNA to identify criminals has made officers’ work less difficult. There is a current privacy concern involving the collection of DNA profiles. The police aired their privacy concerns about the move by officials to keep a database of the officers’ own DNA.

To rule out speculation that a police officer committed a complicated crime, police officials have ordered the DNA testing of law enforcement personnel. This unpopular order was issued after the deaths of eight women in Louisiana in 2009. These were cases of a serial killer that showed a high degree of “workmanship” in committing the murders. Rumors spread that a police officer was involved in the killings. Consequently, all officers in Louisiana agreed to undergo testing. The final outcome showed that the killer was not among them.

Some officers feel that this DNA collection is not something they should give much attention to. They say that having a DNA file of police officers is important in conducting crime scene investigations because it would make it easier for them to recognize unknown genetic materials found at crime scenes.

Users want their web browser to provide faster speed and not let them wait very long for pages to load. There is a lot of information that must be accessed quickly, and that is why innovations and improvements in web browsing technology are always being done. Almost every day, new products are placed on the market, promising better online experiences and improved features. Amazon will release its newest tablet, Kindle Fire, on November 15, 2011. They anticipate that this will be the closest rival of the iPad.

Equipped with Silk as its browser, the product is a full-color, 8GB, 7-inch multi-touch tablet. Among its new features are faster surfing speeds and increased battery life, which are probably its major advantages. Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud or EC2 will be used to route all web connections from the Kindle Fire to the web page. This process is relatively new compared with what is now available on the market. From the user’s end, “everything” between him and the internet passes through Amazon’s EC2.

Privacy concerns arose when people came to know that their privacy will again be exposed to risks. In one of his articles, a blogger wrote that all of the user’s web surfing habits will pass through Amazon’s EC2. He added that there is no doubt Amazon will have the opportunity to follow all of the user’s online activities. Amazon, in its Terms and Conditions for using Silk, declared that URLs and certain identifiers will stay in its server for 30 days.