Home

The Wild, Wild Web: Wrestling Online Privacy

February 7, 2012

ppjg INTERNET , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

The Frugaldad comes though again with an eye popping chart on just how vulnerable we have become on the web.

Last week we debuted an infographic on the SOPA blackout, showing how the internet has become a powerful tool for activism. But the spread of social media also has its risks. Those same sites that we use to connect to family, friends and our community can also compromise sensitive information. According to Carnegie Mellon researchers, information listed on social media may be enough to guess a social security number, the key to identity theft. And with mobile banking apps, more and more people are logging sensitive information from their smart phones. Add confusing Terms of Service agreements into the mix (they take an average of 10 minutes each to read!), and it’s easy to see why online privacy can feel mystifying.

The following infographic helps explain some of the biggest issues in web safety and gives tips on how to keep yourself protected, from passwords to privacy policies. With a few steps, you can be confident that you control what you share online. Click here to view graphic! More

Google: Enough with the surveillance

January 30, 2012

ppjg Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , , , 8 Comments

Marti Oakley

Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved

_________________________________________________________

Google has announced that as of March 1, 2012, they will have full integration of more than 60 Apps that cover all aspects of Google on the net. Marketing their email service as being more “intuitive” might give some of us the warm fuzzies but too many of us know that intuitive is simply another of those handy-dandy word swaps used to manipulate your thinking about an issue or item. “Intuitive” simply means that Google is surreptitiously scanning and recording your mail which turns out to be “surveillance” and not intuition.

To participate in a poll asking if you will cancel your google accounts conducted by the Washington Post go HERE!

Google is not the only internet service that is using or moving to these applications, but they are by far the most malignant. To deactivate any gmail accounts go HERE!

As it is, we do not use Google search or homepage. We will be shutting down all gmail accounts by the middle of February, 2012.

The intuitiveness that gmail refers to is the scanning of your incoming and outgoing communications to determine what your interests are, where you might be going, where you might be located, what your schedule might be and who all you are communicating with. This information is not only used to direct advertising to you whether you want it or not, (and who does?) but also is recorded and handed over to government spy agencies. Political interests and beliefs, religious interests, social groups you belong to, all of your contacts and of course all those “friends” on Facebook are handed over right along with your personal communications. More

Scroogle scraper much better than using Google

November 7, 2008

ppjg Articles , , , , , Leave a comment

We all know Google is constantly data mining and selling information it gathers about online users to any one and everyone.  You can’t use Google and not expect to be inundated by adware, spyware and all sorts of uninvited and invisible guests while online with Google as your search engine.  Switching to stacked search engines that pull from various other sources will provide you no relief.  Here’s something you can do to seriously reduce online intrusions into your web browsing. 

Enter    http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm   into your search…..then make this your home page.

The browsing and searching is far faster as this engine is not bogged down with hidden adware, spyware or data mining applications. 

no cookies   |   no search-term records   |   access log deleted within 48 hours

We highly recommend using scroogle for all your internet searches.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Google now wants to access all of your medical records and store the info on line in a so-called vault.  I guess it isn’t enough that they scan all your email before you get it, collect personal financial information whenever they can and sell every piece of info about you, where you went on line, who you talked to, what you said, what you may have written and were the most compliant in handing over mined personal information to the government, illegally violating the privacy of millions of people. 

We recommend dumping all gmail and google accounts as they are not secure. 

About Facebook, CAP, and violation of Canadian privacy laws

November 3, 2008

ppjg Uncategorized , , , , , , , Leave a comment

About Facebook, CAP, and violation of Canadian privacy laws

 

This note was part of an email from the Canadian Action Party, in response to a question posed to them.  Americans should take note of this also.  As we have advised you in the past, google, gmail, facebook, myspace and other sites of this nature, routinely data mine all of your info and sell it to any of the 15 spy agencies working for the federal government, including Homeland Security.  We thought you might find this email interesting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The commissioner has ruled amongst other things that facebook has violated our Canadian laws. You should be able to google that judgement.

 

The Patriot Act gives the US Government access to any data stored on servers in the US if they so desire. There is no requirement to reveal to individuals that their data has been accessed. When the Government of BC decided to out source the medical records of British Colombians to a US firm there was a brief bruhaha  which quickly was relegated to the back pages. Reality is, if you are HIV + or have Hep C there is absolutely no guarantee that the US can not access your records and use them against you.

 

In fact the servers don’t have to be in the US, if the company operating them is US owned they must divulge info on request, again without even reporting the access/breach.

 

In Canada if the security of your private info is breached the company or organization that is breached must divulge. I have been advised by both CIBC Visa and Credential Direct (Brokers) when my private info was breached. They provided syrupy “we’re sorry” letters.

 

IT trade journals routinely report the risks to Canadians.

 

If you wish specific examples and have no luck with the Privacy Commissioner’s site let me know and I will email examples. I routinely hand the references out to my students advising them that they should be fully aware of the risks of using facebook, myspace, and especially gmail and google applications.

For information on the Canadian Action Party (CAP):

Constance Fogal   conniefogal@telus.net

 

%d bloggers like this: