Internet Privacy

[Frances_iom]

It's just as easy to use the HOSTS file on a Mac as it is a Windows machine.

Thanks - guess I was thinking more of iOS than OS X tho suspect most android phones also report back a lot.

[MrGongGong]

Surely its more than a little naive to think that ANYTHING one does on the internet is not in the public domain ?

[Mahlerei]

Installed Ghostery on my Mac and sobered by the number of things it's blocking.

[Pabmusic]

Installed Ghostery on my Mac and sobered by the number of things it's blocking.

Likewise.

[eighthobstruction]

This is a notice my conspiracy theory son has put at bottom of his Facebook page....:

>>>
**PRIVACY NOTICE:
Warning--any person and/or institution and/or Agent and/or Agency of any "governmental structure, agent, person, company or agency" including but not limited to the United States Federal Government also using or monitoring/using this website or any of its associated websites, you do NOT have my permission to utilize any of my profile information nor any of the content contained herein including, but not limited to my photos, and/ or the comments made about my photos or any other "picture" art posted on my profile. You are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from disclosing, copying, distributing, disseminating, or taking any other action against me with regard to this profile and the contents herein. The foregoing prohibitions also apply to your employee(s), agent(s), student(s) or any personnel under your direction or control. The contents of this profile are private and legally privileged and confidential information, and the violation of my personal privacy is punishable by law. U.C.C. 1-308- All rights reserved.

It is recommended that other members post a similar notice to this or you may copy and paste this one. Thank you.>>>>>

[MrGongGong]

This is a notice my conspiracy theory son has put at bottom of his Facebook page....:

>>>
**PRIVACY NOTICE:
Warning--any person and/or institution and/or Agent and/or Agency of any "governmental structure, agent, person, company or agency" including but not limited to the United States Federal Government also using or monitoring/using this website or any of its associated websites, you do NOT have my permission to utilize any of my profile information nor any of the content contained herein including, but not limited to my photos, and/ or the comments made about my photos or any other "picture" art posted on my profile. You are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from disclosing, copying, distributing, disseminating, or taking any other action against me with regard to this profile and the contents herein. The foregoing prohibitions also apply to your employee(s), agent(s), student(s) or any personnel under your direction or control. The contents of this profile are private and legally privileged and confidential information, and the violation of my personal privacy is punishable by law. U.C.C. 1-308- All rights reserved.

It is recommended that other members post a similar notice to this or you may copy and paste this one. Thank you.>>>>>

Though "joining" stalkerbook means that you DO give them total rights to everything (including coming round and going through your knicker drawer !)

[Pabmusic]

Though "joining" stalkerbook means that you DO give them total rights to everything (including coming round and going through your knicker drawer !)

Is this a rumor, or do you speak from experience?

[MrGongGong]

Is this a rumor, or do you speak from experience?

"For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (“IP content”), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (“IP License”). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it."

more here http://blog.exposedplanet.com/why-sh...s-bad-for-you/

for example , how many people change the "privacy and application settings" ???
a bit like the folk who's phones were "hacked" i.e they didn't bother to change the default password to access their voicemail (not that NI journalists shouldn't be prosecuted and their evil leader banned from operating in the UK .........................)

[eighthobstruction]

Must admit my Dan [son] knows a lot about knickers in all modes....

....I did once

[Pabmusic]

"For content that is covered by intellectual property rights...you specifically give us the following permission...etc

II believe you completely. I was more concerned about my knicker drawer.

[gurnemanz]

I registered on Facebook about two years ago at the suggestion of the music director of our Choral Soc of which I am Chairperson. She was sure it would be a good method of publicising our activities. Since then, I have been on it no more than half a dozen times. Every now and then I meet someone who expresses their surprise that I am 107 years old (I'm told I don't look a day over 98). I must have done a bit of dodgy data entry when I first enrolled but have decided not to correct it.

[MrGongGong]

Good for you gurn

There's nothing wrong with giving your rights away
as long as you are happy with it

personally i'd be flattered if I found that Tony Pappano had "stolen" some music I had written and listened to it in the Ferrari while driving round Italy (though there's a whole story to the truth of that !!!) but would be mighty miffed if someone was selling it ! (the music not the car !!)

assuming that there is NO privacy on the net is the best strategy IMV

[eighthobstruction]

If you type 'knickers into the Face Book search engine you get all sorts of ahem cough knickers....I'm just going to try Knockers as well....

[kernelbogey]

Surely its more than a little naive to think that ANYTHING one does on the internet is not in the public domain ?

On the one hand there's the deliberate trawling and storing by Google and Facebook (and no doubt others) of any- and everyone's use of the net, for their commercial purposes; on the other hand only those already in the public eye in some form are likely to be deliberately and individually hacked. Since I see myself somewhere in the middle I'm alert to how I protect myself as much as possible.

My difficulty, I believe, is not so much naivety as lack of technical expertise - and indeed interest - in IT per se. As with my car, whose maintenance I leave almost entirely to my garage, I want some help with this issue. So thanks to those who have posted here.

I'd be interested to know - if anyone cares to elaborate - on why Flash and Javascript are dangerous. (I thought they are needed to view video input.)

BW, kb
(running OSX 10.5.8 on a 2008 MacBook)

[Word]

Installed Ghostery on my Mac and sobered by the number of things it's blocking.

Just a quick point about that - if I remember correctly the default setting it is to warn about web bugs rather than actually block them. To enable blocking you have to go to the Ghostery Options page (via the 'Extensions' section of Safari Preferences) and select 'Enable bug blocking'.
(Then, when it shows the sources of bug scripts on a page, they'll have a line through them to highlight the fact that they have been blocked.)

Also, though it does a pretty good job at preventing some forms of tracking, it won't stop the more persistent offenders.
Another extension, JavaScript Blacklist, will help (though by default it comes with only a minimal list of sites from which to block the loading of JS), but installing a proxy like GlimmerBlocker would be your best bet.
The only downside, and one which would be common to (and even more of a problem with) manipulating your hosts file, is that if you are particularly aggressive with your blocking (e.g. blocking google.com, googleapis.com, etc.) you may end up restricting the functionality of some seemingly unrelated sites that use Google-hosted copies of common JavaScript libraries. That said, the default settings are fairly conservative and what you block is entirely up to you.

When it comes to iOS; GlimmerBlocker allows you to configure your Mac so that it acts as a proxy server for your iPhone or iPad, but I'd recommend the simpler though admittedly less comprehensive blocking available in the iCab Mobile browser (just remember to enable the Analytics/Statistics filters which are/were off by default).

p.s. One final recommendation for my favourite Safari extension; ClickToPlugin, which makes it trivial to control when things like Flash and Java run on a page.