Big Brother is Watching -- Do You Care? (Facebook)

[Buster's Uncle]

5 Techniques for Maintaining Web Confidentiality
Scientific American
Larry Greenemeier 14 hours ago
 

So many of the Web’s most popular services—e-mail and search as well as photo and video sharing—may be free, but that doesn’t mean they come without a cost. That price is information about the people using those services as well as their online behavior—intelligence that Facebook, Google, Microsoft and other Internet companies exchange for advertising revenue. The trade-off of privacy for free services is generally acceptable to most Web users, who are used to incessant advertising—and at times even benefit from personalized attempts to sell them products and services.

The darker side of bartering in personal data, however, is that Web users lose control over who has access to their information, which is often shared well beyond the scope of their original understanding. Google uses automated scanning to filter spam and deliver targeted advertising to its Gmail users, claiming they have “no expectation of privacy” when using its free e-mail service. Facebook, meanwhile, recently settled a $20-million class action settlement following a lawsuit over the social network’s lucrative "Sponsored Stories" program that shares users' "likes" of certain advertisers with friends without paying them or allowing them to opt out.

In addition to nuisance ads, unsolicited e-mails and unintended endorsements, this oversharing creates other, more serious threats to privacy, says Seth Schoen, senior staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Personalized ads could reveal to others a Web user’s sensitive or embarrassing medical condition, particularly if that user shares a computer with others or surfs the Web in a public place. “The better the ad personalization gets, the more significant those consequences could be,” Schoen adds.

Information collected via the Web could also be problematic for a person during legal proceedings. A lot of people don’t realize that subpoena power in civil cases is broader than it is in criminal cases, Schoen says. Internet service providers (ISPs) and other companies doing business on the Web can be forced to turn over most information they have about their users or customers as part of a lawsuit such as an employment dispute or divorce.

Another threat to privacy involves how well Web companies entrusted with their customers’ personal information secure that data from being lost or stolen and used to steal a person’s identity. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit that tracks data breaches, reports that nearly 1.8 million data records have been lost or stolen this year from businesses, government agencies and health care facilities. “The risk comes simply from the companies collecting and storing personal information, and it’s not a very unlikely or hypothetical concern,” Schoen says.

Despite this bleak outlook for privacy, there are tools available to Web users designed to protect personal information from prying eyes. None of these tools alone ensures complete privacy or protection from cyber snooping, but they do offer a way to trim the data trails that curtail one’s privacy.



Masking

E-mail, social networks and other online services often request contact and payment information when users sign up. There are no rules, however, that prevent users from disguising their actual e-mail addresses, phone numbers and credit card numbers as a privacy precaution. Abine, Inc., offers a Web browser plug-in for Firefox and Google Chrome called MaskMe that gives people the ability to create aliases for this type of personal information.

The free version of MaskMe creates an alternate e-mail address whenever a Web site asks for a user’s e-mail. E-mails from that site can be accessed via a MaskMe in-box or forwarded to a user’s regular e-mail account. The “premium” version of MaskMe—$5 per month—enables masked phone numbers, credit cards and access to the MaskMe iOS and Android apps, which let users view info about their Abine accounts from their mobile devices.

Abine’s other services include DoNotTrackMe and DeleteMe. The former is a plug-in that prevents Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome and Safari browsers from sharing user information with data-collection companies. DeleteMe is a subscription service that removes personal information from the largest people search databases—also known as “information brokers”—on the Web, including Spokeo.com, Intelius.com and WhitePages.com, says Andy Sudbury, Abine co-founder and chief technology officer.



Private browsing

Web browsers store the information about browsing sessions—including pages visited as well as documents and images downloaded—in temporary cache memory to speed up the Web browsing experience. These pieces of info, however, remain available for anyone else subsequently using that same computer. Most popular browsers—including Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera—now feature some type of “private” mode that prevents the browser from storing information about browsing sessions.

Schoen points to private browsing as a very useful tool but notes that it has very specific limitations. “The purpose of private browsing mode is to avoid leaving a history of one's browsing in the browser history on the computer you were using—to prevent other people who also use that computer from seeing what you were doing,” he says. Private browsing, however, has no effect on the data that's transmitted over the Internet. Even when a browser is in private mode, an ISP will still know when and where it customers went online as well as the sites they visited. Likewise, those sites will retain any information they obtained from users during those visits.



“Anonymizer”

More than a decade ago, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory initiated The Onion Routing project—now referred to simply as Tor—to develop software for preserving one’s privacy while using the Web. “Onion routing” refers to the practice of encasing data and its routing instructions in multiple layers of encryption, making it more difficult to trace a user’s Internet activity.

Tor, which the EFF funded for a few years before privacy-promoting nonprofit The Tor Project took over stewardship of the work in 2006, includes a browser that routes users’ Web surfing activity through a network of relays run by volunteers worldwide, a process that makes it difficult to pinpoint a particular user’s location. Tor Browser, which is actually a modified version of Firefox, essentially anonymizes the origin of Web traffic by encrypting communications inside the Tor network.

The Tor Project counts former National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as two of its most high-profile supporters. Still, Tor Browser’s design limits its speed and certain conveniences offered by less secure browsers. The use of different nodes in the Tor Network to promote anonymity, for example, can slow data transmissions. In addition, data is decrypted once it exits the Tor Network, leaving it vulnerable to eavesdroppers at that point.



Encryption

In a move to make greater use of HTTPS (or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) to protect communications over the Web, the EFF partnered with The Tor Project to create HTTPS Everywhere as a plug-in for Firefox and Chrome. HTTPS Everywhere automatically activates HTTPS encryption for all areas of a site that support this protocol. Some sites, including the New York Times, allow HTTPS for text but not images, which means someone might be able to determine which images a browser loads when visiting nytimes.com.

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) e-mail encryption software, meanwhile, prevents even a web-mail provider from reading its customers’ messages, although it requires users manually create, manage and exchange cryptography keys. For instant messaging, Off-the-Record Messaging (OTR) encrypts conversations to keep them confidential between parties, although not all IM providers support OTR.

Encryption tools are generally effective for keeping prying eyes from reading e-mails, instant messages and other content sent to and fro. One caveat is these tools do not prevent law enforcement, ISPs and others from determining who is communicating, when and from what location—information that may be as sensitive as the messages themselves.



Host-proof hosting

Data storage services from Amazon, Apple, Dropbox and others can house gigabytes of data in “the cloud” that users can access from a variety of devices, including PCs, tablets and smartphones. Unfortunately, existing privacy laws—in particular the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act—have not caught up with today’s electronic communications. That law considers information including e-mails “abandoned” and available to law enforcement if they are stored for more than 180 days on a service provider’s server.

So-called “host-proof” data storage services have emerged in recent years to provide an added layer of security to stored information. Apple iCloud and Dropbox, for example, encrypt customer data while it is uploaded and stored on  the companies’ servers. Host-proof providers such as SpiderOak and Wuala encrypt customer data on the customers’ computers before—as well as during and after—the data are uploaded to the cloud. The idea is that the host cannot read the data it stores, making it less liable to turn over data to law enforcement when they come calling (although it remains to be seen how this will work in practice).

http://news.yahoo.com/5-techniques-maintaining-confidentiality-103000964.html

[Valka]

I'll definitely check out those Firefox add-ons. I already use Ghostery, and wouldn't be without it.

Somebody's definitely interested in what I've been doing lately. Apparently some company that sells Victorian-themed knick-knacks took notice of my interest in steampunk, and poof! a catalogue appeared in my mail yesterday.

Some of it's quite interesting, but it's either too expensive, wouldn't ship to Canada, or it's... a bit trashy.

The black cats and ouija board jewelry are very cool, though.

[Buster's Uncle]

FaceBook makes me nervous.  One little sock account that I rarely use, and BOOM! FB rifled through my junk email account and figured out entirely too much about me.

[Geo]

Ah, Facebook. The thing that should never see my real name in its account vaults...

[Buster's Uncle]

I imagine they have mine - should have been more careful, but I used to believe that acting like a grownup online would suffice.  I have since learned better.

[Valka]

There's been an ongoing campaign at I Can Has Cheezburger? to get rid of the obnoxious "you'll have a much better chance of getting your lols on the front page if you share them on FB and get all your friends to vote for them there."

They took away the voting pages on ICHC itself, and there have been an insane number of lols on the front page that were made by people who aren't even registered on ICHC. So some of us have mounted a "members only" campaign.

I joined FB strictly because a few friends did, and I wanted to make sure there was some way to get in touch in case I lost their email addresses. Otherwise, I want that site to leave me alone.

[Buster's Uncle]

I really never got the appeal of FB in the first place - and that was before FB sherlocked me.  Step off, corporate Big Brother.

[JarlWolf]

I can proudly say I never have made an account on Myface or Spacebook and never will.

[Valka]

There's been an ongoing campaign at I Can Has Cheezburger? to get rid of the obnoxious "you'll have a much better chance of getting your lols on the front page if you share them on FB and get all your friends to vote for them there."

They took away the voting pages on ICHC itself, and there have been an insane number of lols on the front page that were made by people who aren't even registered on ICHC. So some of us have mounted a "members only" campaign.

I joined FB strictly because a few friends did, and I wanted to make sure there was some way to get in touch in case I lost their email addresses. Otherwise, I want that site to leave me alone.

This is one of the politer lols I saw at ICHC on the subject:

[Buster's Uncle]

FB  .

[Buster's Uncle]

[Buster's Uncle]

Dear 12-Year-Olds: Skip Facebook
LiveScience.com
Marshall Honorof, Tom's Guide  21 hours ago


     
It's come to our attention at Tom's Guide that a number of people in the Internet-connected world are currently 12 years old, meaning that sometime between tomorrow and 12 months from now, you'll be turning 13. Here's our advice for when you do: Steer clear of Facebook.

And yes, before you ask, this is going to be one of those "do as I say, not as I do" articles that tweens (rightly) hate. But look at it this way: we 13-and-older fogeys who make up the entire population of Squaresville, USA made our mistake long ago. Most of us couldn't quit Facebook even if we wanted to. It's not too late for you.



Facebook with benefits

Let's assume (perhaps incorrectly) that you haven't already faked your age and signed up, and that you are dutifully awaiting your 13th birthday, the age when Facebook allows you to join up, with saint-like patience and near-religious ardor. You can't wait to join Facebook, and for good reason.

Facebook is a way to keep in touch with all of your friends at once. Finally, your camp friends and your school friends and your friends from your old neighborhood will all be in one place! You can join groups, make comprehensive lists of your favorite books and movies, play social games and set up all sorts of rad events. You kids still say "rad," right?

On the other hand, I’m assuming you've read "Harry Potter" or seen "Star Wars" at some point, and you know that power has its price. Yes, Facebook is the most convenient and widespread social networking site on the Web. It didn't get that way by playing nice.

First off, to fill out a standard profile, Facebook will ask you to give your email address, your full name, your street address, your school, your birthday, your gender, your sexual orientation, what languages you speak, your religious beliefs, your political affiliation, your phone number and more.

You can leave almost any of this stuff out (and very few people share every last detail), but the less info you list, the harder you are to find. The harder you are to find, the smaller and less vibrant your network becomes. Facebook encourages you to share as much as possible. Make no mistake: Watching discussions deepen as your network grows is both fun and satisfying for you, the user.

However, Facebook can use every single piece of this information to invade your privacy. Forget about cybercriminals for a minute; Facebook security (while not impervious) will keep you fairly safe from them.

But did you ever wonder why Facebook is free? It's supported by ads. That's not necessarily a bad thing; lots of the Web is supported by ads. These ads are putting you, specifically, in their crosshairs.

Here's an experiment: Ask two friends or family members to log into Facebook. If you look to the right, you'll see the ads they get. Are you curious why Mom's and Dad's ads are so different, or why your older sibling gets different ads than your uncle? It's because Facebook sells your information to advertisers and allows them to make "targeted ads."



A word on ads

Back in the days when cavemen roamed the earth and connected to the Internet by striking rocks together near a dial-up modem, online ads were pretty simple. A company that wanted to advertise a product would approach a site, pay them some money and blast users with ads for everything from video games to household cleaning supplies.

This didn't work that well for obvious reasons. No two people need exactly the same products. A little old lady is not going to be too interested in video games, and teenagers probably don't need to buy many cleaning products. After a while, advertisers wised up and began crafting ads specifically for certain audiences.

When you give Facebook your information, the company then sells much of that information to advertisers so that they can hawk relevant services in your general direction. It's not always accurate (as I write this, Facebook is advertising hair-regrowth products to me; my current hairdo could choke a walrus). But it's better than targeting everyone and hoping against hope that someone cares.

Let's say you fill out your current city as New York. You'll get ads for local concerts and restaurants. If you list your religion as Christian, you will get ads all about local ministries and missionary opportunities. Did you put "Lord of the Rings" as one of your favorite books? Get ready for a deluge of self-published fantasy eBooks clogging up your ad stream.



A lifetime of information

"So Facebook wants to show me targeted ads," you might think. "Big deal. Maybe I'll even find something useful." Maybe you will. But keep in mind, once advertisers have your information, they won't just use it for Facebook ads. Advertisers, hundreds of them, will keep your information close to the chest and use it every time your name comes up.

No matter where you go online, you'll find ads directed toward you as long as you stay logged into Facebook account (most people never log out, and advertisers can track you to other sites). The more information you provide, the more specific they will be. People you've never met will know more than your closest friends about where you've lived, what you like to watch and how to get in touch with you.

Once you're on Facebook, there's no way to recall your information, either. Even if you delete your account, the advertisers still have access to all of your pertinent details, and you'll only pry those out of their cold, dead hands.

This isn't to say that you shouldn't get involved in social media — just the opposite, in fact. Speaking as someone who's been there since the early days of Facebook, it's actually kind of lame. Twitter is better for sharing your thoughts. Tumblr is better for posting pictures, videos and animated GIFs. Gchat is better for sending private messages (so is Snapchat, which is also fun to use).

Look, guys and gals, I've been there. Peer pressure is really, really tough when you're 12, and it's only going to get worse once you hit high school. Stay strong and avoid Facebook, though, and you'll reap a lifetime of rewards.

Besides, your parents are on Facebook. That should tell you about how cool it is.

http://news.yahoo.com/dear-12-olds-skip-facebook-195717792.html

[Geo]

ur parents are watchin'u. 

[ariete]

i signed up on facebook about 2 years ago, at the insistence of my cousin who lives in rome, so it could a way to talkin free. then i added real friends and too many peoples i know request my ''friend'' as snowball effect. i've never used much and i've always seen as a system of personal identity control. it's true, we must be caution when we enter in certain machinations. it's sure they've found a way to control people who self-report their habits, experiences, things they like, political vision (jarl doesn't have a spacebook account because putin if know him would shoot him on red square as an enemy of the people  )
i rest discreet but i don't hide me, i'm here if you want to come and get me   

[ariete]

the villagers here can be more angry