Protect Your Privacy When Using the Internet

1. Limit the Personal Information You Give Out

Once you post personal information on the web, you lose control over how that information is used. Changes to the “context” in which that data is used can harm you. A classic example is the information students enter into social web sites like MySpace or Facebook for their friends’ amusement, only to find it resurfacing later to harm their employment opportunities or their careers.Both sites offer privacy controls that easily allow individuals to avoid such consequences but most users don’t apply them.

People unknowingly assume risk they can not measure at the time they assume it. The selling of personal data is a largely-unregulated business in the United States. It’s a multibillion dollar industry called information brokering. People who give out their personal data expose themselves to manipulation or harm. Even the U.S. government is researching the harvesting of personal data from social networking sites for public surveillance. And why not? People voluntarily post the information. Fans of social networking will consider these cautions anachronistic.

Please read how people expose themselves to manipulation or harm by posting personal data, found in authoritative books such as The Digital Person , The Soft Cage, or The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor and Privacy on the Internet. We need legislation to assure minimal privacy rights for social network users, much the way we apply consumerprotection legislation to the credit card oligopoly. Meanwhile, protect yourself by educating yourself.

1. Don’t Let Web Sites Track You

Cookies are small files that web sites store on your computer’s disk. They allow web sites to store information about your interaction with them. For example, they might store the data required for you to purchase items across the several web pages this involves. However, cookies – originally called tracking cookies – can also be used to track your movement across the web.

Depending on the software using them, this data could be used to create a detailed record of your behavior as you surf. The resulting profile might be used for innocuous purposes, such as targeted marketing, or for malicious reasons, like spying. Most browsers accept cookies by default. To retain your privacy, set the browser not to accept any cookies other than exceptions you specify. Then only web sites you approve can set cookies on your computer. A few web sites won’t let you interact with them unless you accept their cookies — but most will. You can also set most browsers to automatically delete all cookies when you exit. This allows web sites to set the cookies required for transactions like purchasing through the web but prevents tracking you across sessions.

To manage cookie settings in your browser, access these panels 

To turn cookies on or off
Internet Explorer Tools | Internet Options | Privacy | Advanced
Firefox (version 2 on) Tools | Options | Privacy | Cookies
Opera Tools | Quick Preferences | Enable Cookies
K-Meleon Tools | Privacy | Block Cookies
SeaMonkey Edit | Preferences | Privacy & Security | Cookies
To allow specific web sites to set cookies –
Internet Explorer Tools | Internet Options | Privacy | Edit
Firefox Tools | Options | Privacy | Cookies | Exceptions
Opera Tools | Preferences | Advanced | Cookies | Manage cookies
K-Meleon Edit | Preferences | Privacy
SeaMonkey Tools | Cookie Manager
To “clear” (erase) all cookies currently on your computer for the specified browser –
Internet Explorer Tools | Internet Options | General | Delete Cookies
Firefox Tools | Clear Private Data
Opera Tools | Preferences | Advanced | Cookies
K-Meleon Tools | Privacy | Clear Cookies
SeaMonkey Tools | Cookie Manager | Manage Stored Cookies | Remove All Cookies
To automatically clear all cookies whenever you exit the browser –
Internet Explorer Not available
Firefox Tools | Options | Privacy | Cookies | Settings…
Opera Tools | Preferences | Advanced | Cookies
K-Meleon Tools | Privacy | Settings…
SeaMonkey Not available

Source: How to Secure Windows and Your Privacy with Free Software, Howard Fosdick

Danger on the Internet

Robbie’s Blog – You know , When you are connect to the Internet, you are potentially communicating with any of others people who are also on the Internet. Suddenly, your little spinning hard drive is really fair game. Some people variously called hackers, whackers, crackers . Sometimes, they just snoop and delete files. Sometimes they deposit viruses, worms, logic bombs, or other trouble.

As we know. Many businesses and private individuals do not report virus or hacker attacks, for the same reason that physical assaults often go unreported. People are embarrassed, and they don’t want to make their vulnerability public knowledge. There are some tricks which are effectively help you guys protecting your system from intrusion right now.

I Know Where You Live

Another feature of a high-speed connection is that you never have to dial into the Internet. Your high-speed connection is always on, like TV. But here’s the rub: with an always-on connection, your virtual door is always open to the big, bad outside world. Broadband connections give you a permanent Internet (IP) address. The Internet address to your computer never changes. Stop and think of the implications :To a hacker, it’s the equivalent of I know where you live!.

When you use the old slow, modem dial-up Internet connection, a different IP address is dynamically assigned each time you dial in. But with the new high-speed connections, you get a stable, lasting IP address, just like your permanent phone number or house address. Chapter 7 goes into detail about the dangers you face from these new connections, but be aware that your personal exposure to hackers becomes considerably greater when you open your computer to the Internet world with an unchanging IP address that’s always “on.”

Understanding Windows Internet Security

When the various versions of Windows are installed, they don’t offer, by default, the greatest protection against Internet-based hackers. Windows is designed to permit various kinds of networking—connecting different computers together either locally (LAN, local area networking) or over long distance (WAN, wide area networking). It’s obviously a trade-off between sharing and protecting: You want to be able to share files and other resources, such as printers, with your friends or co-workers. On the other hand, you don’t want to share things with strangers, especially hackers. Later chapters go into more detail on some of these topics, but it’s good to get an overall view of the inherent problem.

The Best Solutions to Hacker Probing

If you get disturbing results from the Shields Up! tests, you can read the various pages in Steve Gibson’s site that show you how to block probes, turn off ports, and otherwise solve problems. Another approach is to install the free, powerful, and excellent utility called Zone Alarm. This personal firewall will cloak your computer in a stealth shield— your system will appear less substantial than a ghost’s smile. If you want to get protected right now, turn to the instructions in the section titled “Set up a Zone Alarm” It’s easy, sturdy, and fast. And—unless you’re a business, government, or educational institution—it’s free.

SOURCE: Richard Mansfield “ HACKER ATTACK “