AddictiveTips

COMPLETE URL: http://www.addictivetips.com/internet-tips/the-complete-guide-to-protecting-your-privacy-online/ - Site Jabber is often not capable of extracting the URL I intend to get to you, especially with redirects, so above is where you want to point-your-browser. (Let SJ know this needs fixing. Makes posts much tougher to create for you, and can confuse getting you to the right place. Just E-mail and say, 'Hey, fix this. Smile. Squeaky wheel gets best consumer attention.) Some excellent ideas and freeware to protect your security online. CAVEAT! When visiting a site like this (Gizmo), while their offerings are wonderful, and some of the most sought-after, quality-names specials can be found here, Gizmo is still about making money. Their sponsors often (you should know this by now) will place large flash banners saying "DOWNLOAD HERE" at the top of page, or creatively placed to TRICK (most accurate word I can use) you into clicking, downloading something having NOTHING TO DO with what you were interested in. Gizmo doesn't like this either, but it's what their advertisers INSIST on, and they can't refuse the significant monies the advertisers offer. SO YOU BE CAREFUL! Look closely for the word 'ADVERTISEMENT' above/around the download links. Make sense? At times the actual download links are simply that, regular font size buried in the middle of a paragraph saying, 'download widget-maker here' for the best, etc. Really sux, true. So all that just to REMIND you to heads-up. FROM GIZMO'S PAGE: It is also worth mentioning here that you might also want to check out how your contact list is saved by web services. For example, when you check contacts to be invited to LinkedIn via Windows Live Mail, there is a drop down box which provides the amount of time LinkedIn can access your contact list. The least amount of time is 1 day but that's not the option selected by default. The option selected by default is 1 year. As if one day of access to the contact list wasn't enough. The point is that you can no longer trust any web service, search engine, online extension and the likes when it comes to online privacy. One can easily avoid data theft, invasion of personal privacy and security by taking some small but important measures. In this post, we will provide you with a complete guide as to how you can protect your online privacy. As far as I am concerned, users should not be forced or tricked into providing personal information which they don't want to share. No service provider should have the right to show forceful prompts asking for personal data. Another threat to privacy comes from extensions which gather your personal information and even work in Incognito mode, which makes them acquire access to the most private data. It's getting freaky unsafe out there kids. BE CAREFUL. After-all-that, you will find some great stuff here. You can easily subscribe to Gizmo and get the newsletter in your mail-box. A quick glance at subject will tell you quickly - interest or delete. Love to hear some feedback/thoughts on offerings. Useful... or not really? Be candid. Have a fine week kids, Ron