Inspirational Passage of the Day
Companies often also use cookie data from your browser. They use it to make suggestions to you on other products you might like based on what you have bought. They also use it to save your online shopping cart. Provide you with recently viewed content. Save form data and continue where you left off. However with all these great things that come from using cookies they can also potentially be a security threat to your privacy and your system. Cookies are plain text files there for cookies them selves can not contain viruses or spread, but they can double as spyware where malicious people can track and use the information stored in your cookies such as which sites you look at but also even potentially your saved passwords. Companies also gather and even sell your data to other companies for marketing purposes. (Shapiro) However privacy does not require abstinence or totally just living off the grid. It requires security. (Garfinkel) That is why it is always a good practice to clear your cookies and cache data in your web browser.
With so many people trying to invade your privacy and steal your data you have to learn to protect yourself. Clearing cookies is one good practice another good tip is to have updated anti virus and malware program. This will protect you from most spyware also the cookies that act like spyware. "Europeans are more sensitive to the secret collection of personal information, because the know the dangers of miss used information. For this reason the European Union has taken measures to help prevent damage before it's done. (McGregor & Caddy, 22) Other good steps to take is to be careful on what you post online. When you post things online remember if those are things you would want your employer to see. You also need to adjust your privacy settings on your Facebook account so that only your friends can see your information and things you post on Facebook. One other good practice is to shred all documents with any personal or financial information pertaining to you. That information could be used to access your online banking and open new lines of credit cards online. Always check the URL bar to be sure it displays a secure connection https:// which is an ssl secure connection. Always delete emails from advertising requesting your information as this can be a type of data mining or phishing. Always initiate the browser when going to your online financial institution. Never open links requesting you to confirm your banking identity with out checking to be sure the link is correct. Always change your passwords as often as you can.
Brightkite gives you fine-grained control over your privacy. You choose which of your activities other users get to see, and at which accuracy.
Whenever you are using Brightkite, you are in one of two privacy modes (public or private), which determines how your actions will be visible to other users.
Public
In public mode, anybody can see your checkins and posts, at full accuracy. This mode is great when you are out and about, and want to meet new people.
Private
When you're in private mode, only certain people can see your activities, and you can choose to restrict the accuracy that they see them at. We give you fine-grained control over who sees what in your privacy settings, but by default it works like this:
strangers see your checkins at the city-level, and don't see your posts.
friends see your checkins and posts at the city-level
trusted friends see your checkins and posts at full accuracy
You can easily switch between public and private modes through the website or your mobile device.