privacy – Ubuntucat

Tweaking Privacy Settings in Ubuntu 13.04

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. By default, when you do searches in Ubuntu, you'll see online results (from Amazon, as of Ubuntu 13.04—in future versions they may include other online results), too. Some people don't like this. Fortunately, you can turn this behavior off. Search for Privacy. Select… Continue reading

Privacy on the Internet Still Doesn’t Exist

Two years ago, I posted Privacy on the internet doesn’t exist. Well, it still doesn’t. I’m not saying you should go out of your way to disseminate your personal information to the general public, nor am I saying that paying attention to privacy settings in various online services is an exercise in futility. What I… Continue reading Privacy on the Internet Still Doesn’t Exist

Anonymity on the internet

A recent discussion on the Ubuntu Forums (the link will work only if you are logged in) has got me thinking about the role of anonymity in online discussions. Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? Well, the answer, of course, is that it’s both good and bad. And I think I… Continue reading Anonymity on the internet

Privacy on the internet doesn’t exist

As a follow-up to my post of four years ago, “Gmail and Privacy,” I’d like to say something about some of the reactions to Google being asked to hand over YouTube user data to Viacom by an American judge. First of all, I don’t see that Google did anything wrong here. Viacom may have done… Continue reading Privacy on the internet doesn’t exist

Privacy on a reality TV show?

Last week, I got into TLC’s Jon and Kate Plus 8 about the Christian couple from Pennsylvania that has twins and sextuplets. I just found this amusing. From the “Jon & Kate Family Movie Night” episode, they’re hanging up new blinds and Kate says, “When I want privacy, I want to be able to pull… Continue reading Privacy on a reality TV show?

Gmail and Privacy

Some people might say I’m naive, but I trust Google. Could it soon turn into an “ugly” corporation? Yes. There are some indications it’s moving in that direction—for example, its introduction of banner ads, when they used to have just text-only ads. I won’t trust them forever, but I trust them now. There is a… Continue reading Gmail and Privacy