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 Tweaking Privacy Settings in Ubuntu 13.04

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

Fake Democracy at Facebook

You got that recent notification about the Facebook vote, right? Oh, no? You didn’t? But you got some notification that your friend commented on some other friend’s status? Or that someone added a stupid Facebook application? Oh, you haven’t heard about the Facebook vote at all? I’m not surprised. Facebook hasn’t really publicized it. I… Continue reading Fake Democracy at Facebook

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