For Facebook users concerned about your privacy or wanting to leave the site for one reason or many others, the site does not make the process of removing your account intuitive (by design). Unlike a dead email account (which is private), leaving your Facebook account disabled or inactive still leaves your information out in the open. So for instructions on how...

Several years ago I remember the transition from analog to digital cell phones. For those that remember those old beasty analog sets, they were commonly known as "bag phones" because they were literally in a black vinyl bag (or ritzy leather if you had the money). Owners of these bag phones would typically place them below a car’s center console...

If there’s one thing that internet has taught us, it’s that privacy issues have always been a hot-button topic. Whether it’s social media, online shopping, email or even searching the internet, privacy matters. Why does it matter? The answer is protection. Protection from identity theft (which almost always leads to having money stolen from...

If keeping your browsing history secret is important to you, then you have to be adamant about clearing out the applicable data when you are done browsing. Alternately, you can have this automated for you by using IE Privacy Keeper. IE Privacy Keeper automatically cleans up the browser history once you are done surfing the net. The program will correctly clean...

A topic that’s remained hot ever since people started sending emails is the question of who owns what. Some questions about content ownership can be definitively answers while others are still unanswerable. Here’s some of the more hotter questions and their answers. Q: If my mail is stored on a third-party server (i.e. the internet), do I still own...

I’ve mentioned this before but it bears mentioning again: Google Street Views freaks a lot of people out.  And I mean a lot of people. This time it’s stirred up privacy concerns in Baltimore where some are getting a bit perturbed at the fact that no matter how much effort you put into your personal privacy on the internet, your house is still...

I learned about Google Latitude the day it was introduced but didn’t see it as particularly a news-worthy item primarily because other companies have already done this before, that being to "see where your friends are in real time". What is news-worthy is that privacy advocates have already stated (yelled would actually be more appropriate) that...

Firefox users who are looking to either disguise or change the title of their tabs will want to take a look at the add-on, Page Title Eraser. From the description: The Page Title Eraser adds menu item to the page context menu and “Tools” menu items. “Right-click” menu includes a “Hide title” menu item now. Using this item you...

As you may or may not know, Google has its own web browser and it’s called Chrome. When first released it was done so in beta form, but now it’s been at version 1 (out of beta) for a little while now, so I figured I’d give it another shot. This version of Chrome is 1.0.154.36 (see screen shot below). I am running it on Windows XP Professional...

Very recently, Yahoo! announced it would limit some (keyword there) of its data retention to a sparse (and unheard of) 90 days. Privacy advocates have been screaming loudly for a very long time that web companies – particularly search engines – hold on to data that can personally identify an individual for far too long. The fact Yahoo has stepped up...

Sometimes you may sign up for some type of service on the internet (instant messaging, social networking, etc.) that creates a public profile. And maybe later on you forgot to delete it. This could work against you later on especially if you have posted things in the past you forgot about. See video below for more...

A rather unique idea I ran across the other day is a site which allows you to send a one time ‘self destructing’ message. Using Privnote, you simply create a message you want to send and it generates a link for you. You then email this link to whomever you would like to read the message. After they have read the message (by clicking the link), the...

Although I know this is being echoed all over the internet I couldn’t resist writing about this one. The upcoming release of Internet Explorer 8 (now in Beta 2) has a privacy feature that the internet populous instantly dubbed “porn mode”. This feature is called InPrivate and what it does is that at the end of each session the browser will completely wipe...

We live in a very inter-connected world today, a world where more and more of our lives take place on the Internet. As a result, pieces of our lives, or at least breadcrumbs of where we’ve been and what we’ve been up to, are left on servers across the Internet. And to illustrate that point, let me relay a quick story from Gnomedex.Danny Sullivan,...