The Ad Business 'Will Not Honor' Microsoft's 'Do Not Track' Plan For IE10, Exec Says

Apache fires at Microsoft over IE10's DNT privacy settings Apache issued a web server patch named, 'Apache does not tolerate deliberate abuse of open standards.' This will override a web server's configuration file so that it ignores Internet Explorer 10's Do Not Track settings. Read more click me

How to Quit Facebook Without Actually Quitting Facebook

With all the privacy issues surrounding Facebook, many people are considering quitting the site altogether. If you're not ready to take it that far, here's how to avoid the privacy breaches without completely deleting your account and losing touch with your friends.

Photo by Ludovic Berton.

Should I Quit Facebook Altogether?
We've all had that one friend who deactivated his/her Facebook and was never seen again, because no one could establish contact. As if the telephone, email, and IM were never invented, many people are at a loss as to how to contact you if your Facebook isn't an easy click away. Even if the situation isn't quite that dire, Facebook is still how a lot of people keep connected, and severing that connection completely is a big deal.

But now, privacy-minded folks have many legitimate reasons you should quit Facebook (or reasons you should but can't go through with it), the same thing is on everyone's mind: Is the grief of quitting worth avoiding future privacy breaches?

The Less Extreme Alternative
Luckily, there is another, more middle-of-the-road option. That's not to say this isn't still extreme—this isn't for the faint of heart. It isn't a tutorial about how to change your privacy settings. This is a tutorial on how to create the most minimalist Facebook profile possible, with as little information on yourself as possible, to be used only for communication between you and your friends. You won't be able to do much on the site; you probably won't even visit the site that often. This is not for people who want to continue using Facebook; it is for the people who are ready to up and quit tomorrow, but don't want to miss out on the next party just because they care about their privacy. So if you're really ready to give up wall posts, comments, Farmville, and fan pages, here's how to proceed without falling off the face of the Earth.

Continue reading the full article at LifeHacker by Whitson Gordon

Flash Cookies and Privacy, are you being tracked?

So you think your practicing safe computing and you manage your web browsers cookies but did you know chances are more likely then not you are being tacked by cookies even if you have deleted them all?

This may come as a surprise to many computer users but there is a new cookie in town and its called an Adobe Flash cookie. Adobe's Flash program plug-in, which is used to view multimedia content and is installed on millions of computers worldwide, also stores cookies for user preferences such as the volume level of a video. Check out the Wikipedia entry here.

A recent study found that more then half of the Internets top sites are using Flash cookies and most of those are not informing users that they are also being tracked by these extra cookies. Furthermore information on how people navigate those sites even if people believe they've restricted the data collection, according to a new study.

According to the study:
"That means that privacy-sensitive consumers who 'toss' their HTTP cookies to prevent tracking or remain anonymous are still being uniquely identified online by advertising companies,"

"Since users do not know about Flash cookies, it stands to reason that users lack knowledge to properly manage them,"

There are big differences in HTTP cookies and Fash cookies too. For example they have no expiration date by default and they're stored in a different location than HTTP cookies and can contain up to 100KB of information, whereas HTTP cookies can only have 4KB.

"These differences make Flash cookies a more resilient technology for tracking than HTTP cookies and creates an area of uncertainty for user privacy control,"

Many Online advertising companies, however, have embraced Flash cookies since many people regularly delete HTTP cookies.

How can I manage or remove Adobe Flash cookies?

Global Storage Settings panel
Adobe provides a web page with at Global Storage Settings panel that will allow you to manage your Adobe Flash cookies

Flush.app

A Cookie Removal Tool For OS X

Better Privacy

A Firefox add-on called Better Privacy


Manual Removal

Mac OS X:
For Web sites, ~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/#SharedObjects////

If your eyes have not glazed over yet you may also want to read:

Study: Adobe Flash cookies pose vexing privacy questions

Study: Flash Cookies Track Even Privacy-conscious Surfers

Flash Cookies and Privacy

IE To Get Privacy Mode

Microsoft is planning a "privacy mode" for the next release of its Internet Explorer (IE) web browser. By clicking a button, users of IE8 will be able to limit how much information is recorded about where they go online and what they do. By comparison Apple's Safari browser already has a privacy mode and developers working for Mozilla, creators of Firefox, are reportedly working on a similar feature for future versions.Other browsers, such as Xerobank, take a more thorough approach to privacy and try to anonymise all web use.

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