Are you concerned about protecting your privacy regarding your computer activities? With today’s personal computers and operating systems insuring your privacy on your personal computer requires much more than simply performing the history deletion functions.
Read more on What are the Key Requirements for Privacy Control Software?…
You may have noticed that Internet usually imposes your online history to the system. Such information is hidden in secret files on your PC as unwanted pictures, images, websites and URLs. All the surfing of the internet may end up in the sites you visit being recorded in secret files in the PC. Besides all your movies, documents and clippings being recorded in hidden files in the hardware of your computer, it is possible that information you are not aware of being downloaded in the computer. This can sometimes be quite distinguished to you if unapproved information is downloaded in the computer. That means your privacy is faced up with danger.
Read more on How to Protect Pc Privacy?…
Decades back when Sting churned out the chart topper “Every breath you take…I’ll be watching you”, he must’ve thought about dedicating to his lady love. But years later, it now seems that these same words can be easily and in a well fitted manner applied to one’s personal computer. In other words, from logging in to logging out whatever the user does on the computer ranging from typing out a word document, watching a movie or browsing porn sites on the internet, the computer keeps a record of it in the system folders in the form of temporary internet files or cookies, etc. These files can be easily accessed later by anyone, the user or the others as well, in order to get an idea of the previous activities on that particular computer.
Read more on Control the Privacy of Your Computer…
Introduction
The loss of a laptop containing medical records for 5,000 people was just one of a drip-feed of data privacy breach news stories in the past year. Public sector incidents alone led to over 37 million UK citizens having their personal data lost or stolen.
The leakage of 25 million child benefit records at HMRC last November was the world’s 5th largest reported data loss incident. With incidents at the DVLA, the MoD, NHS and US Government agencies, it seemed the issue of lax data security was a public sector problem.
But private enterprise also grabbed headlines in 2007, dubbed “The worst ever year for data protection” by website The Register. TK Maxx lost 5 million UK credit card records, Monster.com had details of 3 million customers taken, at loans.co.uk 250,000 private customer records were stolen & sold and Leeds Building Society lost data on its entire workforce.
Commercial Concerns
Loss of customer data is not the only worry in the private sector. A rising tide in Merger & Acquisitions and intensely competitive market has flagged the protection of commercially sensitive data as an equally strong concern.
Company directors and senior public officials are now taking steps to review policies, implement sensitive data procedures and assess the risks of their organisations losing private or commercially sensitive data. Sectors at high risk include Retail, Financial Services, Utilities and Professional Services.
Legislation & Standards
Protecting customers’ data privacy and that of the company not only makes sound business sense but is also becoming the subject of industry, government & EU regulation. According to security consultancy Vigitrust, laws such as the European Union Data Protection Directive and equivalent U.S. regulations have resulted in information security becoming a board level action item.
It would be a mistake for UK & European organisations to ignore U.S. legislation in this area as it may also be binding on companies trading with US consumers. Regulations such as California Senate Bill 1386 apply to “any person or business that conducts business in California” even if they are located outside the U.S.
Many organisations are pursuing ISO 27001 accreditation, the Information Security Standard (formerly BS7799). Larger retailers are striving to meet the Payments Card Industry (PCI) standard pioneered by Visa & MasterCard to address identity theft.
The public sector responded to its ‘annus horibilis’ by mandating data encryption on all laptops, but also by disseminating Information Governance standards on data privacy to all public bodies and practical assistance such as the ‘Information Governance Toolkits’.
Risk mitigation software vendor The Irish company, best known for detecting & reporting on illicit image abuse, has been conducting ‘Discovery Audits’ to detect unprotected sensitive data on company networks since 2007; its auditors found such unprotected data in over 36% of all IT resources scanned, including 46% of PCs, 32% of e-mail accounts and 30% of file servers. In each case, it required at least 20 instances of suspected privacy data to be detected in a document before being logged as ’suspect’.
Risk assessment – Where to start?
Best practice begins with a risk assessment to detect actual data breaches or the existence of ‘data at risk’. In order to help corporations gain visibility of this risk, The Irish company offers a complimentary ‘Discovery Audit’ to detect and report on the presence of sensitive data at rest.
The Irish company Privacy Auditor software will scan for sensitive data such as Credit Card, Bank Account or National Insurance numbers, encryption keys etc. held in plain text on e-mail, desktop PCs, laptops and file servers. The Irish company Privacy Auditor can, on request, remove or encrypt such data for the client.
During this engagement, the organisation may nominate specific sensitive data or documents to be detected on its network, such as commercially sensitive financial data. A comprehensive report is delivered, together with suitable recommendations.
With the public focus on risk & compliance in the treatment of sensitive data, an early risk assessment is now considered the essential starting point to protecting the best interests of taxpayers, customers, companies and ordinary citizens alike.
Read more on Data Loss and Privacy Risk – A Top Priority in 2008…
When privacy threats are on the rise, and identity theft is the fastest-growing crime, your privacy documentation should clearly demonstrate your commitment to information protection. Putting well-designed privacy policies and procedures in place is not just good risk management; it empowers you to create a trusting relationship with your customers, and guides your employees on how to handle information. Here’s a quick summary of what you need to implement:
Corporate Privacy Policy: The Corporate Privacy Policy is the centerpiece of your privacy documentation—the document that should be available to the public and that provides a clear understanding of why you need to collect their personal information, how you safeguard it, and whom you share it with. This policy must clearly and succinctly outline how you comply with privacy best practices. You build rapport with prospective and current customers when you show them how your organization protects information, and when they know what control they have over how their information is used.
Employee Privacy Policy: When you respect your employees’ rights and interests, you command their loyalty. Your employee privacy policy sends a clear message that safeguarding employee information is a priority to you. The policy should outline exactly what information you collect, why you need it, and whom you share it with. It should also outline your employees’ right to access their personnel file, and how long you retain their information. Equally important, the policy should indicate the limitations on your employees’ privacy rights, e.g., the use of video surveillance and the monitoring of company resources (such as e-mail and Internet activity).
Web Site Privacy Policy: The Web Site Privacy Policy addresses the protection of personal information online and should clearly tell your Web site visitor how the information collected on the site will be used (including any marketing purposes). Compliance with laws in various jurisdictions must be considered, e.g., for a site directed at children under 13, the policy should outline the need for parental consent (due to the United States Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act), and a site with numerous links to other sites should specify that your organization is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of any sites it links to. This policy should also cover technical details such as the use of cookie files and server log files which will inform your user whether data collected is anonymous or whether such logs may be linked to personally identifiable information.
Privacy Breach Response Policy: This policy ensures a consistent approach when privacy is violated. A step-by-step guide helps your organization leap into action, minimize response time, and therefore mitigate the negative impact of the breach. The policy should address the following steps for responding to the breach:
Read more on Effective Privacy Documentation to Empower Your Organization…
Welcome to the complicated and confusing world of privacy in the information age. Social networks didn’t think there would be any problem; all they do is take available data and aggregate it in a novel way for what they perceive is to its customers’ benefit. Social networks members instinctively understand that making any information easier to display is an enormous difference, and that privacy is more about control than about secrecy.
But on the other hand, social networks’ members are just fooling themselves if they think they can control information they give to third parties. Privacy used to be about secrecy. But clearly, privacy is more complicated than that based on examples and illustrations of privacy and safety breaches that keep pouring in.
It’s about who you choose to disclose information to, how, and for what purpose. And the key word there is “choose”. People are willing to share all sorts of information, as long as they are in control.
However, the reality is that social networks can unilaterally change the rules about how personal information is revealed whenever they want, a vivid reminder to people that they aren’t in control. Often times that declaration is buried in a long privacy policy, and ends with a notice that it can change at any time. How many members ever read that policy, let alone read it regularly and check for changes?
Social Networks Own You
You see, legally, social networks own all data that you upload to the site. They can sell the data to advertisers, marketers and data brokers. They can allow the police to search its databases upon request. They can add new features that change who can access what personal data, and how.
People actually believe they own their data. Even though the user agreements technically give companies the right to sell the data, change the access rules to that data or otherwise own that data.
Members Want Control
The lesson for social networks members might be even more jarring: If they think they have control over their data, they’re only deluding themselves. They can rebel against social networks for changing the rules, but the rules have changed, regardless.
Whenever you put data on a computer, you lose some control over it. And when you put it on the internet, you lose a lot of control over it. It is difficult to aggregate the data from multiple friends into a single place. That’s why every solution out there has failed. When you aggregate information, you aggregate risk by consolidating everything into one spot … it can only makes an identity thief’s life easier for example.
Control is Illusory
Digital data is just too easy to move, copy, aggregate and display. Social network companies are trying to respect privacy challenges by allowing changes to their default settings and by giving users as much control over their personal information as they can. Best intention or moot point? It may be too late for you to decide.
An ideal solution would allow you to be very selective as to whom you bring on board into you very own private network. It would give you complete control as to who, what, when, where, how, and why you share personal information with. It would allow you to build you very own private and secure social network management system.
While the focus of it would be to make the online social networking experiences of users more convenient across the different social network platforms they’re affiliated with, the ultimate goal would be to provide a simpler and easier way for social network users to connect and interact with the most trusted people in their individual “networks”. That way they can keep out the “riff raft”. It would allow them to “separate the wheat from the chaff”.
Read more on Social Networking: MySpace & Facebook Safety, Security, Privacy & Aggregation…
Generally, you are required to protect personal information stored on your website’s server by implementing reasonable and appropriate data security measures. If you fail regarding this general requirement, you will be subject to claims from website visitors whose information has been compromised.
Welcome to the complicated and confusing world of privacy in the information age. Social networks didn’t think there would be any problem; all they do is take available data and aggregate it in a novel way for what they perceive is to its customers’ benefit. Social networks members instinctively understand that making any information easier to display is an enormous difference, and that privacy is more about control than about secrecy.
But on the other hand, social networks’ members are just fooling themselves if they think they can control information they give to third parties. Privacy used to be about secrecy. But clearly, privacy is more complicated than that based on examples and illustrations of privacy and safety breaches that keep pouring in.
It’s about who you choose to disclose information to, how, and for what purpose. And the key word there is “choose”. People are willing to share all sorts of information, as long as they are in control.
However, the reality is that social networks can unilaterally change the rules about how personal information is revealed whenever they want, a vivid reminder to people that they aren’t in control. Often times that declaration is buried in a long privacy policy, and ends with a notice that it can change at any time. How many members ever read that policy, let alone read it regularly and check for changes?
Social Networks Own You
You see, legally, social networks own all data that you upload to the site. They can sell the data to advertisers, marketers and data brokers. They can allow the police to search its databases upon request. They can add new features that change who can access what personal data, and how.
People actually believe they own their data. Even though the user agreements technically give companies the right to sell the data, change the access rules to that data or otherwise own that data.
Members Want Control
The lesson for social networks members might be even more jarring: If they think they have control over their data, they’re only deluding themselves. They can rebel against social networks for changing the rules, but the rules have changed, regardless.
Whenever you put data on a computer, you lose some control over it. And when you put it on the internet, you lose a lot of control over it. It is difficult to aggregate the data from multiple friends into a single place. That’s why every solution out there has failed. When you aggregate information, you aggregate risk by consolidating everything into one spot … it can only makes an identity thief’s life easier for example.
Control is Illusory
Digital data is just too easy to move, copy, aggregate and display. Social network companies are trying to respect privacy challenges by allowing changes to their default settings and by giving users as much control over their personal information as they can. Best intention or moot point? It may be too late for you to decide.
An ideal solution would allow you to be very selective as to whom you bring on board into you very own private network. It would give you complete control as to who, what, when, where, how, and why you share personal information with. It would allow you to build you very own private and secure social network management system.
While the focus of it would be to make the online social networking experiences of users more convenient across the different social network platforms they’re affiliated with, the ultimate goal would be to provide a simpler and easier way for social network users to connect and interact with the most trusted people in their individual “networks”. That way they can keep out the “riff raft”. It would allow them to “separate the wheat from the chaff”.
Read more on Social Networking: MySpace & Facebook Safety, Security, Privacy & Aggregation…
When you delete a file, email, or piece of internet history on your computer, where do you think it goes? Unfortunately it doesn’t just disappear like many of us would think and hope it does. Every time you use your computer, you’re leaving little footsteps that can be traced back to everything you do. Every word you type, every password you save, and every email that you delete are most likely being saved somewhere on your computer.
Your wife or husband could be browsing through all the files and emails that you thought you deleted when you leave your computer unattended. If not her, then your boss or best friend could be. Where exactly do you think your files, emails, and history go when you think you delete them? They actually aren’t completely deleted, normally a small backup, or footprint, is saved. These little footprints take up valuable hard drive space, bog down your computer, and slow down the boot up time; that’s all just the good stuff.
Finding these footprints is also almost impossible if you don’t know what you’re doing. Programs can find these without even trying though. With almost no technological knowledge, a computer user could download a program and retrieve files and emails that you thought you deleted long ago. These pieces of software are a dime a dozen, you never know who could be looking through your history. That means your boss, spouse, or just a friend could search through everything you’ve ever done on your computer; that’s a bit frightening.
Read more on How To Effectively Protect Your Computer Privacy…
37 million Americans have had their identity robbed from them and most of their sensitive information was gain from the computer. The numbers are still rising, it’s the biggest fear faced by every computer owner. Some hacker, or even worse, a trusted friend or co-worker that has access to your computer starts checking every move you’ve made online. This can be done very easily, someone doesn’t even have to possess much in the way of technical expertise. At best, they could discover information about you that you would rather not have made public. At worst, they could make your life a living hell by stealing your identity or emptying your bank account. There are some very good free Internet PC privacy software tools that will help you guard against having your life ruined by an Internet hacker or cyber criminal.
You might be under the impression that all you have to do to be safe online is to save any sensitive information to a disk and delete the file from your hard drive. Unfortunately, this doesn’t completely remove the files from your computer. All it takes is someone with basic file restoration program to go in and recapture everything you thought you had erased forever. The Internet can provide you with a world of information, you can conduct business, do your shopping or whatever. But, it’s also a most dangerous place for identity theft, cyber criminals are lurking every where to gain access to your (name, social security numbers, credit cards, etc), don’t become a victim because of poor software protection.
Identity Theft prevention tips below:
1. If you encounter an unsolicited e-mail that asks you, either directly, or through a web site, for personal financial or identity information, such as Social Security number, passwords, or other identifiers, exercise extreme caution.
2. If you need to update your information online, use the normal process you’ve used before, or open a new browser window and type in the website address of the legitimate company’s account maintenance page.
3. If a website address is unfamiliar, it’s probably not real. Only use the address that you have used before, or start at your normal homepage.
4. Always report fraudulent or suspicious e-mail to your ISP. Reporting instances of spoof web sites will help get these bogus web sites shut down before they can do any more harm.
5. Most companies require you to log in to a secure site. Look for the lock at the bottom of your browser and “https” in front of the website address.
6. Take note of the header address on the web site. Most legitimate sites will have a relatively short internet address that usually depicts the business name followed by “.com,” or possibly “.org.” Spoof sites are more likely to have an excessively long strong of characters in the header, with the legitimate business name somewhere in the string, or possibly not at all.
7. If you have any doubts about an e-mail or website, contact the legitimate company directly. Make a copy of the questionable web site’s URL address, send it to the legitimate business and ask if the request is legitimate.
8. If you’ve been victimized by a spoofed e-mail or web site, you should contact your local police or sheriff’s department, and file a complaint report.
9. Watch out for phishing scams, as well as spyware, adware and other computer viruses.
Protecting your identity is a 24/7 hour job, you can’t relax on it – don’t wait until your identity is stolen before you do something about it!
