Forty Hours

You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it within himself. - Galileo Galilei

Friday, February 29, 2008

Privacy on Facebook

This article is publish by Digital Life on 26 Feb 2008

Face up to privacy on Facebook

So you have been uploading wild photos on Facebook - until you realise everyone, including your boss, has seen them. LIM YEE HUNG shows you how to keep your private life private

UBER-POPULAR social networking site Facebook has long struggled to find the right balance between improving the site and safeguarding the privacy of its users.

Recently, the launch of its Beacon advertising platform in September was pummelled by severe criticism from users worried about privacy violations. This, after a security researcher revealed that it tracks user activities on external sites, captures data on what users do and buy on them, and sends it back to Facebook.

Currently, Facebook automatically assumes that you wish to share all your personal information with everyone on the Web.

The onus is on you, the user, to tweak the privacy settings in Facebook, and avoid any embarrassing situations.

Click on Privacy at the top-right hand corner of the screen. You will then be directed to the Privacy page of your account.

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to limit the sharing of your personal information.

Prevent your profile from being found by outsiders
Don't want your Facebook profile to be 'Googled'?
- Click Edit Settings under the Search heading on the Privacy page.
- Select 'Only my friends' in the drop-down menu so that only the friends whom you have added on Facebook will be able to find you using the Search function in Facebook.
- Uncheck the box beside this box - 'Create a public search listing for me' - and submit it for search engine indexing. This will stop your profile from showing up on Google when your name is searched.

-Stop Facebook from sharing information about your activities on other websites
The default setting allows external websites to send information about your actions on their site, such as the purchase of a DVD disc, to Facebook, where it will be displayed in your News Feed.
- Click Edit Settings under the External Websites heading.
- Check the box next to 'Don't allow any websites to send stories to my profile'.

-Hide sensitive portions of your Profile page
You may wish to hide certain portions of your Profile page, such as your contact information or the videos you upload.
- Click 'Edit Settings' under the Profile heading. You will then be able to customise the settings for different parts of your profile. You can also choose to limit the viewing of your entire profile to just your friends.
- For example, to prevent outsiders from viewing your photos, select 'Only my friends' or 'Only me' in the relevant drop-down menu.

- Prevent applications from sharing your data
If, like most Facebook users, you have added Facebook applications to your account, you can limit the information available to them.
- Under the Other Applications tab, choose which data - such as the groups you belong to and your relationship status - will be available to these applications by checking the boxes next to them.
- For maximum security, check the box next to 'Do not share any information about me'. Take note that you won't be able to select this if you have downloaded applications that are built on the Facebook platform - you will have to uninstall them first before you can check the box.

-Block specific people from accessing your Facebook profile
Are you the unfortunate victim of 'Facebook stalking'? People flooding you with unwanted and inappropriate messages? Put an end to the never-ending messages and comments on your photos by blocking the user directly.
- Under the Block People section at the bottom of the Privacy page, enter the person's name in the search box and then click 'Block Person'. He or she will now be unable to search for you, see your profile, or contact you on Facebook. Whew!

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Sunday, February 10, 2008

Tech Giants' Battleground

Round 1: Microsoft challenges Google's dominance by bidding for Yahoo Round 2: Parties slug it out for ultimate control of mobile phones By Alfred Siew, Technology Correspondent

Cellphone war

The fight will continue on the small screen of cellphones, as faster wireless networks let people share pictures and watch videos on the go. All three (Google, Microsoft and Yahoo) are geared for this new market.

Online battle

77 per cent of online searches go through Google today, with Yahoo getting 16 per cent and Microsoft, only 4 per cent, according to a Net measurement firm. And so, at its wits' end, Microsoft sought to buy Yahoo, for US$44.6b.

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Saturday, February 02, 2008

Cellphones Competition Hot-Up

Yahoo and Google take aim at mobile eyeballs

Google's Android and Yahoo's Go version 3 want to get into your cellphones. By OO GIN LEE

THE war of the mobiles is on. The two behemoths of online advertising, Google and Yahoo, are now taking their battle to the mobile phone.

Google fired the first salvo when it announced the launch of its Android 'open' mobile platform last November.

Then, just two months later in January, Yahoo responded with its 'open' Yahoo Go version 3 suite of mobile applications which now also works with applications developed by third-party developers.

Online advertising is big business, but so far has been limited to the PC Web.

But with twice more mobile phones than PCs in the market and growing, the mobile Web is one huge advertising platform that both Google and Yahoo cannot ignore for future growth.

In essence, Google is building a whole new blueprint for mobile phones, which, fortunately or unfortunately, has not been dominated by one main operating system called Microsoft Windows.

While that means more room for competition, it has also made it harder for developers to create applications which can work across all the different mobile phones.

New system

With Android, Google has the chance to build a whole new system from the ground up, and perhaps one that offers a much better experience for mobile users which is closer to the PC Web that we have all grown used to.

It won't be easy for Google, because in the phone market, the mobile operators and handset makers still call the shots.

Can Google break the impasse?

To succeed, it needs to bring the application developers together and it is pumping US$10 million (US$14.2 million) to fuel software creation for the Android.

Yahoo, however, takes a different approach.

It wants to maximise the eyeballs on Yahoo's products like Search, Mail and the personalised Web portal called my Yahoo.

It wants to be the 'starting point' for consumers when they go online, both on the PC and the mobile Web.

So its new Yahoo Go 3 mobile application suite also doubles as a platform where users can add third-party applications called widgets and therefore garner even more eyeballs.

More eyeballs, more ads

More eyeballs translates to more opportunities for online ads.

As its widget platform is Web-based, it should work across all the different operating systems, whether it is Windows Mobile, Nokia Series 60 or the upcoming Google Android.

It's still too early to say who will win the war, but in the meantime, what is clear is that mobile users are now getting a lot closer to the PC Web experience.

Combine that with faster mobile broadband speeds through 3.5G, and it looks like the mobile Web business is finally ready to rock and roll.

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