Online Privacy – How to Keep Your Information Safe?

  By Gemma | January 17, 2013 - 11:30 am | Online Privacy
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The internet, in its entirety, has worked wonders for people from all walks of life. Many folks, however, do not know (or perhaps, they didn’t care to know!) that they’ve already sacrificed a great deal of personal and private information in exchange for universal and convenient access to numerous online services. Activities such as social media posting, downloading/uploading of applications, and research have coaxed individuals into divulging personal information over the internet. This information are easily collected and stored, adding to the growing concerns regarding online privacy.

Fret not. With a few disciplined steps, you can protect yourself from potential risks and adverse effects of this downside. For a start, you can take heed of the following:

1. Review Privacy Settings on Social Networking Sites Regularly. Make it a point to always check the privacy settings of the site and/or application that you are using or subscribing to. For instance, it is quite common nowadays for some applications to add geo-location to uploaded pics; somebody can use this to easily track your location.

2. Think First Before Clicking! Cautiously weigh-in the possible effects of your online posts. For instance, think of what a looming identity thief can get from the information that you share.

3. Lessen the extent of personal information that you provide. Whether you’re doing some online shopping or just joining some social networking site, you need to evaluate if the website or application really ought to get a lot of personal information just to provide you with their service.

4. Come Up With Unique Passwords. There are a lot of unscrupulous programs rolling thru the internet with the aim of breaking passwords. It should be incumbent upon you to come up with passwords that are difficult to decipher. (Just make sure these are also easy to remember!)

Tip: Use Different Character Classes – Letters ‘a-z’, ‘A-Z’, 0-9, and symbols are the four distinguished character classes. You can use ‘Gu1T4r’ instead of the plain ‘guitars’.

5. Read the Fine Print Carefully. It is important that you comprehend the terms and conditions of all Applications/Programs before you click the ‘Agree’ tab.

If you want to surf the Web anonymously, consider using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), or a Web proxy like HideMyAss. Read this review for more details: http://vpnsoftware.co/hidemyassproxy/

RIM Spiralling Down Into The Unknown

  By Gemma | November 27, 2012 - 11:14 am | Smartphones
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With so many issues going on with RIM, its CEO is claiming there’s nothing really wrong with the company as it is said to be in the middle of a “transition period.” That can be hard to believe since its market value has plummeted down to 95% since its all time high earnings a few years ago. Things are expected to get a lot worse and despite internal changes being made with the company, RIM has a lot to go.

As promises have been made by RIM of its next generation of devices to be released in 2013, the company indicated its developers are working hard to execute various programs to help build on the widely talked about platform in the BlackBerry 10. Even if the word “spiralling down” isn’t an ideal phrase to be used around BlackBerry, some think the BB 10 will only make little difference. It can be hard to imagine how a company that once dominated the smartphone scene, be in the brink of losing everything?

A lot of answers can be attributed as to why BlackBerry is seeing itself in sinking deep into the abyss. While other handset makers are transitioning into newer forms of technology, BlackBerry refused to do the same. In fact, it wanted to maintain its traditional features hoping users who have been part of the BlackBerry craze would stick around. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. As Apple and Android phones started to evolve in catering to certain advanced tasks with its new range of useful and cool apps, BlackBerry simply downplayed everything. As a result, a huge wave of users opted to go for the newest and coolest gadgets. This was mostly brought about by Apple and Google.

By the time RIM announced it will be releasing a new line of devices that will forever change the BlackBerry brad, it’s already too late. The slow paced advancement and lack of marketing aggression led RIM to fall further into the unknown. While CEO executives are asking investors to have faith in their struggling company, it couldn’t be any worse. It would’ve been a good year for BlackBerry if it plans on releasing its new operating system this year. But the company is so careful it decided not to rush things. Now its recently appointed CEO is making a pitch of bringing about the best “mobile experience” come time the BB 10 is unleashed in the market in 2013.

The main reason why RIM is losing ground a lot quickly is because of its inability to provide the leadership it sorely lacked for the past several years. It’s starting to make its moves across the competitive board but the issue here remains: RIM is moving way too slow. If you pair that with the lack of leadership, you get a company in the verge of losing everything.

Want to read more from the same author? Read his review of the Torch 9810.