Edward Snowden Q&A

Edward Snowden also know as the whistleblower behind the biggest intelligence leak in NSA history has done a live Q&A with The Guardian. He took questions live and answered queries regarding what he did and why he did it. He also spoke about Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple. Saying that their denials to allowing the government access to their servers were false. They are actually misleading their users as to the amount of information they were sharing with the NSA. He also spoke about why he choose Hong Kong and why he fled the US.

The Q&A is a good read for people who have been following this saga since it all began. The whole think started with something called PRISM - which gives the NSA authority to seek to snoop on users' data. This could be data from social networks, phone companies and just about anything out there. Many users have since started using the search engine duckduckgo to get their search queries answered. This entire data collection efforts' codename is PRISM.

This whole revelation by Edward Snowden is always on the news and this is the first time he did a live Q&A to answer people's questions. Hopefully he does an AMA on Reddit.

Read the entire Q&A here. Photo by The Guardian

Twitter now shows a summary of your Tweets from the time you joined

Twitter now showing your most important tweets from the time you joined. Anyone who has ever used Twitter is aware that up until now whenever you search for your own Tweets. You see results from only the past week. In general searches on Twitter older Tweets were never shown. If you wanted to see all your past Tweets and activity you had to click the 'Me' icon on Twitter. This would show you and only you all your past tweets and Retweets etc. Now when someone searches for a particular username on Twitter. They get to see a whole list of Tweets that go as far back as the time the person actually joined Twitter and started Tweeting. You need to review your Tweets and remove some of them if they are not relevant anymore. Maybe they should not be seen at all -- we all know those Tweets, the ones that might have been sent out after a night out at town.

How to search for old Tweets more than a week old
1. Login with your Twitter account
2. use your username in the search bar on Twitter
3. See all your Tweets or rather a summary of your most important Tweets from the time you joined.

Should I review all these Tweets
It is advisable to review these Tweets as you might have joined a while back and some tweets you thought might be hidden are now in full public view.

What to do with Tweets I don't like
Delete them. Hover with your mouse below the Tweet you want to remove and click the 'Delete' button - trash can icon. Read more at the Twitter announcement of the same. On testing we discovered that tweets being displayed go all the way back to the time you joined.

PrivacyFix: Fixes your Online Privacy Settings

There are many sites you use everyday and social sites like Facebook and Gmail collect and have with them a lot of your data. This data can be from the sites you visit, your online shopping habits and a host of other information that you might not be aware about. In addition to this Facebook keeps making a log of changes to their privacy policies. It is therefore important for you to be able to keep a tab and be on top of it all. You might not even be aware where you need to go on these sites to fix your privacy settings. PrivacyFix is an online add-on available for Chrome and FireFox that helps you get the job done.

Once you add PrivacyFix to Chrome or FireFox you will need to click on run PrivacyFix setup on the site. One the app is setup it will then run a check on your privacy settings on Facebook and Google and guide you through all your default settings. If there is anything you want to fix simply click on the fix icon. It is a simple app and even if you have no use for it right now you will be made aware of your auto-settings, which you can then tune if you want.

PrivacyFix for Chrome and FireFox

Now that PrivacyFix has been discontinued, find a helpful guide here on how to fix your online Privacy.

How to get a monthly report of all your Google Account Activity via email

Google have taken online privacy to a whole new level. You can now sign-up to get a monthly report of all your activity online in relation to Google and all its products. you can now get a monthly report of your Google search activities - how many times you visited and searched on Google and which countries you logged in from. You can also see how many Gmail emails you sent and received. You can also get a report on how many times your YouTube videos have been viewed.


With this report your monthly activity will be summarized and sent to you and will cover all your Google activity and its related services. So the reports will give you in-depth analysis of your Gmail account. You Google search engine use and your YouTube videos summary. Your web history will have no impact on issued reports. 

Why would you want or need your activity report

You can monitor and evaluate your own use of Google. So if you are planning on going on a holiday you will notice your own top search queries reflected your holiday plans. You can also see how much you use email and how much more and less email was sent by you in a particular month. It will also show you if someone has tried to hack you account from a different country. Since you report tells you from which countries you logged in from. If you notice a country over there that you did not visit. It is advisable for you to use Google's 2-step-verification.  That's why it is right to monitor your own activity.

What is the scope of the report

Right now it only covers Gmail, Google, Google Latitude and YouTube. In the future it is expected that Google will incorporate more of its services into the report like Android Mobile Systems and Google+ its fledgling Social Network. For now you can view all the places you have visited with Google Latitude, the locations you were in when you signed-in, browsers you have used, your most contacted email ID in Gmail, percentage of emails sent vs received and your web history. This will have to do with searches, your top queries and search types whether you searched on the web or used image search etc.  

How do I sign-up for the report

This is an opt-in only feature and to get your reports you will need to turn it on. Head over here and click on opt-in to start receiving your reports


Source: Google Official Blog

An original post by

Sociolatte

What you need to do if an employer asks for your Facebook Password

Image Credit: PCWorld

There is a lot of disturbing news these days of employers and potential employers asked people to share the Facebook passwords. This according to Facebook is a violation of their privacy policies. It could also become discrimination wherever possible if someone does not get hired. This is because some people are a part of protected groups and the potential employer could open themselves to claims of discrimination if they do not hire that person. Erin Egan, Chief Privacy Officer, Policy also says that by asking for your password employers are violating your privacy rights and the privacy right of your friends.


Taking this one step further is Senator Richard Blumenthal who has promised to put a stop to privacy-invading employers who demand your password. Job Applicants' need to note that if your potential employer asks for your password, which is something personal and a violation of Facebook TOS. There is a whole set of legal terms that Facebook has laid out which can be found here. So the next time an employer asks you for your personal Facebook password - you might want to point them to this privacy information shared by Facebook. Facebook has promised legal action against companies asking employees and potential employees to share their Facebook passwords. So you have every right to protect and keep your password. So if you are ever asked for your Facebook password you can tell your employer or future employer that it is against Facebook's Terms Of Service and can invite a potential lawsuit by insisting. 
Read the official release by Facebook here. 

An original post by

Sociolatte