Tag: PRIVACY

If you're into pointless displays of solidarity, the latest nightly builds of Firefox 4 beta 11 now include the option of turning on the Do Not Track (DNT) header. With Google's launch of its Do Not Track extension last week, this now means that we're only waiting on IE9's Tracking Protection Lists. While this change to Firefox successfully sends the DNT HTTP header with every request, it's up ...

Happy Data Privacy Day! While Lee already published one roundup showing a multitude of various tools, this post is all about Firefox! If you're reading Download Squad, you already know all of these classics. Kudos to you! Now go ahead and let your less computer-savvy coworkers or family members read this list, and make sure they install at least one of these if they use Firefox at all. ...

Today is the fourth annual Data Privacy Day -- so we've scoured the Download Squad archives to find the best downloads around for helping you keep your personal data safe and secure! From browser add-ons to encryption software, from Windows to Mac to Linux, we've got something here for everyone. Once you're done checking out the apps and extensions, there's plenty more to read on our privacy ...

Web of Trust has been a trusted browser privacy and security add-on for Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer for quite a while. Now, Opera users can take advantage of WOT trust ratings as well! Just head over to the Opera Extensions gallery and install Web of Trust, and you'll have access to the same drop-down ratings panel we've shown you before for other browsers (we suspect it was probably ...

Can't stop gushing about your favorite new gadget or your latest album purchase? If you're posting about it on Facebook, there's a chance your words could wind up used by advertisers without your knowledge. Facebook has begun allowing companies to re-post endorsements from users as "Sponsored Stories," and there's no way for you to opt out at the moment. It's not all bad, though. Sponsored ...

All three major browser providers have now publicized their solution to the FTC's Do Not Track problem. Google has waded in with a thoroughly brute-force extension that was probably programmed in a few hours, and Mozilla has a much softer, "meta" HTTP approach up its sleeve. Microsoft seems to be somewhere in the middle, with a built-in solution that may prove to be the best of both worlds. ...

Hot on the heels of Mozilla's proposed Do Not Track solution, Google has launched Keep My Opt-Outs, an extension that blocks tracking cookies from targeted advertising providers. The extension, which is simply a free download from the Chrome Web Store, takes an utterly brute-force approach to the problem. It has a blacklist of known targeted advertisers, and it simply blocks any cookies ...

Facebook, after a quiet announcement of the new home address and mobile phone access permissions, has made a quick about-turn. Citing some "useful feedback," Facebook has decided to to make changes "to help ensure you only share this information when you intend to do so." The feature, which will be re-enabled in a few weeks, will allow Facebook app developers to request both your home address ...

In a rather odd and haphazard move, Facebook has now made it possible for apps to read your home address and mobile telephone number. In the "Request for Permission" window -- the one you have to accept before using an app on the Facebook platform -- look out for "Access my contact information", with the subtitle "Current Address and Mobile Phone Number" (see image above). You'd think that ...

A lot has been said about safe, secure surfing in recent months. Firesheep brought the necessity for HTTPS (and WPA-encrypted WLAN) into the limelight, and the Gawker Media breach reminded all of us that no one is safe. The truth is, if you want to stay secure on the Web, you have to take a proactive stance. You need to install LastPass or KeePass, and using HTTPSEverywhere is a very good idea ...

In a strong, head-held-high missive, Adobe has detailed a new initiative to bring Flash local storage clearing to Web browser UIs. The new API, NPAPI ClearSiteData will let Firefox and Chrome users clear Flash's Local Shared Objects, or 'Flash cookies,' in the same way that you currently clear cookies and temporary Internet files. LSOs are very commonly used throughout the Web, but unlike ...

PortableApps.com has posted a new remix of Portable Firefox that includes additional privacy enhancements out-of-the-box. Simply called Private Browsing, the app includes a pair of pre-installed privacy add-ons -- AdBlock Plus and Flashblock. AdBlock is pre-subscribed to the EasyPrivacy list. As for the browser itself, the PortableApps crew have disabled features like persistent cookies, browsing ...

Facebook has a massive userbase -- somewhere between 500 and 600 million users at the moment. The vast majority of those people are average users, who aren't as aware of the dangers lurking on Facebook as more security-minded types. That makes it a very juicy target for scammers and malware distributors, and they're not shy about trying to take advantage of unsuspecting users. Viral scams are ...

Most of Google's Web apps already supported SSL-encrypted connections. One which didn't was Picasa Web, though that has now changed -- you can now connect to Google's photo sharing site via https://www.picasaweb.com. As with many other sites, though, not everything displayed on Picasa Web is encrypted. While the home page and upload form are fully encrypted, gallery pages report as being only ...

BleachBit -- the open source system clean-up utility for Windows and Linux -- has added several new features to its latest version that make it an even better tool for removing unneeded files files from your computer. Support for Google Chrome and Chromium has been greatly improved: BleachBit can now remove everything from DNS prefetch data, to autofill history and DOM storage. Support for HTML5 ...