Yesterday it felt to me like rabbits were at work and their progeny was Facebook privacy apps. Four crossed my screen within a space of hours: Privacy Check, ProfileWatch.org, ReclaimPrivacy.org and SaveFace. The first three are useful in helping identify the types of Facebook information that have made it to the public web, but they aren’t helpful in the shades-of-gray publicness that comes from tweaking “friends of friends” and “friends and networks” settings. The fourth is a giant reset button. Here’s what I found out about each.

Read more…

Microsoft recently announced that the consumer version of Office 2010  will soon be available for free: Office Web Apps. This might just make Google start sweating. If not, it should.

Let’s face it: given the choice between Google Docs and the polished, well-tested and universally approved Microsoft Office, which would you choose? Yep, Office. After all, then you know your recipient will be able to open, read and edit the document, know how it works and not have to sign up for any new account. Office is the industry standard. Now you can access the docs everywhere, without e-mailing them, carrying them on a flash drive or bringing your laptop to the site where you need your docs. You can log into any PC and get your stuff. You can get the docs on your mobile phone. It’s where you are when you need it. Read more…

Every single day people, arguable most, blindly accept companies’ TOS (“terms of service”).  They unresistingly click “I Agree” to whatever legal jargon is in between them and their desired product or service.  Why?  People trust the companies have their best interest in mind.  They trust, for example, that the photos they post to Facebook are not thrown up on a billboard on I-5, or a silly comment they made on a friend’s wall will live on for eternity.

It comes down to people believing Mark Zuckerberg when he says, “We wouldn’t share your information in a way you wouldn’t want.  The trust you place in us as a safe place to share information is the most important part of what makes Facebook work.”

Read more…

File this one under the “slightly stale news” category, but the Virginia Dept of Education is focused on educating students about online safety. In a WashingtonPost.com article, the reporter writes that “[t]he state’s goal is to integrate safety skills into the curriculum, not simply teach them in one lesson.” I think this is a great idea; let’s get the next generation aware of the consequences of too freely sharing private information and help educated both kids and their parents about the risks of being online.

~Jeremy