online privacy

Do you know that every time you make a change on LinkedIn, your connections get an update of your tweaks? If you don't want your every move watched by your network, turn the notifications off. After all, not only do you want to avoid spamming your LinkedIn friends every time you change your profile picture, but you might also want to keep the timing of the changes private. Here's how to turn the notifications off:

1. Log into your LinkedIn account.
2. Hover over your name on the upper-right corner of your page, and a dropdown menu should appear. Click on the settings option.

3. Scroll to the bottom of the page, go to the privacy controls section, and click "Turn on/off your activity broadcasts." You'll see a small pop-up that will let you check or uncheck a box that gives people updates. Uncheck the box, and save your changes.

After a series of hackings on the websites of newspapers The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, Twitter is the latest victim, revealing Friday evening that about 250,000 Twitter users' information had been accessed, including usernames, email addresses, and encrypted versions of passwords. Any users affected will have received an email from Twitter prompting them to create a new Twitter account.

Even for those who did not receive an email from Twitter warning of a possible information breach, take this opportunity to protect your online presence with extra security with these measures:

• Use a strong password — No, "password123" does not count as an acceptable key to any online account. Use at least 10 digits with a mix of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Stay away from passwords that include personal information such as mother's maiden name or birthplace.
• Change passwords often — Don't wait until a breach has been publicly disclosed to change passwords. Update an account's passwords every few months.
• Don't reuse passwords — You have a lot of online accounts, yes, but don't recycle the same password for Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and so on. Hackers know that many people continue to use one passkey across multiple accounts and will have instant access to more of your sensitive information than the original site where the breach took place.
• Disable Java — The US Department of Homeland Security has identified the source of many hackings to have stemmed with holes in Java script. Close the security gap and disable Java from your browser. In Safari, it's as easy as selecting Preferences > Security and unchecking Enable Java.

Take charge of your digital well-being with more of our tips on protecting your online data.

Commemorate the fifth annual Data Privacy Day by learning how to be proactive about guarding your personal data — and sharing that info with other cybercitizens like yourself! StaySafeOnline.org's Data Privacy Day page is a comprehensive resource for good privacy practices on the web, with tips specifically geared toward kids, teens, educators, and businesses.

StaySafeOnline.org is provided by the National Cyber Security Alliance, a nonprofit committed to cyber security awareness. There are especially handy tips for mobile and social networking privacy that apply to any digital citizen, young or old, tech-savvy or not.

The site also includes detailed info on how parents can teach the next generation of Internet users about online safety and provides thorough educational materials for teachers at the K-12 and college level.

Check out StaySafeOnline.org, and let us know what new things you learned about being in control of your digital footprint.

In honor of #DataPrivacyDay, we're taking control of our digital footprint by understanding what exactly social networking sites can do with our data. Twitter, for example, can remove tweets and delete accounts based on a request by a government agency (like the CIA or FBI) or copyright holders (like film studios or music companies), which, at first glance, may sound like a form of censorship.

But, in an effort to increase awareness about removal requests, Twitter released its latest Transparency Report today and a new site dedicated to making the data widely available at transparency.twitter.com. We broke down the numbers and made sense of what Twitter's Transparency Report means for tweeters like you.

• Copyright Notices — Reports of alleged copyright infringement far exceeded any other type of request. These "takedowns" are enabled by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and were granted 53 percent of the time since July 2012. Most cease-and-desist requests came from private firms that specialize in antipiracy. The Recording Industry Association of America, which owns and distributes most recorded music in the US, was a top reporter.
• What this means — There are two ways accounts can be affected by takedown notices: specific tweets can be removed, or media, including profile, header, background, or Twitpic photos, can be deleted. Cease-and-desist orders are granted more than half the time, and, in 2012, 13,079 users were affected. Basically, if you're thinking about posting a link to a leaked album or an illegal movie download — don't.

Look at an overview of the numbers and find out how governments request user information or request content removal after the break.

It's the third week of our resolutionary New Year, and today we're pledging to further protect our privacy on the web. In a New York Times article, author Andrea Lavinthal said, "We're all Ph.D.'s in Internet stalking these days," and that's because everyone's data is readily available online.

Five bucks is all it takes to find out your phone number, your family members, how much you paid for a home, and your complete location history online. What did you do to authorize this information? Nothing. All of it is public record, and sites like Spokeo and PeopleSmart are making this personal information available on the web for a small fee.

Social media, ecommerce sites, and online banks have lots of settings to protect your privacy — but what about these mysterious people directories? If you didn't know you had a profile on these sites in the first place, how are you supposed to remove your data? Follow this guide to the web's four biggest directories and how to opt out of them.

Spokeo

Search your name on the site (if that doesn't work, try your maiden or former name), and choose the state where you live. Click the appropriate street to find your specific listing and copy the URL.

Go to the opt-out page, paste the URL, and enter your email address to remove the listing. You may have multiple listings on Spokeo if you have moved or changed your name, and will need to return to the opt-out page to remove each one.

PeopleSmart

Start on this opt-out page (not the main PeopleSmart homepage) to "manage" (aka remove or update) your listing. Once you select the listing, click on the work info that applies to you (if it's not the correct information, just skip the step and proceed).

When you reach Define Your Privacy Preferences, deselect all checks under "Contact Information" and "Work Information." Select "Apply these settings to other people search websites" and then submit.

How to delete your online data from MyLife and Intelius after the break.

After years of regularly uploading photo albums and writing on Timelines, your Facebook history is extensive. And since the publicly traded company makes a good deal of its money from selling the details of your interactions on the site to marketers, it's only fair you should see exactly what sort of profitable material you've stored on the Facebook servers.

Get ready for an information dump, because there's a lot of content you've amassed on Facebook, and it's all accessible through various routes. Facebook categorizes users data three ways: Downloaded Info, Expanded Archive, and Activity Log, and each one holds different data.

Keep reading for step-by-step directions on how to download your Facebook data and a breakdown of what you'll find in each category.

It can be tough going a day without using Facebook and Google in some capacity. Though we use these sites because they're useful, interactive, and, most importantly, free, that doesn't mean they come without a cost. We "pay" them with our personal data, which is why the settings that keep that information private are often hidden and hard to come by. Privacyfix (free), a new extension for Google Chrome and Firefox, takes the rocket science out of securing your online data by bringing all of those discrete settings together, in one clear place.

The browser app tells you which websites are sharing your data, tells you which are tracking you right now, and displays both Facebook and Google privacy settings in a simple, easy-to-navigate dashboard. Settings that you might want to "fix" are flagged in yellow, and clicking on the "fix" button will take you right to the opt-out page on the appropriate site, where Privacyfix shows you the pros and cons of changing that setting.

Also find out how much Facebook and Google make from ads at your level of online activity and what percentage of your browsing history is tracked. We found out that Facebook tracks over 90 percent of our online activity and Google makes about $830 per year from the ads it shows us!

Let us know what you think of Privacyfix and if you plan on installing this security tool on your browser.

This week, the White House announced a framework to protect consumer privacy in the digital age of smartphones and constant Internet access. The voluntary corporate guidelines called the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights "give consumers clear guidance on what they should expect from those who handle their personal information, and set expectations for companies that use personal data."

For now, the Federal Trade Commission will monitor those companies who voluntarily agree to these terms, though President Obama stresses in the document that he hopes to see Congress pass official legislation protecting the public's online privacy and personal data. We may be months away from seeing the real-world implications of the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, but here's what you need to know about how each principle outlined by the president may affect your future online presence.

Individual Control

"Consumers have a right to exercise control over what personal data companies collect from them and how they use it."
Companies should offer clear options for the public to make decisions about the personal information collected and used for business purposes. The tools for later withdrawing or limiting consent should be as easily accessible as were the methods of initial sign-up and granting of private data use.

How This Effects You: For example, there's no obvious deletion button for those who want to remove Facebook. With this principle, a data deletion feature would be easily accessible.

Transparency

"Consumers have a right to easily understandable and accessible information about privacy and security practices."
Companies should ensure all privacy practices are understandable by the public. Clear descriptions of exactly what data is collected, why it's used, for how long, when it will be deleted, and whether it's shared with outside parties should be provided to customers.

How This Effects You: Forget complicated, 20-page-long privacy policies; companies adhering to these standards would explain where your information is being used in normal, nontechnical-jargon language.

Follow the break to learn how the five other points on the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights will affect you.