The Truth About Data Mining: How Online Trackers Gather, See Your Info Companies like Google and Facebook use cookies to track users across multiple websites over an undisclosed amount of time. (Photo: Ksayer1/Flickr) Targeted ads have become a way of life. When you search for an airline flight, online snippets keep track of what you looked for and use this information to serve you catered ads. There are many companies whose sole purpose is to gather and trade people’s information. It’s called targeted advertising, and it’s a side of the Internet so new there aren’t any regulations to control it. Below we’ll talk about the kind of information these companies can see, and how they can use it to both empty your wallet and further their own agenda. It All Starts with a Cookie Companies like Google and Facebook use cookies to track users across multiple websites over an undisclosed amount of time. There was a story a few years ago about a man in Minnesota who got upset at Target because they were sending his teenage daughter coupons for baby clothes.
Facebook Search Engine Indexing Claim: A recent change now allows all of your private Facebook information to be automatically indexed by search engines. Example:[Collected via e-mail, December 2009] If you don't know, as of today, Facebook will automatically index all your info on Google, which allows everyone to view it. To change this option, go to Privacy then UN-CLICK the box that says 'Allow indexing'. Facebook kept this one quiet. Origins: This item appears to be based on a bit of confusion over some recent changes to Facebook's privacy settings, which by default now make public some information which was previously private: Users who had not previously selected their own privacy settings, and who now go with Facebook's default settings, will be publishing their status messages and wall posts to everyone on the Internet. Facebook added a tool that lets users select privacy settings for literally each post they place on the social networking site. Public Search Results Important Privacy Announcement
CloseBrace | The Dead-Simple Step-By-Step Guide for Front-End Developers to Getting Up and Running With Node.JS, Express, and MongoDB Introduction There are approximately one hundred million tutorials on the web for getting a "Hello, World!" app running with Node.js. This is great! It's especially great if your goal is to greet the world and then give up on your web career and go spend the rest of your life as, like, a jockey or something. That doesn't really describe most of us, so we go looking for more tutorials. In my experience, the "next level" tutorials out there seem about 30 levels further along. I'm not the only one, right? Well, good news, everyone! Here's the deal: I'm going to show you how to get all of this stuff set up. Your app will look pretty, it will connect to a DB, it'll get some results, and it'll do stuff with those results. Let's go. Part I – 15 minutes of installing If you're really starting from scratch, then getting everything up and running takes a little bit of time. Step 1 – Install Node.js This is really easy. Step 2 – Install Express Generator Command C:\node> ... is VERY different from: OK!
Dozens of Companies Are Using Facebook to Exclude Older… This story was co-published with The New York Times. A few weeks ago, Verizon placed an ad on Facebook to recruit applicants for a unit focused on financial planning and analysis. The ad showed a smiling, millennial-aged woman seated at a computer and promised that new hires could look forward to a rewarding career in which they would be “more than just a number.” Some relevant numbers were not immediately evident. Ad From Verizon Verizon is among dozens of the nation's leading employers — including Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Target and Facebook itself — that placed recruitment ads limited to particular age groups, an investigation by ProPublica and The New York Times has found. The ability of advertisers to deliver their message to the precise audience most likely to respond is the cornerstone of Facebook’s business model. “It’s blatantly unlawful,” said Debra Katz, a Washington employment lawyer who represents victims of discrimination. Facebook defended the practice. ‘They Know I’m Dead’
How Facebook Tracks Your Web Activity How Clean Is Your Digital Footprint? - KWHS While she’s in the midst of a flurry of college applications, Lillian Donahue isn’t taking the chance that a blemish from her digital footprint may be the difference between getting the thumbs up from Arizona State University, her top choice, and watching someone else get her acceptance letter. Donahue is constantly reviewing her social media feeds – Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – for things like suggestive or immature language that could be controversial or unsavory in the eyes of college admissions professionals who may be taking a peek at her online life. If she’s not sure how a post may be received, it gets the ax. “Double, triple, quadruple check yourself,” says the senior at Ladue Horton Watkins High School in St. Louis, Missouri. “I know every single one of my colleges is looking.” Digital DNA Donahue’s future employers may be looking, too, even years down the road. And colleges are watching. Conversation Starters
DoNotTrackMe 10 Things Your Students Should Know About Their Digital Footprints Building a digital legacy is an issue I believe doesn’t garner enough attention in our personal and professional lives. In fact, some of the heaviest users of online tools and social media, are our young students, who are growing up as a generation of visual learners and visual attention seekers. This is in fact the Facebook and YouTube generation, and the reality is that many teens are unconcerned about the dangers of sharing personal information online. A highly respected education advocate, Kevin Honeycutt, once asked me if any of us from our generation (GenX and before), had ever made a mistake in puberty. He then asked if our mistakes are “Googleable.” The reality is that our mistakes from puberty are not “Googleable”. With that in mind, I have developed some important facts and opinions that our students should be completely aware of as they live in their digital world, creating digital footprints along the way. 1.) 3.) 4.) 5.) 6.) 7.) 8.) 9.) 10.) Good luck!
How To Block Facebook And Other Social Networks From Tracking You Online Whenever you visit a site with a Like, Tweet or +1 button, you’re actually sharing data with Facebook, Twitter or Google. And that’s not all. There are hundreds of advertising and data collection companies that know quite a bit about your browsing habits. Luckily, no matter what your browser of choice might happen to be, there is a way to stop social networks and advertising companies from tracking your every move on the Web. Sites like Twitter, Facebook and Google store cookies on your computer, making it possible for them to keep tabs on you on other websites, as long as there’s a button that can send information to that social network, like a Follow, Like or Tweet button, you know that your data is being shared with these sites. One of the few reasons you might want to share your data with these companies is to receive suggestions on which tweeps to follow, which pages to like, and so on. Do Not Track Plus Disconnect Ghostery Mobile Browsing Image Credit: Franco Bouly