Technical Tidbits™

My roomie reads Lifehacker nearly every day and spotted their popular article of the week titled: Which Browser Should I Use: Firefox or Chrome? and of course, he called it to my attention.

In the end, Lifehacker concludes that the speed of Chrome far outweighs Firefox, but that Firefox wins by use of extensions. In the end, they  really leave the decision up to the reader because browsers are – sort of – a personal preference.

There is one area that they really glossed over however, which is where my roomie knew I’d end up putting my two cents in, and that is security or shall I say, privacy!

Anyone is free to look-up the Google Chrome Privacy Policy as it’s readily available here: http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/privacy.html and of course, you can also see the Firefox Privacy Policy here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/legal/privacy/firefox-en.html

So, you can do your “due diligence” and verify that what I’m saying here is ABSOLUTELY TRUE – which is what you should do with anything you read or hear!

Okay, first of all, the Google Chrome Privacy Policy on the VERY FIRST LINE states that:

The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google’s products and services, including information provided when you use Google Chrome.

So, before you even start to read the Google Chrome Privacy Policy (which is really a link to their privacy center first), you need to check out the Google Privacy Center first.  Just for kicks and giggles, click the link here to the Google Privacy Center and look at it.

Did you notice that while there’s a blanket Privacy Policy mentioned (with an additional link to it), there’s also 44 links to individual privacy policies relating to each of the additional Google services. Do you read them all? Most people don’t.

Now, compare all that to the Mozilla Firefox Privacy Policy – which is one page and minimal links to external information.

Don’t get me wrong, I do use some Google services even with my Firefox! I use Google Calendar (and it’s public), I use Buzz, I have a Gmail account, analytics for our website, Google Adsense is on our blog and a few other pages of our site, and I use the Google Reader (and it’s also public).  But, I do not use Google services for anything that is confidential relating to my business.  And that’s where people go wrong.

I’m always amazed at how many people use Gmail for their business-based mail program, along with Google Docs and other services. You’re just waiting to have your confidential information breached Pal! (Just ask Twitter how that worked for them!)

And don’t give me the old song and dance about “times are tough,” “the economy sucks,” and all the other current economic rhetoric.

Thunderbird e-mail program is free, and you can connect it to your Gmail or other IMAP account if you don’t have a pop-mail account.  I download my Gmail from time-to-time through a second profile setup in Thunderbird and then delete everything out of my Gmail online.  That way, if it’s ever breached, there’s nothing in it! And, I have my Thunderbird so decked out, it works for me just like my old Outlook used to – only with security now!

Open Office is free, it’s compatible with Microsoft Office, and very similar to use.  You don’t have to use the free (along with unsecure and spying) Google free services. There are other free options.

You don’t have to sacrifice security and privacy in the land of “free” software or services.

The other item that I want to address is the fact that Firefox does get overwhelmed in size over the length of time that it’s open. But here’s my take on that too. You shouldn’t be leaving your browser open indefinitely. ANY BROWSER! With rotating ads pumping malware every so many 1,000 of rotations, the chances are great that you will get a drive-by Trojan malware just by having your browser sit open with a variety of web pages open in tabs. CLOSE YOUR BROWSER when you are not using it and CLOSE ANY TABS you have open that have rotating ads on them. Or use Firefox with the AdBlocker add-on.

And since I do a lot of my work online, I have my Firefox open for hours at a time. And yes, I do have to shut it down and restart it to get rid of the bloat.  But hell, I have to reboot my Windows PC more often and I’m on a Dual-Core!

In the end, it’s like Lifehacker say’s:

At the end of the day, both Chrome and Firefox are excellent web browsers for Windows, and you can’t go wrong with either. From our perspective, more and more power users seem to be swapping happily to Chrome from Firefox (several Lifehacker editors have made this switch and haven’t looked back), and their switch has been spurred mostly by the bloat issues mentioned above. If you’ve been frustrated with Firefox, we’d recommend kicking the tires and Chrome to see how you like it; you can always switch back if you decide your heart lies with Firefox.

If, on the other hand, you’re perfectly happy with Firefox, we don’t see any reason to upset a good thing. (If it ain’t broke and all that.)

As for me, privacy and security trumps “power” every time!

In keeping with our privacy theme recently, I’d like to report on a recent Wired.com article,  “Judge Approves $9.5 Million Facebook ‘Beacon’ Accord“  By David Kravets.

Remember I told you that I save things? Well, I saved an eWeek link to an article back in January of this year where Facebook CEO,Mark Zuckerberg declared that privacy has become less of a “social norm.”  Specifically, the article said:

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently declared that privacy has become less of a “social norm” on the Internet as users have become more comfortable sharing information. (http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Facebook-CEO-Privacy-Not-the-Social-Norm-372659/)

Well, as David Kravets points out in his wired article,  a federal judge still believes in privacy!

A federal judge on Wednesday approved a $9.5 million settlement to a class action lawsuit challenging Facebook’s program that monitored and published what users of the social networking site were buying or renting from Blockbuster, Overstock and other locations.

The case concerned allegations Facebook’s now defunct “Beacon” program breached federal wiretap and video-rental privacy laws. Terms of the settlement, in which Facebook denied any wrongdoing, require the site to finance what the deal calls a “Digital Trust Fund” that would issue more than $6 million in grants to organizations to study online privacy.

The social networking site will have a seat on the fund’s three-member board — a fact that was a big bone of contention (.pdf) in the privacy community, but one U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Jose, California, said Wednesday was immaterial.

Perhaps Zuckerman needs to rethink just what privacy is and how much we are willing to tolerate in terms of privacy violations as a society in general.

For more information on the settlement and the details of the Digital Trust Fund, visit,  Judge Approves $9.5 Million Facebook ‘Beacon’ Accord | Threat Level | Wired.com.

It started off with the BlogTalk radio show with Joe Scott from PhatomAlert.com: Beat Big Brother to the Stoplight.  The information Joe gave me was disturbing and upsetting.

But then, Cracked publishes this:  5 Ways You’re Secretly Being Monitored | Cracked.com.

And then there’s TruTV’s Jessie Venture and Conspiracy Theory episode on Big Brother (see video below).

And well, I really don’t know what to say anymore.

The Cracked article points you to the website for Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) which sounds pretty harmless and benign. But there, in plain site was the study about CCTV in buses in Chicago and other transit authorities.

The page I landed on stated:

In Chicago, Illinois, on-board transit surveillance systems were installed on 322 buses. Multiple cameras were installed on the interior of each bus to ensure complete coverage, and digital event recorders were used to securely capture video, audio, and sensor data. In 1998, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) reported the total cost of installation was $3.1 million.

Did you read that thoroughly? VIDEO, AUDIO, AND SENSOR DATA.

Maybe you might want to think twice about using your cell phone on the bus, train, elevator, ummmm – anywhere?!

Recently, I ran across an article on Yahoo News about the FBI and other government agencies setting up fake profiles on social networking sites!

U.S. law enforcement agents are following the rest of the Internet world into popular social-networking services, going undercover with false online profiles to communicate with suspects and gather private information, according to an internal Justice Department document that offers a tantalizing glimpse of issues related to privacy and crime-fighting. (Yahoo News | Break the law and your new ‘friend’ may be the FBI)

Do you think it’s working? It is in Italy!

The BBC recently reported in their article, “Facebook traps Italian fugitive mafia suspect” that,

Italian police have used social networking site Facebook to track down and capture one of the country’s most-wanted fugitive mafia suspects.

And in a recent newsletter article (subscribe top right!), I reported how a Police detective used a fugitive’s addiction to World of Warcraft to find him by locating his IP address when he was playing the game online.

Am I becoming one of those “conspiracy theorists?” No, because I don’t believe this is a theory anymore. The government and its agencies along with the hacker’s, the ghostnet, and the online underground economy are in plain sight and open about what they do! It’s a fact.

And for any of you nay-sayers who think governments aren’t capable of conspiracy, I ask that you watch the PBS special with Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. called: Faces of America. I used to think that governments were inept at doing “conspiracy-type” projects until I saw a totally unrelated item on this series.  I believe it was the in the second episode where Gates presents an old document to show the passage of an ancestor from Ireland to the United States.  In that document was an accounting of how much food was being exported from Ireland by the government during the time peasants were starving from the potato famine! It was very obvious the government wanted to get rid of the peasant population one way or another – either starvation or shipping them to the new world. Either way, it was proof positive for me!

So again, are you secretly being monitored? No! You are OPENLY BEING MONITORED!