Web Teacher » privacy

The Smartphone Password Protection Quandry

vdebolt — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 12:35:08 +0000

I was reading Most Don’t Password Protect Their Smartphones – Here’s Why You Should at ReadWriteWeb. Sure, protect your privacy, ensure you security. I, however, have a point of view on the password entry to smartphones that is more nuanced.

When you’re trotting around the globe in your 20s and 30s with you mobile phone in hand, you can ignore the fact that you are a mortal being. At my age, not so much. So I selectively protect my phone, depending on where I am.

It only takes a moment to turn on password protection, or to turn it off.

I turn it on when I’m in situations where there are lots of people and I might lose it or mislay it or even have it stolen.

I turn it off when I’m driving somewhere alone, or when I’m out walking alone. If something happens to me while I’m away from home alone, I want my emergency numbers and my contact list to be accessible on my phone. I’m trading one kind of security for another kind of security.

Useful links: two from danah, WordPress + InDesign, Pride

vdebolt — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:38:39 +0000

Two new posts from danah boyd are worth reading. “Teen Sexting and Its Impact on the Tech Industry” (my RWW talk) and “Networked Privacy” (my PDF talk).

The Bangor Daily News is now running on WordPress with integrated InDesign. Interesting. Wonder if they’ve written up how they are doing it – I’ll bet a lot of people would be interested.

Google LGBT-Related Searches are Rainbow-Colored for Pride Month. A hugely successful and profitable American company supports LGBT human beings? And the world hasn’t come to an end? Oh, am I letting my liberal show?

Useful Links: DIY Mobile, 5 questions, do not track, fan pages

vdebolt — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 14:21:52 +0000

DIY Mobile Programming: Get Started with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Good resource.

Five Questions with Zoe Gillenwater. An interview by Chris Coyier. It is impossible to say enough good things about Zoe Gillenwater. Awesome is a good place to start.

Google and Mozilla Take Steps Toward Do Not Track is a post of my own at BlogHer. I conclude that talk from the browser makers about Do Not Track is mostly smoke and mirrors. What do you think?

Compelling Facebook Fan Pages from Chris Brogan lists shows pages I never heard of and don’t find particularly compelling. But if you’re trying to accomplish something with a Facebook page, go check it out.

Useful Links: Difficult Fonts, Hardboiled, Firesheep

vdebolt — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:51:43 +0000

Making things hard to read ‘can boost learning’ at BBC News says that reading something in a “harder” font can boost retention of the information. The easy font they tested was Arial at pure black. The hard fonts tested were Comic Sans and Bodoni, both at 75% grayscale. Does that mean that if I can decipher something in your scratchy handwriting, I’ll remember it forever?

Hardboiled Web Design is a new book by Andy Clarke. I haven’t seen the book yet, but I have to say that the book website is creative and beautifully designed. Bodes well for the book, don’t you think?

Firesheep. A new Firefox extension that is about to set off a firestorm. Read Firesheep In Wolves’ Clothing: Extension Lets You Hack Into Twitter, Facebook Accounts Easily and How to Protect Your Login Information from Firesheep immediately. Both are at TechCrunch.

Useful Links: YouTube edu, Mac news, Privacy

vdebolt — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 15:03:13 +0000

100 Incredibly Useful YouTube Channels for Teachers may give you some helpful resources.

Apple’s “Back to the Mac” Event: All the Announcements at Mashable is a nice summary of recent announcements. No more CD slot – time to flip a switch in your brain to flash drive for everything.

Tracking the Companies that Track You Online is a podcast from NPR’s Fresh Air. It’s an interview with Julia Angwin of The Wall Street Journal that looks at how tracking companies, data brokers and advertising networks work.

Is there a gender issue with Facebook Places?

vdebolt — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:20:17 +0000

I’ll do anything for BlogHer. Even try out Facebook Places. I resisted Foursquare and Gowalla and other similar services. But when BlogHer asked me to report on Facebook Places, I couldn’t say no.

First, I’ll explain how to use it. Then I’ll describe how reactions to it have split along gender lines. Finally, I’ll tell you how to deal with privacy settings for this new Facebook service.

Read the full article at BlogHer.

Facebook’s New Privacy Settings: This is simple?

vdebolt — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 13:02:43 +0000

Last week Facebook responded to the screams of anger over their privacy policies. On the Facebook blog, Mark Zuckerberg explained Facebook’s new rules. Supposedly, the steps Facebook is taking will make monitoring your privacy settings simpler.

Today we’re starting to roll out some changes that will make all of these controls a lot simpler. We’ve focused on three things: a single control for your content, more powerful controls for your basic information and an easy control to turn off all applications.

Whether Facebook succeeded in making things simpler is open for debate. The problem with Facebook privacy settings is that so many applications, features, functions, partnerships, advertisers, and connections run into and out of Facebook. So many settings are needed to control all these data streams, that it’s hard for me to regard the process as simple.

Trying to tame Facebook’s privacy settings is like trying to get a kid into a onesie while she is kicking and rolling and practicing her semaphore technique. It’s like the kid has forty arms and legs to trap instead of just four, and you can never quite get everything snapped up before she slips an appendage out again.

The headline at Search Engine Land says it all for me: Drill (Down), Baby, Drill: Facebook’s New “Simple” Privacy Settings Still Pretty Complex.

The new settings are rolling out slowly. If you look at your Privacy settings in Facebook and the heading is “Privacy Settings,” you still have the old system in place. When the new one reaches you, the page heading will say “Choose Your Privacy Settings.” You can see a screen shot of the new privacy page in Live Blog: Facebook Unveils New Privacy Controls.

A video tutorial by the EFF shows step by step directions for every menu and submenu involved in deciding on your privacy settings. The EFF page gives a text version of the video, which is helpful. If you can grasp all the steps from just the video and don’t need the written version, here’s the video from YouTube.

Wired Pen, in Facebook Principles Deciphered takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the new principles Zuckerberg announced and explains what they mean. For example, here’s one principle and its deciphered meaning:

We do not share your personal information with people or services you don’t want. (That is, unless a friend of yours has done so but we warn you about this in our privacy settings so that means we aren’t sharing your information, your friends are.)

On a more serious note, Wired Pen wrote today about the privacy controversy being deliberate on Facebook’s part.

Some people delivered kudos for the new settings. You’re in Control with New Facebook Privacy Settings is a good example of showing some approval to Facebook for respecting the demands of its users.

I agree that Facebook gets points for responding to the complaints. However, from my viewpoint, putting “you” in control of your Facebook privacy settings is part of the problem. Instead of opting in, you are forced to opt out. Instead of relying on your personal privacy and safety being respected, you are forced to police your settings with a microscope. If you are distracted or confused or not alert and things go awry—too bad, because you were in control.

Movements to get Facebook users to quit Facebook have fallen flat. Most people have concluded that Facebook is too big to quit. The only option left is to be in control of your privacy settings—and it’s not that simple.

Useful links: Facebook privacy, speed-listen

vdebolt — Sat, 15 May 2010 12:54:56 +0000

A blog post that makes clear the importance of long content comes to us from danah boyd, who knows a thing or two about privacy. danah makes some powerful points about what is happening with privacy on Facebook. Facebook and “radical transparency” (a rant). There are so many quotable points in the post. I will quote one, and encourage you read it all. Read the comments, too.

The battle that is underway is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It’s a battle over choice and informed consent. It’s unfolding because people are being duped, tricked, coerced, and confused into doing things where they don’t understand the consequences. Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely unfair. It gives users the illusion of choice and hides the details away from them “for their own good.”

Quick Tip: Speed-listen to Podcasts on your iPhone/iPod at Web Worker Daily is a great tip.