CompuClever Blog

How to Protect Your Privacy & Identity on Facebook – Part 2

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In our Part 1 article we covered news related to the Facebook privacy scandal. In Part 2, we will emphasize what you can do.  We’ll provided three best-practice recommendation for protecting your identity and privacy.

Our Private Data

As Facebook users we accept the privacy policies when we sign on.  For the most part we don’t even read over the extensive policy pages.  Instead we set up our account and enter data related to our personal lives.  We understand in the process this information gets recorded and stored.

Take Action:

We recommend that you get a clear idea of how much and what kind of data Facebook collects on you.  Check out the “Data In” section of our previous article for directions on accessing the data Facebook has collected from you.

Facebook is a free service and we can expect that they make revenue by providing our data to advertisers.  What many of us are not aware of is that they pass on our data to third party developers and organizations.

This is why we can sign on to a new app or online service using our Facebook login.  Right away they can access our data so that it is easier for us to create a new account with the third party app rather than having to enter all the personal information they require once again. Continue reading...

Facebook Uncovered

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There is a real and strong allure to joining the crowd on Facebook. Its popularity and set of features makes email look like VHS in comparison to DVD. But… make no mistake – this is a sticky subject. There are many criticisms that have surfaced and we will attempt to sort through these. In doing so, we will avoid getting caught up with information overload.  Ultimately each person has to weigh out the pros and cons to make a decision for themselves.

We’re going to start off with a brief description of the history of Facebook and its popularity.  From there we present a like and dislike feature set – thumbs up and thumbs down.  After that we will offer some general recommendations and alternatives.

First Look

On February 2004, Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with his college roommates and fellow students at Harvard University.   At first it was limited to Harvard students, but expanded to include colleges in the Boston area and then gradually it included support for students at various other universities before being open to high-school students and then anyone aged 13 and over. When registering for a Facebook account, the user needs to claim being 13 years or older although proof of age is not a requirement.  Continue reading...

Choosing an Online Storage Solution

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Synopsis: All this talk about “cloud” and sharing files in the cloud. It seems we just got our heads wrapped around the idea of surfing the web. In our most recent article “Cloud Storage” we go into detail about online cloud storage and the reasons for using it. In this article we will shine some light on making the choice to use online storage and what to look for with cloud storage providers. We will give our recommendation once again and provide a clear outline of how to use a cloud storage system so you can get up and running. It is our intent that you take full advantage of this technology by using it for free and having fun with it.

Making a Decision That Works for You:

Before you begin using a cloud storage provider, it is best to consider the determining factors.  Here are a few of the items to consider.

Cost:  Many storage providers will offer an entry level for free.  You can then upgrade to a larger storage package based on various levels of cost.  Some subscription levels will also get you very large amounts of storage or even unlimited storage and perhaps more functionality (as would be the case if you want an enterprise subscription).  Continue reading...

Cloud Storage

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Synopsis: Data loss can be a hardship and being an informed PC user requires knowing about backing up data as a means of prevention. We focus here on informing our readers about a new technology that is available. This new technology has become a buzz word and drawn considerable attention – cloud storage. Here we will look at what it means to be in the cloud and we will highlight some examples of cloud storage and provide our pick for a cloud service provider.

Data Loss:

As the creation of data on PC’s increases so too does the need for storage and for the chance of loss of data.  In a recent article we introduced basic information about your PC Hard Drive.  Having your PC turn off or crash can result in data loss.  This usually results in data loss from the time you last saved a document or an email that was open – not a great loss overall.  However, the most common cause of data loss is hardware failure.  According to one study [1] 40% of data loss incidents occur from hardware failure including power surges and hard drive failure. Human error accounts for 30% of data loss (accidental deletion of data and accidental hardware damage). Continue reading...