Archive
“Do Not Track” Not So Good After All?
Source: Slashgear
The “Do Not Track” header in websites is a feature that states if a user wishes to be tracked by websites (mainly for advertising purposes through cookies) or not. However, it is optional for the websites if they respect the user’s decision or not. Today, most browsers support this feature (the Chrome browser will support it by the end of 2012), Microsoft recently even announced that it will be turned on by default in IE10. From a privacy perspective this is a very welcome development, which gives power back to the users. However, two recent articles focused on the economical implications of restricting technology that funds big parts of our (free) Internet as we know it. Without ads, websites such as Google or Facebook would have a hard time financing themselves. In Technology Review, Antonio Regalado asks if this feature will kill off innovation in online advertisement, with serious implications for the $40B online ad industry and as such for us as users as well.
Another reason I find the article quite interesting is that it points out the positive sides of tracking the user to deliver highly targeted ads. You might even get relevant information out of ads instead of useless spam.
In order to better understand online tracking I highly recommend the guide from the Guardian. Also check out their nice graph about the biggest advertising companies and websites that use them.
Posting Pics of Cash on Facebook: Not a Good Idea!
This is just a symbol photo, not actually the girl (it is Tamara Ecclestone), (c) Petra Ecclestone
This story reminds us that we should think before we post something on Facebook. An Australian 17 year old posted a picture of a pile of cash to Facebook after helping her grandmother to count her money. Just hours afterwards, two robbers with masks, a knife and a club turned up at the house of the girl. Luckily, neither the girl nor the cash was there anymore and nobody got hurt. They just took a “small amount of cash” and left. This incident caused the local police to issue a warning about being cautious when posting something to social media.
The only real possibility how this could have happened is that this girl has some really shady people in her friends list. Not only is it your responsibility to choose what to post online but also whom you be-friend. This shows that not only criminals can be caught by the fotos they post online but criminals can get a good idea of whom to rob next.
Digital Privacy 