security

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Watch for Google Goggles Info

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Are you reading about "Google Goggles"?   It's a photo-based search in real-time.  This PCWorld article describes its features.  This article from the UK points out serious privacy concerns. Barbara Krasnoff, Computerworld points out, "So what's scary? The day when you can quickly point your smartphone at a person in the street and know within seconds that person's name and particulars may not be that far off."

Address Book Privacy

Keeping up to date on the latest in security and privacy, we hear from John Carter. We had asked if putting Google or Yahoo or MobileMe to link to Address Book could in any way be something to avoid.
Here's his take on that.  .

 "If you frequently switch between Mac Mail and something like Google Mail or Yahoo Mail when you are away from home and you also frequently update your address book on one or the other, then synchronizing your address book across these platforms could make life a little easier for you.

"If you have a cell phone that you always carry with you, you could also keep your contact list updated between Mac Address Book and the cell phone Contact list and rely on your cell phone Contact list when you are not at home, which is what I try to do."

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Do You Value Your Privacy?

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Here's the latest PMUG handout from today's October 2009 meeting.  Hope it's helpful.  Read on about security.

10-24-09
You have some choices to make that affect your privacy on the Internet. Here are some considerations.

A recent Internet article mentioned privacy, and the writer gave this advice. Use one Internet search engine, say, Google for looking up articles; use Firefox for your financial dealings with your bank; use Opera for ordering things from the Internet.

Open to Safari. Click on History on the main menu at the top, and go all the way down the list to click Clear History. Every website you’ve opened since the last time you cleared it, or for the last several weeks will be erased from this list. Want to save some? Click Show All History and delete just the ones you want to, at this time.

Go to Safari > Preferences > Auto Fill (or Command + ,) See what your default setting has been all this time. If “Use info from my Address Book card” has been checked, then no wonder that yesterday in your mailbox you got something from British Columbia. Just a few days earlier you saw a cute ad on the Internet when you were looking up something else, and you clicked to just read that ad. Now the company has all that info about you that you posted to your own Address Book.

Command + Shift + H takes you from wherever you are on the Internet to the Google homepage.

On Google’s homepage click under More. Then click Even More. There are lots of interesting Google Products. Decide which ones you want to know about, but keep in mind what level of privacy you want.

Got all your Cookies? Open Safari, do Command + , (comma) and chose Security. Here you can choose to accept Cookies, “always,” “never,” or “only from sites I visit.” Some sites will prompt you to set to accept Cookies, but when you’re done with that site you can go immediately back to this list and click Never, and Show Cookies. Delete what you want; I delete all every time I finish on the Internet. The next time you need a Cookie temporarily you’ll be prompted to allow Cookies. Do it, then delete after you’re done with that site.

Sign in to Google with your email address and your Google password, chosen for your Google account. Go to Web History. Here you are being tracked. To opt out choose to Pause Web History. Your previous History will be deleted and it says they will not gather this info until you allow it.

DO NOT use any social networking sites: FaceBook, MySpace, etc. Don’t post any information about yourself on the Internet, comments, forums, etc. that you don’t want the whole world to know.

On the Safari drop-down menu Private Browsing could be a good choice. # # #

Does It Work Now?

David Passell writes, "I have been using MacScan, the possible subject of a future meeting, for over a year and it has detected and removed 50 tracking cookies. Here are the latest for August 31, and September 4. (Double click on images to enlarge them.)

"Tracking Cookies are considered harmless as far as security is concerned, but they may spawn a junk E-mail. Some of you fearless pioneers using Snow Leopard might try downloading the trial version, see if it finds anything, and report back. Here is their address and more info. MacScan - Mac OS X Anti-Spyware Security and Privacy Protection ...
Isolates, detects and removes spyware, keystroke loggers, and trojan horses for Mac OS and Mac OS X."

Security Update Posted

If you haven’t been automatically notified from your Mac’s Software Update, you might want to look at this. It’s a security update, “Java for Mac OS X v.10.5, update 4.” Several news sources on Google reported it. I looked at http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/06/15/apple_plugs_critical_java_security_hole_affecting_tiger_leopard.html

Sure enough, it came up when I looked at Software Update on my Mac. It said, "Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 4 delivers improved reliability, security, and compatibility for Java SE 6, J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4.2 on Mac OS X 10.5.7 and later. This release updates Java SE 6 to version 1.6.0_13, J2SE 5.0 to version 1.5.0_19, and J2SE 1.4.2 to 1.4.2_21.
Please quit all web browsers before installing this update.
For more details on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3581

Check it out for yourself. "Secure" is such a nice concept.

Safe and Secure

Our February 21 meeting will feature a Keynote presentation by Art Gorski. He will give us features, tricks and tips, some unique to Leopard (Mac OSX 10.5) that will make your computing safer and more secure, especially if you use a laptop in public locations.  He will also discuss safe computing practices, do's and don'ts, that will protect you on the Internet.  He promises to be gentle and not too technical, and everyone should learn something new.  See you there.