Mongoose Media Privacy.

Keeping your privates .... private

Welcome to a one off addition of Media Roundup. Here I the Mongoose offer you a few simple tips for maintaining your online privacy. Obviously if you break anything here we at BTSM can not be held responsible. So my advice is if you are not sure in any way.. no touchy touchy

Step into my Office

What are you giving away?

It's worth checking your Facebook profile to see what your Privacy settings are. Just worth bearing in mind that Anyone can view means just that. Even non facebook prowlers can see your details. Although they wont be interested in your Christmas gathering picture's (OK they might) they may be more interested in your date of birth..

Using Internet Explorer?

I am not into this whole which browser is better argument. But as far as which is safer?

If your using explorer keep it as up to date as you can. A lot of the older versions have security holes.

Using Firefox? Most Spyware gets into Firefox through out of dated plugins. Its worth checking that all your Plugins are up to date.

To do that visit the following URL

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/

Passwords

Your email's contain a lot of private information so the longer the password the better. Preferably including numbers. Years are good. The best ones are longish and easy to remember. Same with other services. Emphasis on the on line banking here as well.

Clear History

Always a good idea. Most browsers have a clear history upon closing option. This is essential if your using a PC a public place, using or using on line banking . It can also get rid of some spy ware nasties that may hide inside saved website images

Operating System

Most system attacks are aimed at Microsoft's operating systems. This is not be plugging Ubuntu but the two systems don't have to be separate. There is a web installer that can install Ubuntu almost like an application. This gives you the option to boot either OS at start up. Failing that if using XP set yourself up a user account rather than use the default administrator.

If you decide to continue using Windows exclusively I found the best free tools to be Spybot search and destroy, and AVG anti virus.

Concerned about Google

If you are concerned with Googles changes in privacy policy there are other search engines out these. Duckduckgo is a worthy search engine that does uphold privacy.