TechConfidence™

Most advertising on the web uses a technology called cookies to track some of your web use so that you can be better profiled for marketing purposes.

Most major ad networks will allow you to opt out of this by filling out a form at the Network Advertising Initiative’s website. Just choose “select all” and “submit,” and you’ll be opted out of many of the largest advertising networks. Note that this is something that must be done per computer, per login. So, if you have a computer at home and one at work, you’ll have to opt out from both locations, and if your home computer has separate usernames for you and a family member, each person will have to opt out separately.

Opting out of ad network tracking is no guarantee of privacy, but it does decrease the ability for these particular companies to profile your behavior. (It also decreases their ability to deliver the most relevant ads to you, so if you’re a photographer, you may start seeing fewer photography-related ads and more ads for random other things that you’re not interested in.)

If you finally gave in and accepted a friend or family member’s invitation to join Facebook, you should be aware of a number of things you can do to increase your privacy on the site. After all, whether you’re posting names and photos of your grandkids, writing “25 interesting things about me,” or expressing a political opinion, you don’t necessarily want this information shared with the world.

The article linked above includes ten settings that, collectively, will make your Facebook content a bit safer.

In the perfect world, of course, Facebook would take the responsibility of making things private for you in the first place, and then allow you to make them less private as you see fit.

Tech reporter Hiawatha Bray at the Boston Globe provides a nice overview of home computer security basics. Nothing really new here, but it’s boiled down to the bare minimum steps that every user should take to minimize the risk of getting his/her PC infected.