New Google Shared Endorsements Settings

I am sure everyone has noticed the big blue bar across the top of whatever Google product they might be logged into today...

Regardless of all your other settings, I find this one in particular to be important to look at. It has to do with sharing across Google's products of your preferences that show up in ads that other users might see.

There is a link in the new TOS, but it might not stand out enough, so I am providing it here too so you can go directly there, if this is a particular interest of yours.

https://plus.google.com/settings/endorsements?hl=en

There is a check box at the bottom. For me it was defaulted to Opt Out but that might be due to the fact that I already have my +1 info opted for off in my Google account settings. Deal is, if you want to share your preferences for particular items to the public or "friends" via ads, you check the box and then click save. If you DON'T want to, then leave the box empty and hit save.

I have to say, I love how Google approached the changes page, explaining things in plain English rather than a bunch of confusing legalese.

Mishka
Official Blog*Star/Blogger TC
Testing Blogger

Content Policy For Blogger

Mostly I just wanted to have this here for my own reference. Nice to have it all in one area.

http://www.blogger.com/content.g

Mishka
Official Blog*Star/Blogger TC
Testing Blogger

FAQ: Blogspot.com Is Blocked, What Can I Do?

There are times when an ISP or a government decides to block the blogspot.com domain, and the only way to view blogs on that domain is to use a free proxy to get around it. Normally this situation is only temporary. I thought I would put a list of some of the proxies I have used in the past...some of these might also be blocked too so you might have to try more than one.

Get Wall http://getwall.com/
Anonymouse http://anonymouse.org/anonwww.html
HideMyAss http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy/

These are just a few but you can do a search for "free proxy" on Google and come up with a list of ones that you can try if these are blocked for some reason as well.

Mishka
Official Blog*Star/Blogger TC
Testing Blogger

Duh. The easiest way to stop hackers is with real passwords.

This linked article really spells it out in simple terms, how much you can do to protect yourself at your end (READ IT!). Obviously, you can only do so much on this side, but why make it easy for hackers by picking stupid passwords to begin with. Cover you own end and then hope and trust that the big institutions that have all our personal info are covering their part like they are supposed to.

To realize that 600K Facebook accounts get hacked a day is really scary...this means that a ton of users are using 123456 as their freaking password...and if that is the case, they almost deserve to get hacked.

Make your passwords a couple of words, that you can remember using upper and lower case letters, and then substitute in some numbers for some of the letters and throw a symbol or two in there between words...it isn't that hard. On top of that, change your password occasionally...make that computer hack program start from scratch and you won't have to worry.

Another smart thing to do is NOT use only one email address for all your logins. If that email gets hacked, you are screwed. You need to have yourself a little bit more diversified than that...and you need to stay on top of your info...logging into an account is the number one way to prove ownership so you need to remember your info.

Mishka
Official Blog*Star/Blogger TC
Testing Blogger

Ghostery and Do Not Track Plus Comparison

Found this terrific article today that was written this August that breaks down the two biggest non-tracking add-ons out there. After reading it, I have decided to go with DNT Plus but that is just my own opinion and we'll see how it goes.

I know that a lot of users this last couple of weeks have been having issues with DNT Plus and Ghostery causing them to lose sight of their navbars on their blogs as well as on other people's blogs and I am sure this is due to the addition by Blogger of the +1 button on the navbar. I am hoping to tweek DNT Plus enough that I can get the navbar to show without having to expose myself to any other tracking issues.

Anyhow, I thought I would share the link to this article here so I could keep track of it and also provide it for other readers that would like to know how these non-tracking add-ons work and which would be best for them from a side by side comparison.

Mishka
Official Blog*Star/Blogger TC
Testing Blogger