For the past many years, I used Google’s Webmaster Tools to help me optimize my various Web sites for Google’s search engine, and help me administer Google’s spidering of my sites.

In that same time frame, I’ve also sent automated nightly sitemaps of my sites to Google, to ensure that it would be aware of each day’s updates.

Over the years, I’ve also used four different Google GMail accounts as anonymous proxies, to protect my online privacy when corresponding with possibly dubious strangers — being careful not to [more...]

Ever since shortly after the Wordwide Web was invented, Windows users have had to deal with countless vulnerabilities in their operating systems’ swiss cheese-like security.

In fact, my disgust at that endless stream of Windows security vulnerabilities was one of the main reasons why I finally switched to Linux and stopped using Windows on my home computers almost 6 years ago.

I’m fortunate. Many millions of people around the world [more...]

I’ll bet that most of my readers use Google’s search engine.

And that many of them also watch videos on YouTube.

And use Gmail.

And Google Maps.

And maybe even Google Calendar.

They might even own [more...]

We’ve all read horror stories of travelers’ dealings with the TSA.

Strip-searched little old ladies.

Frisked babies.

Sexually groped children.

Humiliated disabled people.

Attractive women singled out for [more...]

It’s too bad that they are constantly pressured to share their personal information with strangers on social networking sites.

Along with their private — or even intimate or embarrassing — photos.

And every detail about where they go, what they do, who they’re friends with, and much more.

But now, some teenagers are putting a whole new kind of pressure on each other. [more...]

Regular readers of this Journal — and those who follow technology news — know that personal privacy is becoming a very rare commodity on the Internet.

And one of the biggest influences on the demise of personal privacy has been Facebook.

Over the years, Facebook’s leadership has repeatedly expressed disdain for those of us who value our privacy; and their company has [more...]

I’ve always known and taught that the biggest security threat to any organization’s network is the organization’s own employees.

Not because they intentionally sabotage the network’s security.

But because they have easy access to the network — and many of them are ignorant of even the most simple safe-computing practices.

So they unintentionally do unsafe things that end up [more...]

Regular readers know that I’ve mentioned it many (at least 46) times before.

I don’t share any of my personal confidential data with “free” online services.

I’ve seen — and shown you — plenty of reason to not trust Facebook, Google, MySpace, et all, to guard the security of your data and my personal privacy.

After all, their business plans all revolve around [more...]