Sounds pretty great, doesn't it, and for now, it is free.  But, I see shadows from much earlier in our Web time frame.

In 1999, I was a downtown DC city fair.  We were all having a lot of fun and I ran across a booth with a company named Zero-Intelligence.  If you signed up, you could surf in total anonymity.  Truly, there was no way to track you, as your browser's request was stripped of most information, then went through three proxy server and back came the page, no cookies, nothing.

They had an email component.  Most people seemed to get three of these addresses.  The idea was to use them for shopping, personal, and whatever else.  The company, with the way it was set up, had no way to track who sent an email - sort of.  Most people paid by credit card, that is always a strong trail, but, in this case, it could stop them before they go going, or they might get lucky.

The big issue for this really nice company was that it was 1999.  Most of us had some form of dial-up, I had ISDN, I believe, and the service was just too slow to survive.  They added an anti-virus program, then a firewall, but, they could not get the main product into the hands of enough people.  Eventually, they turned to big business and set up major security protocols for their clients.  Here is a bit on Zero-Knowledge, from 1999,

Privacy was such a big deal then, as it is now.  And, though it is still important, one only has to look at the number of Social Media sites of any kind and there are millions of people around the world sharing more than they may realize.

To me, it is just funny to see it come around to now giving us a anonymous browser: Ixquck which is a Firefox add-on, or one can go to www

Posted via email from Random Musings

I took one more look at just the commercial for McDonalds in France.  The one which, for the far right, seems to be scaring them to death.  If it really were not so sad and their response to the commercial so un-American - or, more accurately, so un-United States. (All too often people forget that Canada and Mexico are in America. So much for our geography classes.)

I realized that the scene with father and son happens over and over again in this and so many countries.  It is a scene which can evoke a bit of sadness,f or certainly the young man does not want to disappoint his father.  And, he knows that at some time, he will come out to his family, the small smile the actor gives the camera at the end of the piece shows us that they will be fine.

Think of how many times something similar happens right around you, or, maybe in a few years you will be involved in such a scene, but, if you are the parent, then you know that your son or daughter is a gift to you and to this world. 

For fun, I thought I would put the commercial here without the Fox comedian's silly and old antics.

Posted via email from Random Musings

Someone sent me the video below, which is entertainer Bill O'Reilly's reaction to the French commercial for McDonalds, which he played for his audience.

Take a quick look, listen to what is said about it and let's go from there:

Posted via email from Random Musings

Posted via email from Random Musings

seems to be coming true in regards to Facebook (by no means are they the only ones getting this attention, and, to be fair, their current privacy policy is on the home page at the very bottom) and other social networking sites. Just read the tech section for a newspaper (yes, they still are made), or check the on-line news sites. There, one can read about issues with privacy policies many times over.   I just have had a feeling that while it would be fair to share certain information, listed before a person joins one of these, now, macro sites, in return for the services enumerated by the site and its Privacy Policy.  With that agreement comes a contract, for person A says I will share this information for you to sell and use to bring in revenue, in return for these services.  The lines that always bothered me and always kept me away were the one that were kind of nebulous about changing the privacy policy.  And, that is assuming the site had addressed the issue of changing the policy in the original Privacy Policy.

At the very least, the member, should be able to opt out, quite the service, and have their information discarded as they are no longer receiving any goods or services for the use of that information.  Also, the information should only be allowed to be used for the original purposes as stated when the person joined the site and agreed to its privacy policy. 

Over and over again we read about abuses with the information, the last minute changes in how it will be used and on and on.

Yes, making money on the Web can be a tough thing.  No, it is a touch thing.  And, for certain services, I like many people, will divulge certain information.  First, I see how it will be used and second I see what information they want.  If I can't make both of those things work together I do not join the service.  Thus far, my life has been just fine.  Heck, there are even sites that let you build your own social network (http://www.socialgo.com/) for free or, more realistically one might want to move to one of the tiers which do cost a decent amount of money, but, the services seem very well laid out, you control what information people need to give up to join and there you have it, your own group and control over the information.

All too many people feel that, "oh heck, they could find that out about me anyway."  Yes, maybe they could.  But, it would be expensive and they would not know how accurate the information is at that time.  So, what you share is one of the absolute items you must review and then ask others if they feel that giving up that much information to be used in the manner the site says seems like a fair trade.

For some sites, I bet there is no problem, but for a number of others, they are out to not only make the big money (which in and of itself is not wrong), but they do not see the members of their site as customers, only their lackeys giving up a very valuable commodity - your information.

Be careful.  Please, don't think you know it all.  Ask your parents or another adult or a good friend and decide  what it would be like if everyone knew that information.  If all seems fine, go ahead and have fun, but always keep checking the Privacy Policy of the site to see if any changes have taken place.  I use a free site, if one wants that service, or they have a paid tier, very reasonable, and it reminds me to check the privacy policies on a number of social sites.  Once the information is out there, well, it is gone and it will be used and sold and on and on. 

But, remember this, you won't be updating the information, if you felt comfortable giving it in the first place, you should be fine.  There is the rub, you, we all, have to be very strict with what we feel is appropriate information.  Sure, we want the sites to be successful, it is a form of bartering.  But, many of the sites change the rules of the barter after you are on board.  Just not a good way to do business, so show them that.

Posted via email from Random Musings