There are now 500,000,000 (a half billion) Facebook users on the internet, so why not add a little professionalism to your profile?

CIO magazine lists four applications that help you do just that, such as this one:

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Your personal information, whether you have social media accounts or not, is all over the internet. Below are a few places and how to remove yourself. Remember, that if you have family members living with you, you may want to remove their information as well.

Address Information, etc:

• WhitePages.com, for instructions on how to remove yourself, click here: http://www.whitepages.com/privacy_central#6. Basically just search for your name and then click “Remove this listing”.
• PeopleSearchPRO.com, you can opt out here: http://www.peoplesearchpro.com/PSP.aspx?_act=optout
• USA Today article on removing your personal details from online databases: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kimkomando/2006-10-05-database-info_x.htm

Home Value and Property Taxes,etc:

• Zillow.com: http://www.zillow.com

I would certainly appreciate any comments as to other places to opt out of personal information being displayed to any internet user online!

Is your personal information suddenly flapping in the breeze? Very interesting article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36877160/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/from/ET?GT1=43001

Broadband access in the United States is even worse than you think.

My DSL is only 610K download speed (610k based on test below, basically a 512K connection) on what should be a 5MB (5120K) connection. It is unfortunate, but there is nothing that I can really do about it. Except switch to dial-up; but that would leave me with a connection speed of 56K. I have had three different internet providers since moving into my house, and all of them use the same telephone lines, so same coverage. Each one I call tells me that my house is located at the end of the line which is why I have such sluggish service. Most of these services advertise themselves as up to 5MB (nearly 10 times faster than what I have).

You can check out your own DSL speed online. Check it against what you are supposedly paying for: http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest

Hopefully investments like Google’s fiber-optic plan to add 1GB (10240K) connections to 50,000-500,000 households (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/think-big-with-gig-our-experimental.html) help meet the National Broadband Plan goals:

“NATIONAL BROADBAND GOALS (http://www.broadband.gov/)

• Goal 1: At least 100 million U.S. homes should have affordable access to actual download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second and actual upload speeds of at least 50 megabits per second.
• Goal 2: The United States should lead the world in mobile innovation, with the fastest and most extensive wireless networks of any nation.
• Goal 3: Every American should have affordable access to robust broadband service, and the means and skills to subscribe if they so choose.
• Goal 4: Every community should have affordable access to at least 1 Gbps broadband service to anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals and government buildings.
• Goal 5: To ensure the safety of Americans, every first responder should have access to a nationwide public safety wireless network.
• Goal 6: To ensure that America leads in the clean energy economy, every American should be able to use broadband to track and manage their real-time energy consumption.”

…use my personal information to target advertisements!!!!

While browsing my YouTube privacy settings I noticed an option that states “Please use my account information to provide me with relevant advertising”. It of course is checked by default. I am torn between whether I am more amused with the wording of that default privacy selection or the “More Ads” button on Facebook. At any rate, as always, check your privacy settings on any website you have an account on.

I plan on leaving the YouTube setting checked, seeing as they do provide me a free service, and the more targeted their ads, the more ad revenue they are likely to get, which in turn will keep the content free for my listening and visual pleasure. However, the “Please use…” at the beginning of that check box still makes me laugh.

Figure 1. “More Ads” Facebook button

Figure 2. YouTube Privacy Settings

Facebook has recently introduced a new feature called social plugins: http://developers.facebook.com/plugins. These plugins are designed to integrate into websites and increase Facebook interaction with the internet.

Including things like the Recent Activity display (which is highly unlikely to display anything for this site):

But the real gem is being able to quickly add a “Like” button to all of your website’s pages.

For a quick add simply use the following HTML IFRAME text:

<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=www.mysite.com&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:200px; height:25px"></iframe>

And change www.mysite.com to the URL of the page the like button is on.

Or if adding it to a PHP page:

<?php
function curPageURL() {
$pageURL = 'http';
if ($_SERVER["HTTPS"] == "on") {$pageURL .= "s";}
$pageURL .= "://";
if ($_SERVER["SERVER_PORT"] != "80") {
$pageURL .= $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"].":".$_SERVER["SERVER_PORT"].$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"];
} else {
$pageURL .= $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"].$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"];
}
return $pageURL;
}

echo '<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href='.curPageURL().'&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:200px; height:25px"></iframe>';

?>

Note: curPageURL function code from : http://www.webcheatsheet.com/php/get_current_page_url.php

If you are like me and occasionally add PHP to blog posts in WordPress I used to use a plugin called Exec-PHP (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exec-php). It was great because I could add PHP right into my posts, adding dynamic user interfaces, HTML forms, etc.

The biggest use I have for it is being able to output things into posts that would normally be filtered, such as IFRAMEs, by using the php function, html_entity_decode:

<?php
echo html_entity_decode("&lt;iframe src='www.google.com'&gt;&lt;/iframe&lt;");
?>

However, a near fatal flaw with that plugin, is that if you switched to the Visual tab in WordPress, the PHP code vanished! The plugin states that fact at the top of all blog posts as a warning:

This has frustrated me several times, because if I had the Visual tab open on a previous post, and went to one with PHP… gone! Then while setting up a new WordPress site, I was adding plugins and did a search for “php exec”. This came up with a few plugins, one of which was called Inline-PHP (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/inline-php/). Just curious, I installed it and could not have been happier! I can put all of my php code in [ exec ] tags which does not get filtered if I go to the visual tab, and as an added bonus, even displays in the Visual tab.

I highly recommend Inline-PHP plugin for any WordPress blogger who integrates PHP code right into their blog posts: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/inline-php/.

When I was working with a site hosted with WordPress-MU, using the html_entities_decode method was almost absolutely required, as it seems that WordPress-MU filters a little heavier than the standard version.

Massachusetts is enacting a data protection law in response to a significant rise in electronic data breaches. The law affects any company that stores personal information of a Massachusetts resident. The four page law can be read here: http://www.mass.gov/Eoca/docs/idtheft/201CMR1700reg.pdf

Companies will be required to develop, implement and maintain a comprehensive information security program that is written and contains administrative, technical and physical safeguards appropriate to safeguard the data.

Every comprehensive information security program shall include:

(1) Administrative Safeguards:

1. Designating one or more employees to maintain the comprehensive information security program
2. Taking reasonable steps to select and retain third-party service providers that are capable of maintaining appropriate security measures to protect such personal information consistent with these regulations and any applicable federal regulations
3. Reviewing the scope of the security measures at least annually or whenever there is a material change in business practices that may reasonably implicate the security or integrity of records containing personal information
4. Developing security policies for employees relating to the storage, access and transportation of records containing personal information outside of business premises
5. Providing ongoing employee training that educates the employees on the proper use of the computer security system and the importance of personal information security.
6. Documenting responsive actions taken in connection with any incident involving a breach of security, and mandatory post-incident review of events and actions taken, if any, to make changes in business practices relating to protection of personal information.

(2) Technical Safeguards:

1. Preventing terminated employees from accessing records containing personal information
2. Providing means for detecting and preventing security system failures by regular monitoring to ensure that the comprehensive information security program is operating in a manner reasonably calculated to prevent unauthorized access to or unauthorized use of personal information; and upgrading information safeguards as necessary to limit risks
3. Implementing secure user authentication protocols including:
   1. (a) control of user IDs and other identifiers;
   2. (b) a reasonably secure method of assigning and selecting passwords, or use of unique identifier technologies, such as biometrics or token devices;
   3. (c) control of data security passwords to ensure that such passwords are kept in a location and/or format that does not compromise the security of the data they protect;
   4. (d) restricting access to active users and active user accounts only; and
   5. (e) blocking access to user identification after multiple unsuccessful attempts to gain access or the limitation placed on access for the particular system;
4. Implementing secure access control measures that:
   1. (a) restrict access to records and files containing personal information to those who need such information to perform their job duties; and
   2. (b) assign unique identifications plus passwords, which are not vendor supplied default passwords, to each person with computer access, that are reasonably designed to maintain the integrity of the security of the access controls;
5. Encryption of all:
   1. (a) Transmitted records and files containing personal information that will travel across public networks, and encryption of all data containing personal information to be transmitted wirelessly.
   2. (b) Personal information stored on laptops or other portable devices;
6. On any system that is connected to the Internet  and contains files with personal information on them
   1. (a) Keeping reasonably up-to-date firewall protection and operating system security patches, reasonably designed to maintain the integrity of the personal information
   2. (b) Keeping reasonably up-to-date versions of system security agent software which must include malware protection and reasonably up-to-date patches and virus definitions, or a version of such software that can still be supported with up-to-date patches and virus definitions, and is set to receive the most current security updates on a regular basis.

(3) Physical Safeguards

Definitions used in the law:

• Breach of security, the unauthorized acquisition or unauthorized use of unencrypted data or, encrypted electronic data and the confidential process or key that is capable of compromising the security, confidentiality, or integrity of personal information, maintained by a person or agency that creates a substantial risk of identity theft or fraud against a resident of the commonwealth. A good faith but unauthorized acquisition of personal information by a person or agency, or employee or agent thereof, for the lawful purposes of such person or agency, is not a breach of security unless the personal information is used in an unauthorized manner or subject to further unauthorized disclosure.
• Electronic, relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic or similar capabilities.
• Encrypted, the transformation of data into a form in which meaning cannot be assigned without the use of a confidential process or key.
• Owns or licenses, receives, stores, maintains, processes, or otherwise has access to personal information in connection with the provision of goods or services or in connection with employment.
• Person, a natural person, corporation, association, partnership or other legal entity, other than an agency, executive office, department, board, commission, bureau, division or authority of the Commonwealth, or any of its branches, or any political subdivision thereof.
• Personal information, a Massachusetts resident’s first name and last name or first initial and last name in combination with any one or more of the following data elements that relate to such resident: (a) Social Security number; (b) driver’s license number or state-issued identification card number; or (c) financial account number, or credit or debit card number, with or without any required security code, access code, personal identification number or password, that would permit access to a resident’s financial account; provided, however, that “Personal information” shall not include information that is lawfully obtained from publicly available information, or from federal, state or local government records lawfully made available to the general public.
• Record or Records, any material upon which written, drawn, spoken, visual, or electromagnetic information or images are recorded or preserved, regardless of physical form or characteristics.
• Service provider, any person that receives, stores, maintains, processes, or otherwise is permitted access to personal information through its provision of services directly to a person that is subject to this regulation.

Compliance Deadline:

• Every person who owns or licenses personal information about a resident of the Commonwealth shall be in full compliance with 201 CMR 17.00 on or before March 1, 2010.

On Friday I took and passed the CompTIA Security+ certification (2008 edition – SYO-201)

To view the certification verification visit: https://www.certmetrics.com/comptia/public/verification.aspx?code=2DZJZFGD2K4E22C2

For more information on this certification visit: http://www.comptia.org/certifications/listed/security.aspx

Think you should only check your privacy settings for sites like Facebook? Most other sites provide privacy settings as well. Those settings are most likely defaulting to sharing your information, so it is best to check and then update them appropriately.

Wells Fargo defaults “Allow sharing of my information among Wells Fargo Companies?” to “Yes” for example: