A bill was subsequently delivered on the legislature and resultantly elevated to the Senate, in spite of objections coming from world wide web activists, librarians, teachers and subsequently some political groups. This was then set within the custody of dubious politicians who were far too sluggish to authorize it since they had been hit with widespread hostility by the news and online community.

As with everything, there could be negative aspects to social networking. Setting up an account in a website can be challenging, and also putting up a profile on-line can endanger someone to cyberspace criminals. Social Networking has its good and bad sides. It is the responsibility of the users to apply it for gain or perhaps merely for pleasure.

Regularly endeavour to realise exactly what content could be kept private for social networks. It is the best idea to only place details that you are ok talking about together with others. It definitely is usually good to share selective information to do with suspicious or ominous messages you have come upon on the net.

There’s often lots of online networking sites available on-line. These sites invite the profiles to contribute content regarding each other, contribute videos and images, use information pages, and merely share interests. Therefore, is usually essential that internet surfers must become conscious of the likely issues that net based social networking could well impart.

The administration acts against the damaging effects of social groups were started on 2008, during the height of the alarm over the issue concerning the safety of kids on-line. This universal adoption of social forum websites in homes and libraries in the Northern hemisphere. was picked out and recommended to end up banned by statute law that will allow them to take down the disturbing cases related to online swindles.

Parents sometimes seem outpaced by the technologically savvy teens. All The Same, there are numerous things which friends and family could well teach the children, specially if and when it comes to meeting individuals on the net. Parents can typically subscribe to a web site that the kids are only using and read the privacy page to learn if it’s suited to young people or kids.

There’s several online networking sites that will captivate the involvement of teens to tempt themto get involved. Though a number of youth oriented social networking web sites don’t tolerate the form of communicating that similar online networking sites have got for adults and older children, there are nevertheless things the parents had better do to guide the children as to how to socialise on the internet.

The recognition of social networking sites has arrived at an amazing position whereby new ones arrive every week. Consequently, it definitely is vital to recognise the potential advantages together with disadvantages of social networking to get the most of this particular trend.

I am unaware of your perspective, but I surely enjoy spending the initial ten minutes of each workday gazing Windows start up.

But if you wish to overcome this hassle, the tips given below will help you to start Windows much faster and quickly.

Reduce the load from your slow Windows 7.

Generally, a PC loads several programs at the time of start.

Icons in the system tray of your PC represent an auto-start application.

And there are several other programs that auto-start every time your machine starts but hide their presence.

It is noteworthy that an autoloading program slows your PCs boot time, with the only difference that some affect it a little while others affect it heavily. And since majority of them continue running in background, they reduce the systems performance.

However, ensure that you can always revert your changes before stepping into the process of eliminating autoloaders. After creating the restore point, Click Close.

If you have MS Vista, then click on Start, Control Panel and System. Click System Protection on the right hand side of the window, under Tasks. Then you will see the System Properties dialog box on your screen, from which you have to select Create at the bottom of the window.

For XP users, the process involves selecting Start, Run, typing msconfig, and pressing Enter. Vista users should select Start, write msconfig in the Search box and then press [Enter].

Then click the Startup tab, which will list all autoloading applications on your system, having a check box each. Uncheck an item. After doing so, that particular item will no longer load at setup.

Pick your Autoloading Apps. Select the applications you need to leave checked so that they continue to autoload.

First and the most important thing is that you would never want your PC to run without the protetion of firewall, antivirus and other security programs.

Its true that these applications slow the boot-up and shutdown times of your PC and can even lead to conflicts, but to stop them from running could result in even more dire consequences.

Similarly, for other applications, your own judgment will be crucial. The question is not regarding a program being good or bad, its about if it is required to be on all time.

Click OK and reboot after you are over with the decision to ‘Uncheck’ the programs you dont require to autoload. In case of Windows, the loading will be done with a wordy message which appear like an error message.

You have to simply check Dont show this message or start the System Configuration Utility at the time Windows starts (in Vista you will find a little bit difference in wording) at the bottom of dialog box and then click OK.

SPAM, AND NOTHING BUT SPAM. by Gillian Tarawhiti, Community
Training Centre, http://www.millionairerippleeffect.com For the
new and possibly the old netpreneurs SPAM is the common term for
electronic ‘junk mail’ - unwanted messages sent to a persons’
email account or mobile phone. The SPAM act (CAN-SPAM ACT,
EUROPEAN SPAM ACT, AUSTRALIAN SPAM ACT) identifies SPAM as
unsolicited commercial electronic message(s). The act covers
email, instant messaging, SMS (mobile phone text messaging) and
MMS (mobile phone graphic messaging). Under the SPAM act all
commercial electronic messages must meet the following
conditions. Any message that doesn’t meet all three of these
conditions is defined as SPAM. 1.You must have CONSENT 2.You
must IDENTIFY yourself 3.You must provide a way to unsubscribe
If we use this forum as an example of all three, you will find
that in order to gain access to this forum in terms of posting.
You had to complete a registration that in part advised that you
agreed to certain terms and conditions. In doing so you
EXPRESSED CONSENT. By registering to this forum you have also
IDENTIFIED yourself beit as a non-de-plum In terms of
unsubscribing, every email that you receive from this forum has
a unsubscribe in it, also you have an ‘ignore’ facility which in
part as the same effect. COMMERICIAL ELECTRONIC MESSAGE To
decide whether an electronic message is ‘commercial’, the Act
looks at all of the following: •the content of the message •the
way in which the message is presented; and •any links, phone
numbers or contact information in the message RAMIFICATIONS OF
SPAM TO YOU! If you have been accused of SPAM activities you
will be asked to prove that you have not committed the offence.
If you are unsuccessful in that approach you IP (Internet
Provider) will withdraw all services to you i.e. close your
website. If you are using an autoresponder to hold your
subscriber list and are sending messages via that service, your
autoresponder will automatically suspend your account unless you
can prove your innocence. Penalties for breach of the Act range
up to $1.1 million per day; the legislation also allows for the
making of orders for spammers to relinquish profits and pay
compensation to spam victims. So in short, there are 3 things
that can keep you in the clear of such violations. 1.Get Consent
- Expressed or Inferred 2.Identify yourself 3.Provide a way for
people to unsubscribe from receiving further emails Before I
finish this article, I would like to add that this is just a
brief overview of the act and that it would be in your best
interest to actually read and implement the practices.

There are a number of techniques that webmasters have used over the years to try an outsmart Google. Today, many of these will get you banned, or at best penalized, so that your sites don’t rank well, and consequently don’t get the traffic you need.

1. Spam technique 1 - Sneaky redirects

Have you ever clicked on a search result in Google, but the URL you end up at is not the one listed in Google’s results? = SNEAKY REDIRECT.
Similarly, if you click on a link on a website and it takes you to a URL that is not the one referenced by the link = SNEAKY REDIRECT.

Not all redirects are sneaky. Some are there for good reason and don’t try to deceive your visitors. Examples of this might include using your .htaccess file to redirect to affiliate links. This technique is widely used to hide affiliate links from visitors, or make URLs shorter and easier to remember. I doubt Google would include this as a sneaky redirect. Another safe type of redirect is a 301 redirect typically used to move a site from one domain to another.

If your redirect is not there to deceive your visitor, then it is probably OK.

2. Spam technique 2 - 100% Frame

This technique is a form of cloaking. On clicking a link in Google’s search results, the page you are taken to has the URL of the page you expect, but a frame is used to show the contents of a completely different page.

The result is that Google’s spider indexes and ranks the original page, but the page shown to visitors is a different one.

This is considered spam.

3. Spam technique 3 - Hidden Text / Hidden Links

Invisible text is easily done. Create the text or links in the same colour as the background colour. To the visitor, that text is invisible. To the search engine spiders that see only the raw HTML, they are there.

Often these can be spotted when you visit a web page by using the keyboard combination CTRL + A. This selects all text on the page, and hidden text can then be seen as they are highlighted by the browser.

Another form of hiding links is to hyperlink to a page using punctuation. e.g. linking a “.” to a webpage. Its not invisible, but it is an attempt to hide a link from the visitor.

Another form of link hiding that I have seen is to have a phrase hyperlinked to several different documents. To the visitor, the hyperlink looks like a normal link, but move your mouse cursor along the link and you will see the address in the status bar at the bottom of your browser change to reveal different URLs for different parts of the phrase.

4. Spam technique 4 - Porn on expired domains.

A technique often used by webmasters is to buy old domains with existing PR and backlinks and using that PR to get ranked well for an unrelated topic.

This relates to all niches, not just Porn.

5. Spam technique 5 - Secondary Search Results / PPC

These are pages set up purely to collect PPC revenue without providing much relevant content of their own. A range of tools for scraping search engine results are available, but they will get you into trouble. For those still arguing that these tools do work, you are in the minority.

In a “leaked report” thought to originate from Google, the report also mentions sites that have directories setup to include DMOZ listings. However, it only specifies that these should be penalised if they contain PPC advertising e.g. Adsense. Those setup without Adsense are obviously providing the visitors with a service and should be ignored (links to relevant sites in your directory is value added for your visitor).

Think about the motives for setting up a directory like this. Is it for revenue, or for visitors? If the former, Google want it marked as spam. If it is the latter, you are OK for now.

6. Spam technique 6 - Thin Affiliate Doorway pages

Google considers affiliate pages that don’t provide useful content to the visitor as spam. e.g. a page setup purely for ushering visitors to an affiliate program is considered spam, if that page does not provide the visitor with useful information or a useful service.

Pages that add value, and are useful to the visitors even if the affiliate links were removed are OK.

What this means is that you need to provide interesting, unique content on your pages. Create a page that will really interest your visitor, and then affiliate links are OK.

Again, ask yourself this question.

“If I removed all advertising from this page, would it be useful and/or interesting to a visitor?”

If yes, your page is safe. If not, it would be marked as spam by a rater.

To keep your affiliate sites safe:

Create every single page for the visitor.

Give the visitor a useful service.

For Example

Review something, then provide an affiliate link. That is fine.

Do surveys on the site and provide the survey results, and your affiliate links are probably fine.

Create a page that compares prices from different sources and your page is fine.

Create a page that reviews different merchants, and helps your visitor make the correct buying decision and you are fine.

Create unique, relevant and interesting/entertaining content on your site, and the affiliate links will be fine.

Also, don’t use any technique that is only there for the search engine spider.

For your affiliate site to be safe, create a site that provides “a service” to your visitors.

“The report” says:

“Do not call a page affiliate spam when an affiliation is only incidental to the message and purpose of the website”

and

“Would this site remain a coherent whole if the pages leading to the affiliate were taken away?”

Is this last point an indication that you should have pages without affiliate links on them?

In my opinion, probably 99% of affiliate sites being built today are “thin”, and won’t do well in Google.

If a thin site gets spotted, it gets penalised.

OK, so how can you make sure your site is not labelled as thin?

Download the free eBook “Creating ‘Fat’ Affiliate Sites” to read more about this “leaked report”, and how you can safe guard your affiliate sites. You can get the link in the resource box at the end of this article.

Maybe I’m a Heretic.

I’m not really in favor of spam and I don’t like it anymore than the rest of you and I’m sure many of you will disagree with me.

However I look at it in the same way I look at TV commercials. If we didn’t have them we’d have television like they have in Europe, which is pretty sad.

I just don’t want the government to get into the act. Let the market place take care of it. Eventually it will sort itself out. For one thing it doesn’t work. There are ways to control it with software and by other means.

I had an email address that for some reason or other was prone to receiving massive amounts of exceedingly offensive porn. I just abandoned it.

Spam is relatively inexpensive or it wouldn’t exist. Do you want to charge for the internet to cure it? I don’t think so.
But when you get to the bottom of it there is a cost to those who employ it and I think eventually they’ll come to realize it and stop it.

I just received an email message from someone who wrote a blog objecting to Spam. In it he was touting some software to eliminate spam. Not only was he employing spam, but it was one of those long sales pitches that you have to scroll for five minuites to find out that this software marvel cost $200.00. I not only deleted it, I unsubscribed. Wasn’t this Spam.

Here’s one for the books. I received a solicitation to join a program that was supposed to let you use spam but not have it considered spam. You joined a group who ageed to receive email from you as long as you gave them permission to reciprocate.

It’s a free program and they were honest enough to tell you up front that you could concievably receive 10,000 email messages at a time. I’ll take my spam any day.

Meanwhile the best thing to do is make sure you have a good filter and ignore it.

Don’t answer it or respond to it in any way. I used to report it but stopped even acknowledging that I ever saw it.

Do not buy from anyone who indulges in spam.

Hit them in the pocket book and eventually they’ll go away.

Don’t ask “Big Brother ” to help because you’ll then suffer from unintended consequences. Use your freedom BOYCOTT them.

Written by: George W. Cannata Author and publisher of the web site: http://www.caveatemptorus.com You may copy or reprint this article so long as it is not altered in any way, that you retain the link and give full credit to the author.

In today’s technologically advanced world more and more people are falling victim to identity theft both online and offline. It was reported by a general accounting office that over 700,000 Americans have their identity stolen every year and that number is expected to rise over time. While many thieves operate online there are still many “dumpster divers” who go through people’s trash cans looking for a credit card statement or a solicitation that someone forgot to tear up. You may be thinking that people don’t do this stuff but there are people who spend a lot of time waiting on someone to forget to shred a piece of their personal information so they can take it and start running up your credit cards and using your social security number. It may be impossible to stop someone from stealing your identity entirely, but there are things that you can do to lower the risk of having it happen.

A simple way to stop thieves from getting your personal information by dumpster diving is to remember to destroy all private records and statements. You can tear the stuff up, but it is best to shred it. Credit card statements, documents with financial information and solicitations all need to be shredded. It is also a good idea to secure your mail, you can do this by emptying your mailbox quickly, lock it or get a P.O box. By securing your mail it will stop thieves from stealing credit card pitches and other financial information. Never mail bills or checks from your home, it is simple for thieves to go through your mail and get a bill or check and change the payee’s name on the check by erasing it with solvent. Mail out all of your bills and checks from the post office since it is the most secure location to do so.

Your social security number should also be protected. You should never carry your social security card with you or any other card that may have your number on it, this includes your heath insurance card. The social security number is the key to all of your information so thieves look for stuff like this. If they get your social security number they can get access to other important information like your credit report and your bank account. Also remember to never leave ATM, credit card or gas receipts behind.

A lot of people have their identities stolen because they fail to educate themselves about who they’re giving their private and financial information to. When someone calls with some kind of special offer or something don’t be quick to give up your information if you’re interested in their offer, first ask them who they are and what company they represent and then do a little research yourself. Don’t ever give up your financial information over the phone. Monitor your credit card, obtain a copy of your credit report annually and review it thoroughly for anything that may look suspicious to you. Also thoroughly review your credit card statement, make sure all of the merchants look familiar and if they don’t, call your credit card company and notify them about the suspicious things on your statement.

There are simple precautions that you can take to stop criminals from obtaining your private information. Be more aware when you use your credit card and don’t forget to shred up all important information that you throw into the trash.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Identity Theft

Identity theft crimes are not new, but they have become more persuasive in the past decade. In mid-2005, San Francisco Chronicle discovered that holders of more than 40 million credit cards were vulnerable to financial fraud because identity thieves had compromised their credit card information. Earlier that year, information and data broker, Reed Elsevier Group PLC, revealed that several hundred thousand people might have had their profiles stolen from one of its U.S. databases. One quickly learns to secure their computer networks so that these kinds of attacks, or leaks are non-existant.

Information compromised included names, age, physical descriptions, mailing addresses, Social Security, and driver license numbers. This is virtually everything an impersonator needs to set up a clone of the identity theft victim, enabling him to make a number of financial and personal transactions in the victim’s name. Usually an identity theft victim is usually under age forty, while about 11 percent of victims are age sixty or older. According to Federal Trade Commission (FTC), one in six identity theft victims said that thieves used their personal information to open at least one new account, such as credit card accounts or loan accounts, to rack up debts on existing accounts. The most recent data indicates that 9.3 million Americans (or 4.25% of all adults) are victims of ID theft on an annual basis. This is an alarming rate and should show you that you NEED to take preventative steps toward protecting your identity.

An identity theft victim risks the destruction of his/her good credit history, and may spend years, and large sums of money restoring the credit history and goodwill. There are instances of an identity theft victim been denied work or insurance or been detained for crimes he did not commit! Some victims of ID theft found that their names have been misused after police stopped them for a traffic violation and discovered that there is a warrant for their arrest. There are also times when an innocent person receives a summons to appear in court to answer for a criminal act. FTC’s latest survey shows ID theft losses to businesses and financial institutions total $52.6 billion annually. Recently, Federal Trade Commission launched a website annualcreditreport.com where all consumers are eligible for a free copy of their credit reports. Take the time to go to that site and get your free credit report. This can be a step to alerting you to suspicious activity.

Keith Londrie II is a well known author. For more information on Identity Theft, please visit Identity Theft for a wealth of information. You may also want to visit keith’s own web site at http://keithlondrie.com/

RSS is growing at a lightening speed. What was once only known as a “techie tool”, RSS is becoming a tool that is continuously being used by the general population. Along with the good comes, the not so good. And while some have mentioned the emergence of RSS spam, where content publishers dynamically generate nonsensical feeds stuffed with keywords, the real concern relates to security. While an annoyance to the search engines, spam in RSS feeds pales in comparison to the possible security concerns that could be in RSS’ future.

Security Implications Related to RSS.

As RSS gains momentum security fears loom large. As publishers are quickly finding innovative uses for RSS feeds, hackers are taking notice. The power and extendibility of RSS in its simplest form is also its achilles heel. The expansion capabilities of the RSS specification, specifically the “enclosure” field which has launched the podcasting phenomenon, is where the vulnerabilities lie. The enclosure field in itself is not the problem, in fact the majority of RSS feeds do not even use the enclosure tag. The enclosure tag is essentially used to link to file types, things like images, word documents, mp3 files, power point presentations, and executables and can be thought of in similar terms to email attachments.

The fact that RSS can be used to distribute these file types has opened a myriad of doors to users of the syndication standard, but also has created cause for concern. Most people do not feel that the risk is significant because people “choose” the content that they receive, and while it might make the distribution of malware, viruses and spy applications via RSS less prevalent, their is still the inherent risk of a infected file being distributed.

The problem is one of both technology and lack of education.

The danger lies in the fact that many RSS readers, news aggregators, or pod-catchers automatically download the information contained in the enclosure field regardless of its file type or source.

Most RSS developers acknowledge the risks associated with the enclosure field, but few have had the forethought to include filtering, screening or authentication capabilities and many automatically download enclosures.

Nick Bradbury of Bradsoft/NewsGator seems to be proactive, designing FeedDemon with security in mind. FeedDemon uses an editable safelist of file types as well as allowing users to monitor what files are automatically downloaded. FeedDemon also contains hard-coded warnings related to specific file types.

Developers of ByteScout took a different approach to the handling of enclosure files, ByteScout does not automatically download anything without user intervention for each download.

Unfortunately, not all RSS readers, aggregators and podcatchers consider the possible security implications associated with RSS feeds and podcasts, some will automatically download enclosures without warning or any thoughts of security. Be sure to examine how your RSS reader handles files contained in the enclosure field of an RSS feed.

With the increased use of RSS and podcasting, the security risks increase with it. Their is cause for concern, however proactive users and conscientious developers can easily subvert the risk by taking precautions seriously. Computer viruses and malware are cause for legitimate concern, there is ample time and action that can avert potential problems.

Obtaining an EIN or employer identification number is a good idea if you are a sole-proprietor.

From time to time, you’ll be asked to provide your social security number or employer ID to clients or governmental agencies. Once you do that you have no control over which client employees and others can view your number.

With identity theft an ever increasing problem, reducing the need to give out your social security numer can only be a good idea.

The best way to do that is to have an employer identification number.

In fact, having an EIN is mandatory for almost any business that is set up as something other than a sole-proprietorship.

This is the IRS checklist for businesses that are required to have an Employer Identification Number.

• You have employees.

• You are set up as a corporation or partnership.

• You file tax returns for Employment, Excise, or Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.
• You withhold taxes on income, other than wages, paid to a non-resident alien.
• You have a Keogh plan.
• You are involved in a trust. (There are some exceptions, check the IRS site).
• You are involved in one of the following types of organizations: Estates, real estate mortgage conduits, non-profits, farmer’s cooperatives, and plan administrators.

Sole-proprietors are not required to have an EIN. But if you are a sole-proprietor, I strongly recommend getting one.

The reason? If you are a sole-proprietor, clients who pay you $600 or more in the course of a year must file a 1099 on your behalf. And they need your social security number or employer identification number to do that.

And you, in turn, are required to do the same for your own sole-proprietor subcontractors who receive $600 or more in payments from you.

The Employer’s ID number fulfills IRS’s requirements when filing your 1099s, so you just substitute the EIN for the social security number.

The process is easy and straightforward.

You can apply for your EIN number online at the IRS website (www.irs.gov) or ask the IRS to have the forms sent to you.

Ellen Zucker has been successfully self-employed for the past 10 years.
Her site, Selfemployment101.com, has articles and resources to help you, as a self-employed person, earn a living and create a life.

Millions of Americans use credit cards, take out money from savings and checking accounts, write checks, and open new bank accounts everyday. By completing these everyday tasks, many Americans put themselves at risk for identity theft. However, there are many steps that one can take to protect oneself from being an identity theft victim. In addition, knowing how an identity thief gets his or her information will allow a person to be safer.

How Do Thieves Get Their Information?

An identity thief can do many things to retrieve things like your Social Security Number, and credit card number. Some thieves steal mail, which often has bank statements and credit card numbers. Thieves may get information from an institution or business by stealing records while they are on the job. Some thieves use false advertising to get victims to give out their credit card numbers over the phone. Thieves can also implement a process known as “skimming,” This process is where a thief uses a computer to track what buttons you pushed at an ATM machine.

How Do They Use the Information?

How an identity thief uses the personal information is a whole different ballgame. Identity thieves may change account numbers, or access all the money in your account electronically or otherwise. Identity thieves may also open up various credit card accounts and run up charges. Some identity thieves go so far as top change the billing address for a credit card account, so they can run up the bill, and it will be some time before you realize it because the bills are being sent to a different address. Some thieves get jobs, or file false tax returns using someone else’s name and Social Security Number.

How To Protect Yourself

Now, all this identity theft seems mighty scary, but there are many ways to protect yourself. It is very important to get rid of all unnecessary documents. When throwing out bank statements, or anything with personal information on it, many people make use of paper shredders. This is a very good idea. Rarely give your credit card number out over the phone unless you are positive that it is a trustworthy business, and even in that case, exercise caution. Finally, keeping track of wallets, purses, and any important documents is key to successfully defending yourself from identity theft.

If identity theft does occur, there are many steps you can take to make sure you are not harmed financially. Canceling a credit card is the obvious choice. However, you can also put out a “Fraud Alert” on your credit card. This will allow you to review your credit card statements as much as you like. You can look for any strange purchases, or account openings, or anything out of the ordinary. The two types of alert are “initial alert” (90 days) and “extended alert” (seven years). Other steps you can take are closing accounts that you believe have been tampered with. You can also notify the police.

Conclusion

Identity Theft is a serious crime, with serious consequences. However, if you take precautions, and know what to do in the event of identity theft, you will be safer. The key to protecting yourself is knowing what you’re up against.

Scott Hawksworth writes for Identity Theft Blog, a weblog reporting on identity theft prevention.