Share little identifiable information: Thanks to Facebook, which has been getting people in trouble since 2004, people nowadays seem willing to tell the entire world about their deepest darkest secrets. Do not become one of those, even if you have a private profile, you cannot guarantee that your friends profile is private or that they are the only ones who has access to it. Do not put your business over Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or any other social networking site. I am not saying you shouldn’t have one, but be very careful what you share.

Change usernames frequently: Using just one username or a variation of the same one is not a good idea. You can leave tracks for people to follow. Do not use the same username for every site your register for unless you want people to know who you are.

Change your language:  Pay attention to phrases and words you use commonly. If you want to keep completely anonymous and throw of anyone trying to track you, try and change up your lexicon. It’s not a must, but it is added protection.

Delete unused online accounts: Have a Myspace or Twitter account you’re not using? Deactivate or delete it.

There are many other tips you can use, however these are some of the easiest and most efficient methods. Remember, the less you put online, the less people will be able to track your online movements.

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The RIAA, the organization that handles the affairs of musicians and record labels alike, has become infamous among internet users for their harsh penalties and constant vigilance over the distribution of songs both legally and illegally and most naturally you have heard of cases where individuals were sued for millions because they illegally shared music.

The horror stories are not as bad as they sound however and only a small group of people are liable to be sued. First of all, before the RIAA goes after an individual in court for pirating music, they will generally send them a letter telling them they need to pay a sum of money for their illegal activities or face a lawsuit. Most people take that option, and though steep, paying a $2-4,000 fine versus going to court and possibly being required to pay millions is a much better option.

However, this only applies to those who are actively distributing pirated material, such as file hosting sites and P2P networks. It is very cost ineffective to go after an individual who has downloaded 2,000 songs illegally (value: $2,000). Just the legal fees along would surpass any amount of money the RIAA could possibly think of collecting because they can only sue for the market value of what you pirated.

However, if you were distributing pirated material, the cost goes up significantly because you can be charged for every person who downloaded the file from you, which is why P2P networks are so dangerous to use.

This brings us back to our original question. Is Grooveshark illegal. Yes and no. Grooveshark pays royalties to the RIAA, though the RIAA wants more of the money the company makes. This has led the RIAA to pressure Google and Apple to remove the Grooveshark app from their application stores (the app can be side loaded on Android devices or installed on Jailbroken iPhones).

However, just like the MPAA or any film distribution company will not sue you for watching a movie illegally online, it’s the same rule that applies to the RIAA. They will not sue you for listening to a song online.

Grooveshark allows it’s users to upload their musical collection to the internet however, and this might pose a legal matter for those who do, especially if Grooveshark is subpoenaed to disclose who uploaded what and how many times the media was played.

You as a user, on the other hand, is almost always immune to court action, due to the fact that it is both not cost effective and highly risky to go after a user than the distributor.

So to answer the question, no Grooveshark is not illegal. I wouldn’t go as far and say it is legal however, but listening to music on the online service is definitely not going to put you behind bars.

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To answer this question, requires a bit of knowledge on how apps work. Don’t worry, I’ll try and keep it as simple as possible. What a virus protection tool does is search for programs, scripts or other potentially malicious code that could affect the user. On desktop and laptop computers, these antivirus programs work very well.

So do they work on smartphones? Yes and no! In a program, you have something called source code. Consider this, the instruction manual that allows the program to run. Within this code, the app developer can program event handlers to mine the data from a user’s smartphone. Unfortunately, most virus scans for smartphones do not read this source code and thus an app could potentially be uploading your text, call and email history to the web, and yet the virus scan comes back negative.

The reason behind this is apps are not allowed to access the source code of other apps on most mobile systems, unless the mobile phone is hacked (jailbroken, rooted etc). Pandora and other apps have received enough criticism for mining user data and yet when these apps are installed on my phone and I run a virus scan, the scan still comes back negative.

Put in simple terms, what these apps claim to do, is not what they are allowed to do. It might claim to scan an app, but unfortunately, it is unable to determine if that app is data mining or not.

In the end, your privacy is up to you, or until mobile OS companies decide to take mobile security more seriously. Many popular apps have been known to send personal information including text message and call history to undocumented servers in China and certain Eastern European countries. If you want to protect yourself from this, your best bet is to research every app you download and check to make sure you know what permissions it claims it needs, that way you will have an idea which apps are accessing information and which are not.

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If you are a parent, concerned adult or administrator who needs to monitor the traffic of the users on your Internet connection, there are options available to you.

Monitoring Internet traffic can be done for a variety of reasons including protecting children from pornography or online predators. It can be used to prevent the sharing of personal or confidential data online as well as legal issues such as file sharing websites, hacking or other activity that could be illegal.

One of the top Internet monitoring software available is Spytech SpyAgent. SpyAgent is a full fledged monitoring system that allows you to find out what users of your Internet connection are doing. For instance, one can see what keywords are being searched for in Google, Bing and Yahoo. Social networking sites can be limited or banned completely. A list of programs and apps used by users on the network as well as logs of windows opened and even uncovering of passwords.

The best thing about SpyAgent is it runs in complete stealth mode so it is hard for anyone to detect that it is running. That said, before montoring someones Internet traffic, they should be made aware that their Internet traffic is being monitored and possibly recorded. Unfortunately, SpyAgent cannot see information sent through an encrypted connection such as a VPN. The software is available for Windows 2000, XP, Vista and that includes the 64bit editions. It does not, however, support Mac or Linux.

A trial version of the software is available that limits monitoring to 30 minute sessions. depending on your purpose, the trial version alone may be sufficient.

There are several free alternatives that offer similar features however most applications are crippled versions that lack all the features of an internet traffic monitoring software. You can find some of these applications from cnet.

Mac users can use SpectorSoft’s Spector Pro which offers an almost identical feature set. Best of all Spector Pro is available not only for Macs, but PCs as well. The package costs $99.

For Linux however, the options are a lot more limited since there are so many different distros. One of the more popular distros, Ubuntu, has a program available called Darkstat that will allow administrators to monitor most of what was mentioned above.  The only downside to it is that command line access and knowledge is required.

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So are there any apps, plugins, websites etc. that allow you to tell who visited your Facebook profile? In one word: NO! In a more detailed explanation, any app that claims to offer this ability is a scam.

(an example of a Facebook profile viewer scam)

Unlike MySpace, Tumblr and other social networking sites that allow users to install trackers to see who is viewing their profile, Facebook (and Twitter for that matter) do not accommodate this feature. In fact, if you take a quick look at the Facebook app developer guidelines, you will notice that among other things, apps that track profile views are absolutely prohibited on Facebook. Many might argue that this is a bit extreme from a company who has been known to have many a security loop holes. That might be true, but if we were to guess Facebook’s reason for such a decision, it stems from the whole idea of individual privacy, as double standard as it may sound.

Imagine if you could track who viewed your profile, or who un-friended you, while you might not use this knowledge for negative purposes, some people may be tempted to act on these information. We need not go into the countless horror stories that have stemmed from frivolous Facebook spats. Considering a very superficial example, if a jealous girlfriend finds out her boyfriend is viewing another girl’s profile more than her’s, imagine what issues that could cause? Plus, would you really want someone else to know if you have been viewing their profile? I highly doubt anyone would.

As stated before, any app that claims to offer the ability to track who views your profile is a scam and most naturally, when you activate such an app, it will spam the inbox and walls of your friends with similar messages.

Until Facebook allows developers to include that functionality in their apps, which is very unlikely I might add, we will be stuck with guessing who is viewing our profile.

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The dangers that malware present are endless, and it is in your best interest that you ensure that malicious software never come your way. However, like everything else in life, to safe guard yourself and your PC from malware, you need to put forth a conscious effort. Leaving things to chance is something like going to war without ammunition.

The purpose of this article is to educate users by answering frequently asked questions related to malware issues.

How does malware gain entry into a system?

Though most malware use the Internet as a medium to spread themselves, their exact modus operandi may differ.  Listed below are common techniques that malware, such as d.exe use to infiltrate a computer:

• E-mail attachment – Malware becomes active when you open the email attachment to which it is stealthily attached.
• Dubious websites – Certain websites, when you visit them, infiltrate your PC with malware, such as spyware and adware.
• Freeware – Many freeware programs come bundled with spyware and adware programs which become active once you install the freeware program.

What are the symptoms of a malware infection?

Sure signs of a malware infection are:

• Inconsistent performance of your computer.
• Frequent system freeze ups.
• Slow system startup or shutdown process.
• Frequent system errors

And in more severe cases:

• Missing files
• Unquenchable applications
• In ability to get even a single task done on the system

What problems do malware may pose if they happen to breach a system’s security?

Once inside your computer, malware may do all kinds of malicious activities to wreak havoc on your PC.  Depending on the nature of the malware, you may find yourself battling with one or more of the following problems:

• Identity theft – Many malware are notorious for stealing users’ confidential information for misuse.
• Slow computer speed – Malware-related processes eat into your computer’s resources resulting in painfully slow computer speed.
• Random error messages – Malware programs may delete or alter important files and generate errors.
• Corrupt registry – Malware programs bombard the registry with harmful entries and at the same time may delete essential registry entries.

Can malware programs use the same names as genuine processes?

Yes, they can and in fact many do. Various malware masquerade themselves as genuine processes to escape detection.   For example, consent.exe and smss.exe are two genuine and very important processes on a Windows computer, but malware are known to name themselves as consent.exe or smss.exe to escape detection.

How to solve computer problems related to malware

Problems related to malware that you face are the symptoms and not the disease. To fix the issue, you need to remove the malware from your computer. To do this, run a malware scan on your entire computer using an advanced antimalware tool. It is recommended that you run the scan twice to make sure no malware escapes detection.

This guest post was written by James Ricketts of Instant-Registry-Fixes.org, your complete resource for Windows related tips, tools, tweaks, and general computer error help.

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While some PC errors can never be permanently resolved, you can carry out the following steps to ensure that their occurrence is minimized:

• Malware removal – Malware programs are responsible for a majority of Windows PC troubles. If you have been getting the c000021a error frequently, it is very likely that your system is riddled with malware infections and one or more of the critical system-processes such as the winlogon.exe process or the csrss.exe process have been compromised. To combat malware effectively, you should install the latest protective software. These tools include anti-virus, anti-adware, anti-spyware, etc. It is a good idea to shop for these products individually rather than go for an all-encompassing software that may not turn out to be so effective.

• Registry cleanup – Just like your hard disk and other system components, the registry also needs to be taken care of regularly. Faulty entries in the registry may give rise to a plethora of computer problems. Out of these, the most notable ones are: crashing of critical system processes, DLL errors, missing system files, device errors, slow system, and so on. To prevent as well as resolve these issues, you should invest in a good registry cleaner from a trusted vendor. A good registry cleaner will not take more than a few mouse clicks to fix and optimize the registry. A healthy and compact registry will not only improve system performance, but will also plug a lot of holes, making your PC more secure against possible attacks.

• Program management – While talking about computer errors and performance, one also needs to look at the various programs installed on the computer. For instance, if you keep getting the error code 81000306, it means that the Windows Messenger program has not been functioning properly. You can try to resolve this error by downloading and installing the latest version from the internet. You should also check your internet connection to see whether there isn’t a huge response-lag present. At the same time, you should realize that long-abandoned programs are a burden on system resources and should be done away with post-haste. You can achieve this by uninstalling them either from the Control Panel, or by using a third-party uninstaller tool.

This article shows that you can deal with the majority of PC errors on your own, even though you may not be a sophisticated or advanced computer user. No matter what your skill level, you can always tackle these problems by working with the right tools and following the above mentioned maintenance activities.

This guest post was written by James Ricketts of Instant-Registry-Fixes.org, your complete resource for Windows related tips, tools, tweaks, and general computer error help.

This post was brought to you by Computer Tips

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This usually happens if you enable automatic updates in your Windows system, which validates your license and continually notifies you in every way possible if your copy of Windows installed happen to be pirated. These notifications can be easily removed using a simple, tiny utility.

RemoveWGA (or remove Windows Genuine Advantage notifications) gives you a 1-click solution to getting rid of your WGA notification woes. All you have to do is download the software and double click the EXE. A notification then states if it has been fixed, once you restart your system you should be free from the annoying windows genuine notifications.

[Download RemoveWGA from Softpedia]

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Unfortunately, this feature doesn’t apply in all situations, documents and spreadsheets can also be password protected and this applies to PDF documents as well. You might protect a PDF file you create and realize to your dismay, a couple of weeks later that you’ve forgotten the password.

PDF Password Remover (Windows) is a nifty tool that lets you unprotect your PDF document easily. It lets you decrypt the file and you will then be allowed full modification (copy, edit, print) to the file once again. It does not require Adobe reader to run.

PDF Password Remover is usually priced at $19.95 but they are currently running a promotion where it can be downloaded free until February 24th 2010 (hear that freeloaders? No crack, serial or keygen required for a paid software!).

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Apparently this was one of the few subtle changes to Facebook’s privacy settings made recently, Facebook is looking to make more information public, privacy settings are now highly customizable allowing virtually any information in your profile to be set to be visible to the public. For now, based on the Facebook Help Centre:

A basic set of information is publicly available, meaning it’s visible to anyone that’s able to navigate to your profile, applications you use on Facebook, and websites you connect with via Facebook. This information includes your name, profile picture, gender, current city, networks, friend list, and Pages. Any additional information (eg., photos or videos) will only be exposed if your privacy settings allow it.

Apart from the above information, which you have no control over customizing anymore, note that any comment or status update made is considered in the search results, so you need to proceed with caution when you have something to say.

If you can’t live with the fact that your profile picture can now be accessed by 350 million people, your best bet would be to remove it.

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