Before today, if you “turned off” Google Buzz it wasn’t really gone, it was just hidden from your account. If you really want to completely get rid of it, turn it back on (if you previously turned it off), then click the “turn off buzz” link again. You’ll then be taken to the buzz settings screen which will provide you with a new “Disable Google Buzz” option. Be warned, this will also delete your Google profile if you’ve previously created one.
“A few weeks ago, EFF published its first draft of a Buyer’s Guide to E-Book Privacy, which summarized and commented on the privacy-related policies and behaviors of several e-readers. In that first draft we incorporated the actual language of the privacy policies as much as possible, which unfortunately created some confusion since companies generally use different language to address similar issues. We also did a few other things clumsily.
“Since then, thanks to the feedback and corrections we’ve received, we’ve made some updates and corrections to the guide which we hope will make it more useful. First, we’ve re-written many of the questions and answers to provide more clarity about the behavior of each e-reader. Second, we’ve tried point out where companies’ privacy policies themselves are unclear on particular issues. And finally, we’ve made the whole thing easier to read by changing its visual layout.
“This guide continues to be a work in progress. So, please continue to let us know whether it’s helpful and what additions you’d like to see.”
via Boing Boing
The other day I wrote about Friefox’s private browsing mode. Google’s Chrome browser has a similar feature they call incognito mode. To start Chrome in this mode automatically create a new desktop shortcut to the browser with -incognito on the end of the target line.
Via Lifehacker
I’m not going to get into public access policy issues here but I’m a firm believer in the fact that there is absolutely no reason any library to keep any browsing history on a public access computer. That being said, turning off things like the browser history or clearing it out regularly, can either slow down the browsing experience and take staff time respectively. So, why not take advantage of Firefox’s private browsing mode. According to Mozilla.com, here’s what private browsing does and doesn’t do:
What Private Browsing will not retain
- Visited pages: No pages will be added to the list of sites in the History menu, the Library window’s History list, or the Smart Location Bar‘s address list.
- Form and Search Bar entries: Nothing you enter into text boxes on web page forms or the Search bar will be added to the list of entries for Form autocomplete.
- Passwords: no passwords will be automatically filled in during the your Private Browsing session, and no new passwords will be saved.
- Download List entries: No files you download will remain in the list in the Downloads window after you turn off Private Browsing.
- Cookies: Files created by websites, that store information on your computer, such as your preferences when visiting that site (when a website has a “remember this” checkbox, it is using a cookie) will not be stored. For more information on cookies, see Cookies.
- Web cache files: No temporary Internet files or cached files from web pages will be saved until you turn off Private Browsing.
Note:
- If you create new Bookmarks while using Private Browsing, they will not be removed when you stop Private Browsing.
- If you save files to your computer while using Private Browsing, those files will not be deleted when you stop Private Browsing. However, any files you open in an external application will be cleared from the system’s temporary folder, and none of the files you download will appear in the Downloads window list.
It can easily be turned on and off under the Tools menu but why not permanently turn it on for your patrons? To automatically start Firefox in private browsing mood just follow these three simple steps:
From this point forward, Firefox will automatically start in private browser mode.
