In this ezine, we discuss various ways to protect your privacy when surfing the web - either by blocking ads/cookies or removing them after they've been "dropped on your computer." This discussion pertains equally to both Windows and Mac Users. As Facebook is the BIGGEST THING to hit the Internet in last couple of years, might be a good idea to "download all your history," from time/time. Not just once, but every 3 months or so. It's very easy to do.

Before we begin this month's ezine, I have a favor to ask you. If you've been a client of ours over the years, I'm sure you know things have gotten more competitive in the Comptuer Repair marketplace. When we started 15 years ago - there was the Geek Squad, ITM Computing and a few other ma/pa shops. Now every corner has one.

To help us out a bit, would you mind shooting us a positive review in one of the places? Yelp is one of our biggest supporters, followed by Google, then by Facebook (on our business page) - hit "reviews" tab. All of our review sites are located here: REVIEW SITES. Note if you have a small business, this is a good thing to put together for yourself. If you do business with other small businesses, they'd appreciate a review when leaving us one, too.

For ease of use, here are our top 3 review sites:
   

Lastly, we welcome you to come out to our new office at our Grand Opening, on Tuesday, 5/17 from 4 pm - 8 pm. Details are below.

Protect Your Privacy When Surfing the Web, pt 1

Surfing the web safely with proper ad-blocking software

There are many way companies track your information while you're surfing the web. While they're tracking your information, you want to protect your privacy. The main way they keep track of your information is through "cookies," which is a small piece of code (crumb - following analogy of cookie) on your computer when you visit a site. These cookies are left when you click on ads. Every time you visit the site where you clicked an ad, they track what you click on and show you ads related to what you click on. There are HUGE tracking companies like "Doubleclick," who consolidate data from thousands of websites, and your web surfing habits are on their servers. None of these cookies are actually harmful to your computer, they're just a major violation of your policy.

Following are some plug-ins you can use to customize your web browser to either erase these cookies or block them in the first place. I'll only be covering these 3 Internet browsers - Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari. About 95% of the clients we visit use one of these browsers - whether they're on Mac or Windows. FYI - Microsoft's Internet Explorer has plug-ins as well.

We'll discuss Google Chrome in Pt. 1 and Firefox/Safari in Pt. 2.

Google Chrome

Blocks
Ads
on
Google
Chrome

Windows/Mac: Ad Block

This is one of my favorite extension of all time - it blocks ads as they name says so clearly ;-) - both the flashy kind and still kind (as in images). If you're signed up with a freemail service like Hotmail, Gmail, AOLmail, Yahoo mail and hate all those ads - this will make your email viewing a lot more enjoyable. Word of warning: Occasionally it will block content you need. If you feel this is the case, click on icon of stop sign on your extension bar in upper right corner and tell it "Don't run on this page." It even blocks the text ads to the side of your google AND those annoying ads on Facebook!! Oh, BTW, if you use this extension - give the guy $10 - it's his full-time job keeping this program great!!

Click & Clean - Remove Cookies - Scan Malware

Windows Only: Click & Clean is a very powerful extension that prevents cookies as well as does malware scans. It's extremely powerful and thorough and has tons of features.

Going Incognito on Google Chrome

Click on Wrench in the upper right corner, click "New Incognito Window," which will give you a totally private web browsing experience. Pages you view in this window won't appear in your browser history or search history, and they won't leave other traces, like cookies, on your computer after you close the incognito window. Any files you download or bookmarks you create will be preserved, however.

Grand Opening of In The Moment Computing

Date & Time: Tuesday, May 17 · 4:00pm - 8:00pm

Location:
In The Moment Computing
830 Stewart Drive, #145
Sunnyvale, CA

Come share our Joy and Good Fortune in our new offices.

We'll have catered food. We'll have drinks. You get to meet the technicians who repair the computers. We'll answer all your technology questions and more.

There will be door prizes including coupons for future services up to 50% off next visit.

There will be awesome Gift Baskets for a free raffle provided by Shawn Parola of All The Buzz - www.All-The-Buzz.com - Gift Baskets and More.

We encourage you to bring friends, as they will be eligible to get coupons and you'll get referral credits if they use coupons.

Spend 15 mins - Spend 3 hours

A Good Time will be Had by All!

Please RSVP by May 12th. RSVP by calling 408.732.8500 or on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/kFZ2Ux

Download Your FB History

So much chatter about safety and security these days! The FDA’s putting pictures of cancer patients on the packs of cigarettes; the TSA is feeling up everyone who won’t allow them to see them naked-ish on an X-ray; and if Facebook isn’t in the news for getting trial defendants or employees in hot water, you can crawl out from under that rock now...or maybe you’re thinking of going back under that rock.

Maybe you’re thinking of letting Big Brother, I mean Facebook go and all of your friends are moving to one of the various new or experimental social networks. Maybe you’re wondering what those applications are really collecting when you clicked "Allow" to take that "What kind of smelly soap user are you?" quiz. Maybe you’re just getting weary of having all your history out on Facebook. Either way, it’s a great idea to Download Your Facebook History and see, well, what you’ve been up to lately. Here’s what you do:

Steps

Log on to Facebook

Click on "Settings, Account Settings"

Click on "Learn More" next to "Download Your Information"

Download Your Information Settings Section

Type your password in to verify you have access to your account.

Enter Your Password to Download Information

You will then get an email sent back to you. This will be sent to the email address you use to log in to Facebook. It came to me in about 5 minutes.

Downloading your information to your computer

Downloading your information to your computer
Now, it’s up to you. You can host this information somewhere else, where it won’t be shared with the world, if that’s what you want to do. You can host it on your own website. You can just keep it for your records.

Once you get all this information, if you want to "start over", you can deactivate your account/delete your account knowing you have all your photos, videos and comments.

Protect Your Privacy When Surfing the Web, pt 2

This is the 2nd of a 2 part article on Protecting Your Privacy while Surfing the web. In part 1, we covered Google Chrome. In part 2 we will be covering Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari.

There are many way companies track your information while you're surfing the web. While they're tracking your information, you want to protect your privacy. The main way they keep track of your information is through "cookies," which is a small piece of code (crumb - following analogy of cookie) on your computer when you visit a site. These cookies are left when you click on ads. Every time you visit the site where you clicked an ad, they track what you click on and show you ads related to what you click on. There are HUGE tracking companies like "Doubleclick," who consolidate data from thousands of websites, and your web surfing habits are on their servers. None of these cookies are actually harmful to your computer, they're just a major violation of your policy.

Following are some plug-ins you can use to customize your web browser to either erase these cookies or block them in the first place. I'll only be covering these 3 Internet browsers - Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari. About 95% of the clients we visit use one of these browsers - whether they're on Mac or Windows. FYI - Microsoft's Internet Explorer has plug-ins as well.

Mozilla Firefox

AdBlockPlus Blocks Ads on Firefox

Windows/Mac:AdBlock Plus

This is one of my favorite extension of all time - it blocks ads - both the flashy kind and still kind. It's made by a different developer than the Google Chrome AdBlock guy. If you're signed up with a freemail service like Hotmail, Gmail, AOL mail, Yahoo mail and hate all those ads - this will make your email viewing a lot more enjoyable. Word of warning: Occasionally it will block content you need. If you feel this is the case, click on icon of stop sign on your extension bar in upper right corner and tell it "Don't run on this page." It even blocks the text ads to the side of your google AND those annoying ads on Facebook!!

Better Privacy - Removing Long Term Cookies (LTO)s

Windows/Mac: Better Privacy

This plug-in will delete "Long Term Cookies" (LTO)s which are put here by Flash Ads, which are the twirly ads you see. This is supposing you still get Flash Ads after implementing a version of AdBlock

Private Browsing

In Firefox, you can click on "Tools, Start Private Browsing," Firefox won't keep any browser history, search history, download history, web form history, cookies, or temporary internet files. However, files you download and bookmarks you make will be kept. This is a great way to protect your privacy while surfing on a public computer.

Safari

Windows/Mac: Adblock for Safari

This is one of my favorite extension of all time - it blocks ads as they name says so clearly - both the flashy kind and still kind (as in images). It's one of the best ways to protect your privacy while surfing on Safari. It's made by the same guy who does AdBlock for Google Chrome. If you're signed up with a freemail service like Hotmail, Gmail, AOLmail, Yahoo mail and hate all those ads - this will make your email viewing a lot more enjoyable. Word of warning: Occasionally it will block content you need. If you feel this is the case, click on icon of stop sign on your extension bar in upper right corner and tell it "Don't run on this page." It even blocks the text ads to the side of your google AND those annoying ads on Facebook!! Oh, BTW, if you use this extension - give the guy $10 - it's his full-time job keeping this program great!!