Instant Articles By Facebook To Be Available For All Android Users

 Facebook Instant Articles earlier announced by the company, that it would be testing IA as Beta version for Android and now today it has announced it is in fact quitting the beta version to let the feature to be used by all the Android users. That means it will have a huge audience as Android has a large base which runs into millions of users.

Instant articles could be recognized with a lightning bolt icon on top right corner. There is option to monetize the articles by the publishers by selecting to publishing their own advertisements or let FB publish their selected ads.

 Following Facebook, Google and Twitter too wanted to have their own version of Instant articles and hence partenered to have their own news tool. Apple too followed it and has it's own stand alone news app which is bundled with iOS9.

Articles clicked on search results open almost instantly. Here Google uses the cached version of the original web site contetn instead of hosting the content and hence different from Facebook and Apple. And the content is being kept open source

 Valleyz

What is Spyware? How to protect your Mobile/PC from it?

A Software program designed in such a way to extricate information from a device Mobile/PC or communication/electronic device including identity details, financial transactions, property certificates, bank information, credit card information, other personal communications etc.,

 Intrusion into a system through a software program is one of the ways to do it. Often spyware is loaded on to a computer in the form of a legitimate PC game or a Browser Tool bar etc etc.,. Then it logs your activity, the sites you visit, the communications you make and transfers data remotely without the user even knowing about it on a regular basis, unless it scanned and removed from the system regularly.

Often the cookies that you receive from the sites you visit they record and trace your browsing info, but when you store those cookies continuously, they will continue to know about even after several months that you have visited their site. The companies use such information to target customers when they are browsing the Internet. And ads that Pop up in your browsers reflect that reality. Those are Adware.

Always have an Anti-Virus and Spyware protection on hand. Run the spyware scan and remove any unwanted program on your computer. Buy your Spyware Protection and Anti-Virus from a reputed brand.

There is no fool proof security, some or other way a User clicks on unwanted Pop-up. Sometimes visit a website while browsing and malware catches it. It's always useful to close Pop-Ups by clicking the X sign instead of cancel.

Don't click on suspicious links on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace etc.,

Three basic steps for Android Users :
1. Do not leave 'unknown sources enabled'
2.Avoid third party apps i.e., use only apps from Google Play store.
3. Read App Permissions carefully.

For Apple Users :
 It is a Unix based operating system it is less susceptible to attacks.

1. Apple has built in Anti-Malware X protect officially known as File Quarantine, snow leopard, Apple OS X
2.  Do Not Install Norton Anti-Virus on a Mac machine. Not compatible and it will seriously damage your device
3. Number of fake security products don't install them.
4. Block Pop-ups
5. Avoid suspected websites
6. Avoid Peer to Peer communications.
7. Consider using Mac OS X built in firewalls.
8. Use an Anti Virus Program like ClamXav.

Further reading :

What is malware? How to protect your PC/Mobile from it? 

What is Computer Virus? How to protect your Mobile/PC from it? 
 
  Valleyz

Discussing Internet Privacy Issues

Now we will look at some of the web links related with Internet Privacy issues .

This paper by a suffolk University researcher Morris A. Singer  notes in particular the privacy issues involved in Social Networking sphere. You can take a look at it   

http://suffolkmedialaw.com/2010/05/20/how-privacy-limits-utility-using-facebook-as-a-case-study/

Below is an excerpt from that paper.

"On April 27, 2010, U.S. Sens. Al Franken, Charles Schumer, Michael Bennet, and Mark Begich wrote a letter to Facebook, urging the social networking company to change their privacy settings modifications from opt-out to opt-in. In a statement accompanying the letter, Sen. Schumer said:


Millions of New Yorkers use social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter every day with an expectation that their private information is shared only with those they choose to connect with . . . . [I]t’s vitally important that safeguards are in place that provide users with control over their personal information to ensure they don’t receive unwanted solicitations and other nuisances, and that they are not automatically gathered into online groups without their consent."

Science Daily had some of the reports below running  last year, discussing issues related with Privacy, How Facebook and other  Social Networking sites pose concerns for a user, where the user signs away his rights to the online entity.

You can read about the Science Daily  report discussing this particular issue.

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091013162746.htm

Another Science daily  report discussing a research at Worcester Polytechnic Institute,  how practices of many social networking websites make available a User's browsing information with the tracking websites.

You can read this report

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090824151307.htm

Recently there were many privacy issues reported in the media, when it was noted that Engineers at the web giant Google were detected to have copied or collected a huge volume of private data illegally, while surveying the streets in European cites, for the Google's Street View application.

Read related BBC story

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8684110.stm

Google has been since in damage control mode and  made clear that it has already purged or are on the way to purge complete data collected illegally, and then recently Google tightened up it's employee privacy policy when dealing with Customer data. Read related Yahoo report here.

There's no reason to doubt the steps taken by Google in this direction, but the concern will remain high with How much user data changed hands or the content duplicated. Though these issues are still unfolding, and it will take time till the user's swarming the Social sphere can comprehend about what exactly is been done with their virtual identity, that's increasingly revealing more and more information about a User. And a fact that it no longer gives a User an identity, which used to seem so anonymous online a couple of years ago.

You can take a look at the Privacy Policy of the facebook

 http://www.facebook.com/policy.php

You can  take a look about the latest privacy features introduced by facebook recently  

http://www.pcworld.com/article/194866/facebooks_new_features_and_your_privacy_what_you_need_to_know.html
 
How do you think that your Privacy might be affected online ?
Do you think it is OK for tracking websites to scan your data from Social Networking sites with which a User actually signs a Privacy and Terms contract ?
When did you felt that your Online Privacy has been violated ?
Are you satisfied with Privacy Policy of all the online majors in the Social Networking realm ?


For Further Reading :

Internet Security and Privacy at stake