There is good news regarding protecting personal information on the internet. Google and Mozilla have just joined Microsoft in giving users the freedom of opting out of tracking cookies. Google announced that it will provide an add-on for its Chrome browser. Users will now have more freedom from tracking cookies that monitor their movement and online behavior. This is a clear indication that tech companies now recognize the need for a balance between revenue generation and individual privacy.

The online advertising industry is continuously pushing for self-regulation. For a long time, they did not show positive response towards the call to give users more privacy. There have been numerous proposals for better privacy policies that protect individual privacy, and this recent development will be a turnaround for users to gain more control over their personal information.

As users give out their personal information, they do not realize the possible consequences of doing so. For many of them, reading the website’s privacy policies is a tedious job. They skim over the information so that they do not understand how their personal information will be handled. Later on, they will wonder why they have become targets of unsolicited advertisements. In short, their privacy has been compromised.

The growing number of problems associated with privacy threats on the internet is a day-to-day reality. Users complain about identity theft, security threats, viruses and other things that are difficult to handle. Firesheep, as one of the newest malicious tools, is capable of stealing data, including passwords for email and social networking accounts.

A campaign called “HTTPS Now” which was launched by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Access, advocates the international deployment of HTTPS. They would like to involve users in their crusade for a improved online security and a safer web surfing community. They have started with spreading the word about HTTPS Now and taking advantage of the correct use of HTTPS security features.

HTTPS or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure uses encryption technology to offer optimal protection. Encryption prevents information from being intercepted along the way. Data is encrypted in such a way that this is rendered “unreadable” by anyone while it is being sent from and to the user’s computer. This is the major advantage of HTTPS over the older HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) technology. Surveys show that many websites are still using HTTP, which is less secure and vulnerable to quite a lot of threats.

Understanding Facebook privacy will clear confusions that many of its users have. The networking site continuously updates its policies for enhanced user privacy protection. However, many of its users do not thoroughly read the policies, and if they do, they do not fully understand how to use them for their protection.

It is best to understand some basic things about Facebook’s Privacy settings. This will enable you to use Facebook to the best of your advantage with less worry about privacy. Sharing personal information should not be a cause for worry if you have a full grasp of your privacy settings.

At the onset, Facebook recommends that you should understand your Friend List. You can specify “who can and who can’t see you” on Facebook. In other words, organize your contacts into groups like “Associates” and “Friends”. Remember that Facebook allows you to configure your Friend List the way you want it. This way, it will be easier for you to restrict the accessibility of your information.

A cookie is a text file composed of alphanumeric characters that are stored on a user’s computer when a website is accessed. Cookies are also called by other names like browser cookies, HTTP cookies, and web cookies. The browser uses a cookie to navigate the website more easily. A cookie can be used for logins, language settings, shopping cart contents, themes and more features that use text data.

There are cookies that are automatically deleted once the browser is terminated. These are cookies without expiration dates. There are also those that are stored in the computer and are deleted only after a specified date. These are cookies with expiration dates. Although a cookie itself does not hold information, it can help a website do its job more efficiently.

Cookie files contain the name of the server, its duration, and the cookie value, and are stored in the browser’s cookie file. The cookie value is a randomly generated number that makes one cookie different from the rest. This value enables the server that created the cookie to remember the user when he or she comes back to the site, or to navigate from page to page.

The Proposed Privacy Bill of Rights lays out a code of conduct for data collectors on the internet. This bill was introduced by Senators John Kerry and John McCain. Hopefully, this bill would prevent data marketers from abusing and misusing private information provided by internet users. If approved, this would be the first comprehensive legislation about privacy rights that would weed out unscrupulous advertisers and data miners.

With its enactment, the bill would explicitly draw a distinction between reasonable use of data and outright violation of individual privacy. Users have aired their cases when their privacy has been violated. The issue has been around for quite a long time and there have been several attempts to pass updated privacy legislation. Apparently, the right time has come for this issue to be addressed. This means that businesses can use relevant user information in advertising and marketing without violating users’ privacy.

As comprehensive legislation, the bill requires information collectors to protect the information that they gather. They also have to inform users the reason why they collect such data. In short, information collectors assume accountability that would guarantee user’s security.

Health studies should now engage lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) populations. A committee at the Institute of Medicine presented this general idea in its written report. The report said that there should be proactive data collection on these populations. This means that even before they are needed, these data should be already available. This will help improve the quality of service of medical professionals and allied personnel. What is important is that they are identified so that specific health conditions that affect them could be easily understood.

The existing amount of data on LGBT population health status and needs is very limited. While they are given medical care, the problem lies in the way they are being recognized. These groups need to be treated not as a “single homogeneous group”. Due to the lack of comprehensive data, the report suggested that health researchers should focus on how to address this concern. Specifically, these should give emphasis on the stages of life that LGBT populations undergo. There should also be a clear plan for research and data collection. This will result to the fuller understanding of why these populations are different from the rest.

There should be a move from taking up general data towards collecting more specific information. The usual scope of study of researches revolves around race and ethnic minorities. This should be the right time to focus research efforts not only on routine data gathering. Greater importance should be placed on the understanding of different health conditions that are common among various groups, or those that affect them in a different way.

A 23-year-old man was sentenced to six years imprisonment for computer intrusion, false impersonation and possession of child pornography. George Bronk was accused of and pleaded guilty for violating the online privacy of women. His six-year sentence was promulgated by the state attorney general’s office. A probation officer recommended that he should serve four years instead.

Using his computer skills, Bronk was able to intrude into the Facebook accounts of some women. He then searched for explicit photos and videos of his victims. After finding some nude and semi-nude materials, he forwarded those to the women’s contact lists.

Bronk’s case was described by prosecutors as “stalking the women”. By accessing their accounts, he was able to change their email passwords. Taking control over their accounts, he was able to have some online conversations with them. It was found out that he intimidated at least one woman to send him some more of similar photos. He also threatened the women to distribute the pictures that he already had if they would not give in to his demands.

The 11th draft of the online privacy bill is soon to be formally introduced. The issue of online privacy has been around for years. Various proposals have been presented to the authorities. Yet until now, the bill is still in its infancy stage and was never given the legal prerequisites for it to be implemented. Critics have repeatedly pointed out the need for updated and relevant internet privacy laws. The present privacy laws being implemented are already outdated and obsolete. These cannot give full protection to users, but the process of updating has been very slow.

One of the advocates of the online privacy bill is Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. For months he has been working on his online privacy bill. In order to establish a stronghold, he sought the support from some of the country’s biggest tech companies. With Senator John McCain of Arizona as co-sponsor, the bill is now supported by eBay, Intel, Microsoft and HP.

Spokespersons from these companies have announced their support to the bill. A Microsoft representative in its statement through Adweek said that the legislation is heading in a positive direction. The company just waits for the approval of the bill and will then issue some more comments.