One Policy, one Google Experience to Take Effect Tomorrow

Starting tomorrow, March 1, 2012, the giant multinational internet and sofware company, Google will start implementing its revised privacy policy for a better, intuitive and one google experience.

(Click image to view in full size)

The revision allowed Google to remove about 60, product specific privacy policy statements and transformed it into one compact, simplified and more understandable privacy policy that applies to most of all products and services they offer. The new privacy policy includes explanation about (1) what information they collect and why they collect it (2) how Google use user's information and (3) the different choices Google offers including how to access and update user information.

In simple terms, the new privacy policy allows user to use only one account in enjoying most of the Google products. For instance, once a user  is signed in to one Google product like a Gmail account, he/she is being  automatically identified when he/she tries to access other google products like youtube, Google calendar, Google+ etc. Google also allows user to merge information he/she provided from one account to another so that he/she can only be treated as a single user across those products.

Most of all, Google promised that users still have options and control on all   information they share on their products and the changes on their privacy policy is only to enhance the total experience of users on their products.

WMF and Telenor Partnership Allows Free Access to Wikipedia on Mobile

Telenor, an international telecommunications company has partnered with Wikimedia Foundation to offer wikipedia mobile and other wikimedia sites access free of charge to telenor subscribers in Asia and Southeastern Europe.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia blog

In a press release published by Wikimedia, the partnership is said to target 135 million customers around the world whose primary means of accessing the web is through mobile device.

“The Wikimedia Foundation is working to remove barriers to free knowledge, and for most people around the world right now, cost and accessibility are the two biggest hurdles,” says Barry Newstead, Wikimedia Chief Global Development Officer. “We applaud Telenor for joining us to deliver free access to Wikipedia for their customers. Through this partnership, we move a step closer to providing the sum of all knowledge to everyone in the world.”

The implemention of the 3-year partnership will start immediately this year with the first markets lunching this second quarter.

There are, so far, seven signatory countries on the agreement including Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Montenegro, and Serbia but  more partners are expected to join by the end of the year.

Pope Benedict XVI to Join Twitter

Pope Benedict XVI will join the micro blogging and social networking site Twitter to communicate and reach more catholics, as announced by a Vatican official although there is no date revealed yet as to when the account will be activated and officially start tweeting.

Image Courtesy of The Guardian

Head of the Vatican's pontifical council for social communications, Father Claudio Maria Celli said that Pope's tweets can be reformulated, redistributed, relaunched and disseminated. Moreover, the Father said, "In this sense it is like the gospel, a small mustard seed that once scattered grows into bushes where birds can rest."

The Vatican is not actually new to using the internet in reaching its people and spreading the gospels of God. It may be remembered that the first Pope has launched a YouTube channel in 2009 and encouraged priests around the world to also engage in blogging and use social media sites in communicating with congregants along with the existing means of communication.

Pope followers though should expect that not all tweets to be published will always come from the Pope himself but all tweets will undergo his approval.

Update: I searched Pope Benedict XVI on twitter and here are the results:

Infographic: The Sad State Of Social Media Privacy

Aside from allowing people to connect from one another, building a safe, robust community over the web, another big responsibilty of social media providers is to give users barrier against outside parties that may be benefited of the information they share.

This is where the Privacy Policy comes in. Privacy policy is a statement or a legal document that discloses some or all of the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses and manages a customer or client's data. Personal information can be anything that can be used to identify an individual, not limited to but including; name, address, date of birth, marital status, contact information, ID issue and expiry date, financial records, credit information, medical history, where you travel, and intentions to acquire goods and services. (Wikipedia - Privacy Policy). Every website that collect information from users is required to declare privacy policies for the very purpose of letting the users know what particular information they collect and for what purpose these information are intended to be used.

Sadly, having these privacy policies taking in effect are "easier said than done" because of the factors like (1) users have lack of control over their privacy, (2) government's implementation of laws regarding user privacy are not really strong enough to protect the users and (3) most of the users just don't know the importance of privacy policy.

The MDG's recenlty published infographic shows these factors that took social media privacy into the most sad state. Right click the image below and select view image to view in full size.

Infographic by MDG Advertising

Spammers and Malwares Find new Targets Through Facebook for Android Mobile App

Today as I browse on youtube, like I used to do most of the time, I happen to encounter an unexpected notice that disallow me to share or post videos to my facebook profile. The notice says:



Until now I keep wondering how it happened until I read one of the headlines on my Google News and Weather app regarding the mobile malware spreading over targeting Android OS users through Facebook app!



This is alarming in a way that the youtube as well as facebook apps are now prone to malware and spams and although I am planning to report this to legal authorities, there are no assurance that my phone would be back to safe and normal.

I hope that this post may serve as a note or a lesson to everyone who are also active in video sharing and posting status frequently on youtube and facebook.

posted from Bloggeroid

Google Docs for Android Updates Released!

There are new and improved ways to increase overall productivity over your documents on-the-go as Google Docs developers released its updates on  Google Docs for Android today, available now in the Android Market.

Major updates include the enhanced user-interface which now allow users to pinch to zoom and focus on a specific paragraph or see the whole document at a glance and the added rich text formatting so users can do things like creating a quick bullet list, adding color to documents, or just bold something important.

Google Docs for android now also support the collaborative environment functionality, Google Docs users only experience on desktop browsers before  which let every user editing a particular document see updates in real time as others type on their computers, tablets and phones.

Here are the complete functionalites added in Google Docs' latest version

1. Create, view and edit Google documents with new Android editor
2. Rich text formatting (bold, italics, underline, font color, background color)
3. Layout tools (bulleted lists, numbered lists, indentation)
4. Real-time collaboration - see edits from others in seconds
5. Cursor presence and highlighting

Google Docs for Android require version 2.1 and up to run.

Practical Tips to Secure Your Android Device

Mobile Malware has been very alarming since that last quarter of 2011 and the number of 'unconcious' victims continue to rise towards the beginning of 2012. These malwares such as RuFraud and DroidDreamLight, two most popular malware variants, invade users’ privacy by stealing personal and other kinds of confidential information.

McAfee Labs comparative report about the number of victims of mobile malware attacks- Q2 2011

Before you become the next victim of mobile malware attacks,  it is necessary that you know these things you can do to dramatically reduce, if not completely iliminate, the risk of malware infections on your Android phone:

• Use the official Android Market instead of third-party app stores or websites, especially now that Bouncer is used to monitor for malware. If you want to help ensure that you only install apps from Android Market, you can turn off the ability to install apps from unknown sources in by going to Settings and then to the Security menu (in Android 4.0 or later) or the Applications menu (in earlier versions of Android).
• Research apps before downloading: Check the publisher and app reviews.
• Pay attention to app permissions during the installation and check the market listing or developer for an explanation of any suspicious permissions.
• Install an antivirus/security app.
• Be wary of phishing scams and malware via the Web browser or SMS messages.
• Be cautious if you root your device and keep an eye out for the Superuser prompts that are displayed when an app requests root permissions. Rooting allows you to use some powerful apps and even enhanced security functionality, but at the same time increases potential damage from infections.
• To protect your Android device against local attacks -- a thief or snooper -- enable lock screen security (or, if you're one of the lucky few who already have Ice Cream Sandwich, you can test out the new Face Unlock feature.)
• Finally, to prevent any malicious apps from sending messages to a number that will automatically charge your account, see if your wireless carrier can block the ability to sign up for premium SMS subscriptions.

A Must Have Tools for Your Windows PC (Part 1)

The secret to a healthy PC lifestyle is to use reliable, efficient and user-friendly utilities for your personal computer and there's no one that could provide that but you as the user and a responsible owner. As I browse through the list of utilities that I could use for my PC, I narrowed down to these free tools below which you could also use for your windows PC.

1. Autoruns (download)

An easy-to-use utility that allows you monitor programs that are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. You can configure Autoruns to show other locations, including Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, and much more. Autoruns goes way beyond the MSConfig utility bundled with Windows Me and XP.

Start using this and you might be surprised of how many executables are launched automatically everytime you run your PC.

Autorun for Windows

2. Auslogics Duplicate File Finder (download)

You might haven't noticed it but one of the main reasons why you consumed a lot of disk space is because of duplicate files scattered "everywhere" in your pc. keeping these copycats are definitely a waste of valuable disk space and adds annoyance to you as a user. Auslogics Duplicate File Finder is powerful enough to help you save up to 50% of your disk space. This tool removes useless duplicate files stored on your PC by finding identical pictures, documents and any other files and compare them not only by names, but by their content and allows you to delete duplicates found thus significantly increase free space on your disk.

Auslogics Duplicate File Finder also helps you organize your media collections and reduces time needed to defragment your hard drive so as to maximize your file collection.

Auslogics Duplicate File Finder

3. Process Explorer (download) 

Unlock your curiosity about the origin of all of those svchost.exe programs running on your machine and know everything about CPU cycles, memory usage, and I/O using this pwerful executable program. Process Explorer lets you view information about handles and DLLs that are open and all processes as well as sub-processes that are currently running.

Make this your first choice for easy tracking down DLL-version problems or handling memory leaks, and providing yourself insights into the way Windows and applications work.

Process Explorer (1st Window)

Process Explorer (2nd Window)

4. 7-Zip (download exe) or (download msi)

7-zip is an open source file archiver that can read and write several other archive formats seamlessly and with ease. With one right click compress large files with ratio that is 2-10 % better than the ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip.

Other key features of 7-Zip include

• High compression ratio in 7z format with LZMA and LZMA2 compression
• Strong AES-256 encryption in 7z and ZIP formats
• Self-extracting capability for 7z format
• Integration with Windows Shell
• Powerful File Manager
• Powerful command line version
• Plugin for FAR Manager
• Localizations for 79 languages

Supported Formats:

• Packing / unpacking: 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP and WIM
• Unpacking only: ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DEB, DMG, FAT, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, VHD, WIM, XAR and Z.

5. Recuva (download)

Pronounced as "recover", Recuva is another powerful file recovery tool that lets you undelete files on your PC or even portable device such as a flash drive. It's fast, thorough, and most importantly, it's free!

The secret behind the concept of this recovery tool is that when you remove files in the Recycle Bin, the files aren’t actually destroyed but rather, the space they occupy is earmarked for new data. Undelete routines scan the flotsam and jetsam and put the pieces back together. As long as you haven’t added new data to a drive, undelete (almost) always works; and even if you’ve added some data, there’s a good chance you can get most of the deleted stuff back.

Recuva

Check out for the part two of this post to be published later! Just try first the awesomeness of the utilities above and start making your PC healthy!