Recent blog posts

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Help, I'm being stalked by the BBC (and also online advertisers)

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Secret Facebook app installs and other privacy snafus

You may have installed a Facebook app without even being aware of it. And Facebook quizzes know more about you (and your friends) than you think.

By Dan Tynan

That includes: photos, status updates, political affiliations, birthdays, hometowns, etc. In other words, stuff you might feel comfortable sharing only with your Facebook friends is also being shared whenever you or your friends install a quiz asking what kind of flower/ninja/vampire you are.

The ACLU has started an online petition demanding that Facebook fix the “app gap” in its privacy protections. (Full disclosure: If you sign, you'll be opted into their email database and hit up for a donation. Just uncheck the opt-in box and close the browser window if you're not interested.)

When not avoiding Facebook quizzes, blogger Dan Tynan rules over his geek humor empire, eSarcasm, with an iron fist (just like Steve Jobs and Apple).

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Author Dan Tynan has been writing about Internet privacy for the last 3,247 years. He wrote a book on the topic for O'Reilly Media (Computer Privacy Annoyances, now available for only $15.56 at Amazon -- order yours today) and edited a series of articles on Net privacy for PC World that were finalists for a National Magazine Award. During his spare time he is part of the dynamic duo behind eSarcasm, the not-yet-award-winning geek humor site he tends along with JR Raphael.