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Privacy
Privacy in the scope discussed here means not giving
away information about you via your computer, without your permission.
The two aspects covered in this regards are
In partucular the username/password protection seems
to apply more to the business environment than to your home computer.
However, as I discuss in "passwords"
it is also an element of intrusion protection form the internet.
Privacy at home
I favour privacy on your home computer as well! In my example, I
am sharing the computer with my family. For that reason, I am running
a professional operating system.
The only way to access the machine is via a valid
username and password. It is not that I don't want my family to
see what I am doing. Its more the idea of protecting each of us
against accidental corruption of each others files or the operating
system.
Since I can define "user" rights, I can
deny my family members the access to folders, where I keep "sensitive"
information, like any work I prepare at home. The same mechanism
works the other way round as well.
Also, I can disallow my children to install any
programs or make accidental changes to the setup of the machine.
Again, it is not that I don't want them to get programs (from the
internet or on CD) and install them. Its just that I want to see
what they are installing. I have to be there as administrator for
program installations. This way I can make sure that they are not
getting in anything harmful, to them or the computer.
I can come up with more: I can disallow the access
to certain web-domains by simply setting up one file. The best thing,
I do not have to create the file myself, since I can get one from
the internet. This spares me to buy and install one of those "Cyberwatch"
programs. Only thing is that I am not scanning for "objectional"
phrases. But this, quite often, is more of a pain in the neck than
it helps.
My plea, actually
For these privacy reasons my plea is to get a "professional"
operating system even for home computing. The down site of this
approach is, however, that you have to educate yourself about the
security features built into those "professional" systems.
Its really not that hard though (has nothing to do with rocket science).
There is another problem: These professional operating
systems are not necessarily the best platforms for many games. In
my case, I don't mind that. You might have other objectives.
A Final note
When you are browsing the internet with your favorite web-browser,
you are giving away information about you. You might not be aware
of it, but your movements can be tracked. I would say there is not
much to fear about. But the bottom line is that you should know
it.
I am working on evaluating this aspect. There are
already quite some resources out on the internet. Looking at
some of them, I get the feeling that people (companies) just want
to get to your money, playing around with your fears!
Please stand by. It will take me a little while
to finish my evaluation. If it's done, I will put the results into
the "Browser" part of the "Consulting" section
of my web-page.
If you want, I will inform you about the status.
Just sign
up to my mailing list here and you will get information on the
progress.
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