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Protecting Your Privacy while Online

With all the talk about SOPA, VPPA, PIPA and all the other anti-piracy measures being pushed by the various special interest groups and big media conglomerates it is easy to forget how many of these companies make their money by using your information, either for themselves or selling it to 3rd parties.




Shouldn't you have more control over how your information is being used?

Happy New Year 2012

 

As the new year fast approaches, even faster if you live in Samoa, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy New Year 2012.

It has been a tough year for businesses and no doubt 2012 will be just as tough. However there have been many positive stories and plenty of new opportunities for businesses. It is now the survival of the fittest, and to be honest, that is the way it should be.

Privacy, You and Your Business - EU Directives

In May 2011, a Europe wide directive was passed relating to data protection and processing of data. The directive (Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 for those who are interested!) set outs how information can and cannot be used by data controllers.

As with many EU directives, there is room for interpretation but I've outlined the basics of this particular directive below. 

Facebook Changes

So Mr Zuckerberg has changed his social media site, yet again! Annoying? Slightly. But the network needs to continue to evolve for fear it would become stagnant and end up in the dusty vaults of social media history along with Bebo and Myspace.

One of the main concerns of people is of course their privacy, which is completely understandable. Changes to the network ultimately means changes to how information is spread.

Below I've outlined a few simple steps you can take to make your Facebook account more private.

Six Degrees: The theory

In 1929, Hungarian writer, Frigyes Karinthy, first proposed the idea of six degrees of separation. In his short story 'chains'. The concept is based on the idea that the number of acquaintances grows exponentially with a number of links in the chain. Only a small number of links is required for the set of acquaintances to become the whole human population. By extension, the same term is often used to describe any other setting in which some form of link exists between individual entities in a large set.

His theory could not be proven or disproved by the simple fact that the technology was not available to test it. Fast forward 60 years and the evolution of the internet suddenly made the possibility of such a test seem more achievable.

Social Media and Small Businesses

 One question that comes up time and time again from small businesses and start ups is 'do I need facebook if I have twitter?' or 'I have a website, why would I need one of those new sites?'.

As someone who sees the value of engagement in social media I find these questions somewhat frustrating to hear time and time again!

However when businesses adopt a social media strategy and get it right, it makes it all worth while.

Ireland is Social Media Crazy

In the past two weeks a number of reports have been published relating to Ireland's use of social media.

Regus, the managed workspace people, undertook a survey of 17,000 business managers across Europe.

According to the report, nearly two-thirds (64%) are now exploiting these channels to build customer loyalty, which places them significantly ahead of the global average of 52%, the US (50%) and all major European economies.

Google +1. The new face of social media?

It was only a matter of time before the worlds biggest internet based company, Google, entered the Social Media domain.

While many other social networks have come and gone without much fanfare, all eyes were on Google to see exactly what they were going to do and even more importantly, would it succeed.