With so much online these days, there’s no better time to “Take Control of Your Online Privacy.” Which just happens to be the name of a new book by ebook author Joe Kissell. It explains what’s reasonable to expect about online privacy and helps readers to develop a sensible personal privacy strategy for Web, email, and more.
Kissell describes what even ordinary people have to hide, how to develop personal privacy rules, and how to apply these rules to making an Internet connection, browsing the Web, sending and receiving email, chatting online, spoken communications, social media, and sharing files. A special “Teach This Book” topic links to a one-page PDF handout and presentation that can help readers convey the main points of this ebook to colleagues, clients, students, and family members. Topics covered include:
° Manage your Internet connection: Prevent snoops and take key precautions to keep your data from leaking out.
° Browse and search the Web: Learn what information is revealed about you when you use the Web. Avoid bogus Web sites, connect securely where possible, control your cookies and history, block ads, browse and search anonymously, and find out who is tracking you. Also, learn how to protect your passwords and credit card data.
° Send and receive email: Find out how your email could be intercepted, consider when you want email to be extra private (such as when communicating with a doctor or lawyer), find out why Joe doesn’t recommend email encryption as a solution to ordinary privacy needs (but find pointers for how to get started if you want to try it — or just encrypt an attachment, which is easier), get tips for sending email anonymously, and read ideas for alternatives to email.
° Talk and chat online: Consider to what extent any phone call, text message, or online chat is private and find tips for enhancing your privacy when using these channels.
° Watch your social media sharing: Understand the risks and benefits of sharing personal information online, tweak your settings, and consider common-sense precautions.
° Share files: What if you want to share (or collaborate on) a contract, form, or other document that contains confidential or personal information? Find out about the best ways to share files via file server, email attachment, cloud-based file sharing service, peer-to-peer file sharing, or private cloud.
° Help your children: As a parent, you know a lot about your children and you have access to lots of photos of them. Find a few key tips to keep in mind before you tell all.
The 118-page “Take Control of Your Online Privacy” is available for US$10 at http://tid.bl.it/tco-online-privacy-pr .
Kissell is the author of numerous books about Mac and iOS topics, including “Take Control of Your Passwords,” “Take Control of Dropbox,” and “Take Control of iCloud.” He is also a senior contributor to Macworld and to TidBITS, was the winner of a 2009 Neal award for Best How-to Article, and has appeared on the MacTech 25 list (the 25 people voted most influential in the Macintosh community) since 2007.