Google Buzz

I've been meaning to write about Google Buzz. It gave a lot of privacy-minded people a headache when it was first launched (and Google has made a bunch of changes addressing some of those issues since then.)

Google Buzz is a neat little tool, and there's things that I like and dislike about it (and how it was launched.) I won't go into all those details, but will give you a few items to check over in case you do decide to use it.

1. Public vs. private posting

• Whenever you post something, you can choose to post it publicly or privately to a group of people. This may be obvious to most of you, but some people hit the "post" button rather quickly and assume it will only be viewable by their friends, when actually the post may be public by default. If it's public, then anyone out there (including Mr. Stranger) could potentially view it.

2. Hiding those you follow/are following you

•  By default, I believe the list of people you are following and the list of people who are following you is public. I'm not sure if you want people to be able to see who you communicate with. If not, you can make these lists private - on the edit profile page, de-select "Display the list of people I'm following and people following me."

3. Google profile

• When you enable Google Buzz, Google will also create a Google profile for you (if you didn't already have one.) Remember, this profile is public (anyone could see it potentially) so you may not want to display too many personal details. You may also want to view the profile while not logged in to see how the profile would look to others.

• Google uses your first and last name on your Google profile. If you use your full name, your profile will appear in Google search results. You may not want people to be able to find your Google profile (which also lists your public Buzz posts) by searching for your name. (I don't, but some people want to be found.) If so, you could replace your last name with your initial, or change it some other way. To change your name or any other info on your profile, go to the Google edit profile page, make any changes and save.

• The address of your profile address may either use your Google username or a random number string. Because this is public, people who access this page could easily figure out your email address (your email address is your Google username @ gmail.com) if your address uses your username. This effectively makes your Google email address publicly discoverable. If you don't want that, you should choose not to customize your URL with your Google email username by not selecting that option (on the bottom of the edit profile page under the heading "Profile URL.")

People search engines - the information out there about you

If you try searching your name online on various search engines or specialized people search engines, you may find your age, birth date, address, telephone numbers, and other information available in the phone directory or other public documents. (Hopefully that doesn't surprise you.) You may also find a link to your web site, or other public web pages that have listed your name.

Many people search engines also now search what's called the deep web - pages that general search engines generally can't reach. Some examples are pipl.com, mylife.com, and peekyou.com. These sites will search social networking sites such as facebook.com, linkedin.com, myspace.com, friendster.com, amazon.com, classmates.com, etc. I found that on mylife.com and peekyou.com (which I had never accessed before), I already had a profile available to the public about me! peekyou.com even displayed my picture and some interests/hobbies which it probably took from my friendster.com profile page (which I haven't used in years and forgot still existed.)

That's right! Information that anyone on the internet may find about you (by easily using a search engine) might have been made available by YOU! Anything on your public profile pages - your pictures, your location information, blogs, a list of your friends and others in your network, etc, could all be public and searchable by others.

Just think, anything put on your public Facebook page or myspace page could potentially be accessed, saved forever, and made available to others (forever). If you want to prevent this from happening, you should make your profile pages on social networking sites and other public pages private, or at least make private those pieces of information you do not want others to know about!

Bridal shower scam

I saw this article "Scam touted bogus bridal show at Hynes..." on boston.com

Basically, beginning last Fall, some scammers set up a fake web site, Twitter accounts, and Facebook page to promote "The Boston 411 Bridal & Home Show 2010'' which was supposed to take place this week in Boston at the Hynes Convention Center.

"...an estimated 5,000 people paid at least $15 a person and that about 200 businesses also paid fees, ranging from $350 to $4,000. The payments were made through PayPal, police said."

A good reminder that just because something has a web site (or Facebook page or Twitter account, etc) does not mean it is legit. Also, don't believe everything you read about online!