Free Computer Consultant ………. Daily Insights

Many people have used a free antivirus program from Grisoft known as AVG Free.

For the most part it has been a decent free antivirus program, although not a complete internet security suite.

With version 7.5, Grisoft made the program harder to find. Now with version 8 they are adding a “feature” that kind of helps you but only by “phoning home”.

When you upgrade to AVG version 8, you have the option to install the AVG Security Toolbar which comes with Yahoo! search box (I have written about the default addin crap that previously trusted vendors were polluting our machines with in this post).

With the AVG Security Toolbar you get another “bonus” whether you want it or not - LinkScanner.

When you search, LinkScanner “phones home” to check the sites returned by the search, much like McAfee’s SiteAdvisor (the only offering from McAfee that I recommend) except that it leaves your IP address on Grisoft’s servers which could potentially identify you in conjunction with the search.

Virus Bulletin has stated that in the process of checking out a site, LinkScanner emulates actually going there!

You can turn off LinkScanner, and I recommend you do so. Double click the AVG icon in the system tray. Under Tools, Advanced settings you can choose LinkScanner and uncheck “Enable AVG Search-Shield”.

You will have to restart your browser, but then you should be good.

There have been many reports in the news lately of beauty queens whose title is under attack or whose crown has been taken away due to unladylike photos or other information surfacing on the internet.

Miss New Jersey and her blackmail issue is only one of the more high profile, recent cases.

Our local news just last night mentioned a local county fair beauty pageant where 7 of the 8 contestants have their myspace.com and facebook.com profiles marked “private”, so only their friends can see them.

Girls, wake up. If you are beauty queen material then you ought to know that your circle of friends includes some who are just waiting for an opportunity to put a knife in your back.

If winning notoriety in a pageant is high on your list of importance in life, then maybe you will have to sacrifice having racy photos of yourself, your underage drinking and where your boyfriend puts his mouth in public available in high resolution on the internet.

If you think marking your myspace or facebook entry “private” is really that secure, then think again. MySpace has been hacked before at the server level, you don’t think there is someone who can hack (or guess) your password (No1Queen)?

I suppose you regularly login to your internet blogs, websites and spaces over WiFi at the campus? That’s secure.

Information that is sitting on any server attached to the internet is NOT private. Learn that now.

The internet is not, nor ever will be (IMHO), known for privacy. If you don’t want the photos in the tabloids, then destroy them.

Better yet, don’t indulge in the behavior that will get you de-throned in the first place. Almost everyone has a cell phone or other camera device; and if it’s not that it could be a security camera, and the people with access to those tapes are not always stupid - they know opportunity when it knocks.

Knock, knock.

This Yahoo! Tech story is the first time I have seen anyone in the mainstream have any concern about privacy.

Even many oldsters are banging the drum “Privacy is impossible anymore, just forget about it”. Ok, let’s say that’s good advice (though I don’t think so). How smart is it to flaunt your life on the internet? Yes it works for Paris Hilton, but she obviously is in it for something other than the money.

I am glad to see that videos, photos, etc can now be posted with limited access on sites such as Youtube; but even before that was possible, many just don’t seem to care.

If you don’t care about your own privacy, fine. Perhaps I should include some links here to identity theft help websites. But think twice before screwing it up for your children, other people’s children or even other friends and acquaintances who you happen to have captured with your digital photography.

And while you are at it, remember those naive youngsters who have been fired or not hired because of what their employer or potential employer read on their myspace page or captured at the corporate firewall from their IM.

Loose lips sink ships, as they used to say. And if a picture is still worth a thousand words, then what’s a video worth?