Tag: Privacy

That One Privacy Site

This is a solid site and well referenced on the Internet for those looking for information on VPNs.  From the author of That One Privacy Site:

There are some other good resources that cover privacy based topics quite well, but when I started down the path of retaking my own privacy, there was very little unbiased and reliable information with regard to VPNs.

I started researching data about VPN services for my own knowledge, then posted the information online in the hopes the Internet might find my work useful for themselves.  Through the positive feedback and assistance those in the community offered, I’ve been able to take this step into compiling all of my related work in one location and moving away from the Google Spreadsheet that it was originally created on.

Please enjoy my Simple VPN Comparison Chart, Detailed VPN Comparison Chart, VPN Reviews, and Commentary on how to choose the best VPN (for you).  Please also take a moment to read the FAQs!

(I plan to add more content as time goes by, but for now the site focuses mainly on my VPN Comparison Project).

What’s Behind Facebook’s ‘Sponsored Stories’

This was in the NYTimes

One Day, Nick Bergus came across a link to an odd product on Amazon.com.

He found it irresistibly funny and, as one does in this age of instant sharing, he posted the link on Facebook.

Within days, friends of Mr. Bergus’s started seeing his post among the ads on Facebook pages, with his name and smiling mug shot. Facebook – or rather, one of its algorithms – had seen his post as an endorsement and transformed it into an advertisement, paid for by Amazon, reports Somini Sengupta of The New York Times.

Companies pay Facebook to generate automated ads, called sponsored stories, when a user clicks to "like" their brands or references them in some other way. Facebook users agree to participate in the ads halfway through the site’s 4,000-word terms of service, which they consent to when they sign up.

With heightened pressure to step up profits and live up to the promise of its gigantic public offering, Facebook is increasingly banking on this approach to generate more ad revenue. The company said it did not break down how much revenue comes from such ads. Its early stock market performance – down 22 percent from its offering price – is likely to increase the urgency.

But this new twist on advertising has already proved to be tricky. Users do not always realize that the links and "likes" they post on Facebook can be deployed for marketing purposes. And Facebook has already agreed in principle to settle a class-action lawsuit over the practice in California.

The Times’s technology reporters and editors asked several of their Facebook friends who showed up in such ads what they thought of the practice. The responses have been compiled in a blog post , where readers can also discuss their own feelings on being featured in sponsored stories.