PCM14: Privacy Rules: How to Use the Internet and Social Media in 2015

It’s time to put a halt to being tracked, monitored, spied on or preyed upon online!

But it’s up to us to take control of our privacy and stop businesses, hackers, spammers, the government, or anyone else from spying on our online activities.

And the ways to go about it might not always be obvious – stuff like posting cool vacation pics while still on vacation or letting everyone know when it’s your birthday can seem innocuous but lead to a world of trouble, says Tyler Cohen Wood, a social media expert and guest on this week’s PC Mike Techcast.  Her website is here.

An expert in social media and cyber issues, Tyler is a senior officer and a cyber branch chief for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) within the Department of Defense (DoD) where she makes decisions and recommendations significantly changing, interpreting, and developing important cyber policies and programs affecting current and future DoD and Intelligence Community policies.

So who better to give us a list of top tips for protecting your privacy while still enjoying the benefits of using social media?

Among other things she talks about:

-The importance of reading the small print

-What you should and shouldn’t post online

-How media you post online can tell potential wrongdoers information about where you are physically

-What kind of phones actually are less effective at keeping your data private

-The importance of logging off sites when not using them

-What settings you should turn off when not using

-Where your data could be going once it’s collected

 

Also in this show, we talk Samsung S6, tech companies banning together against online spying, plus tips and reviews – all on the PC Mike Techcast!

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Shownotes from episode 14 of the PC Mike Techcast:

Tech News and Trends: Samsung S6/S6 Edge Released, Tech Companies Team Up

Samsung has released the S6/S6 Edge phones and they are getting good reviews, some going so far as to call them it the “King of Android Smartphones.” We discuss some of the main points – and if Mike would ever switch from iOS to Android (Read more)

Google has teamed up with other tech companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Yahoo to combat online spying. We talk details. (Read more)

App Review: Five Ways To Stop Being Tracked Online

Sure, it’s nice to get things at little to no cost, but it’s getting to a point where the true costs of “free” content and services provided online by the likes of Facebook and Google are rising exponentially in terms of privacy.

Example: The PC Mike Techcast has talked about Ghostery, an app/browser extension made to protect your privacy. PC Mike {Producer Andrew Dieterich uses it. For the sake of this story, he disabled Ghostery and went to the online edition of the Austin American-Statesman newspaper (as a music fan it’s cool to get the local take on the recent South-by-Southwest event). After the homepage finished loading, Ghostery detected 118 trackers. That’s a screenshot on the left. As a favor, we aren’t linking to the Austin paper’s online edition.

Of course, it’s not exactly a secret anymore that what you do online is as much of a commodity as the items you buy and sell via Internet.

But there are a growing number of ways to not feel so downright violated when it comes to what you do on your computer – namely, through the use of browser extensions.

Four others in addition to Ghostery are: Blur (formerly DoNotTrackMe), Disconnect, AdBlock Plus, and Privacy Badger.

You can read the full post on this here.

If you are interested in suggestions for mobile apps that perform the same – only for your smartphone – be sure to check out the recent NBC PC Mike tech segment on the subject here.

 

Gadget Review: Windshield Witness Dashboard Camera (Dash Cam)

The Windshield Witness System includes a 32GB Class 10 SD memory card and Transfer Kit. The system delivers 1080P video quality and comes complete with everything needed to video your travels and to better protect yourself and your loved ones from a fraudulent accident claim.

It is quality all the way. Plug and Play. Mount it on your windshield, plug the power cord in your cigarette lighter connector and it starts recording. It’s that simple. The video is 1080Pp HD, super high quality. It also records audio, which you can turn on or off as you please.

The Transfer Kit allows customers to easily move the Windshield Witness between two vehicles, without having to remove and re-install the window mount and power cord. You can easily transfer their Windshield Witness back and forth between your RV and your daily driving vehicle. Simply unscrew the camera and then screw it into the window mount on the other vehicle.

I couldn’t be happier with this camera.

Like it? You can buy it here. Total price including USPS Priority Mail delivery is $221.16.

Interview: Tyler Cohen Wood, Social Media Expert, Senior Officer and a Cyber Branch Chief for the Defense Intelligence Agency within the Department of Defense

Tyler Cohen Wood is an expert in social media and cyber issues. She is a senior officer and a cyber branch chief for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) within the Department of Defense (DoD) where she makes decisions and recommendations significantly changing, interpreting, and developing important cyber policies and programs affecting current and future DoD and Intelligence Community policies.

Her website can be found here: http://www.tylercohenwood.com/

For more information about her book, “Catching the Catfishers,” please click the following link: http://www.tylercohenwood.com/catching-the-catfishers

Online Learning – Free Trial for PC Mike Listeners

I get asked a lot about finding online courses for learning how to use photography software such as Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom CC, which are both on my recently updated list of tech gear. I talk about how I benefited from taking online courses as well as a special deal available only to PC Mike Techcast listeners at pcmike.com/lynda, where you can even try it free for 10 days and see if online learning works as well for you as it has for me. By the way, they have more than 3,300 courses to pick from – including more than 100,000 video tutorials – in subjects ranging from photography, video and audio to graphic design and web development. With Lynda, you can get:

– Unlimited access to all 3,314 courses – more than 100,000 video tutorials

– Learn new software and stay up to date

Listeners of the PC Mike podcast can get a free 10-day trial. Try any course. Start your trial now and see what you can learn. Just go to https://pcmike.com/lynda to get the free 10 day trial.

 

We Need Your Help!

As we begin a new podcast like this, it’s very important to get a bunch of reviews to be able to show well in the iTunes listings. So if you can, I’d sure appreciate it if you’d subscribe and leave me your rating and review.

Here’s how:

First, open up the iTunes app on your computer or mobile device. Click on Podcasts on top
> From the iTunes Podcasts page, use the “Search Store” field up at the top right corner of the page. Type in PC Mike Techcast under the Podcasts category.
> Click on the logo image of the PC Mike Techcast on the search return page
> From there, you can:

1) Subscribe

2) Choose and Click on a star (1-5) that reflects your rating. Five stars means you really like it, one star not so much.

3) Leave a written review.

Thanks to all for the kind reviews we’ve received so far. I read and appreciate every review! If you haven’t left a review please do so. I will be so grateful!

And remember, you can appear in future episodes. Ask a question or voice your comments by clicking the Leave Voicemail tab on the right side of this page here at pcmike.com. You can then use the microphone on your computer to record your question.

Thank you!

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