Computer Privacy Annoyances: How to Avoid the Most Annoying Invasions of Your Personal and Online Privacy

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"O'Reilly Media, Inc.", 2005 - Computers - 177 pages
From the moment you're born, you enter the data stream-from birth certificates to medical records to what you bought on Amazon last week. As your dossier grows, so do the threats, from identity thieves to government snoops to companies who want to sell you something. Computer Privacy Annoyances shows you how to regain control of your life. You'll learn how to keep private information private, stop nosy bosses, get off that incredibly annoying mailing list, and more. Unless you know what data is available about you and how to protect it, you're a sitting duck. Computer Privacy Annoyances is your guide to a safer, saner, and more private life. Written by privacy pro Dan Tynan, and based on interviews with privacy experts from all over the globe, Computer Privacy Annoyances serves up real-world advice in bite-sized portions that will help you stop the snoops in their tracks. The book even addresses non-computing threats, from telemarketer-cum-stalkers, thieves at your mailbox, nosy folks in your HR department, cell phone eavesdroppers, and more. The key areas covered include:
  • Privacy at Home
  • Privacy on the Net
  • Privacy at Work
  • Privacy in Public
  • Privacy and Uncle Sam
  • Privacy in the Future
Daniel Tynan has written about Internet privacy and security for nearly a decade. His work has appeared in more than 40 national publications. As executive editor at PC World, Tynan edited a special issue on Internet Privacy that won a Grand Neal Award and was a finalist for a National Magazine Award. He has won more than a dozen other honors, including nine Neals, four Maggies, and two Computer Press Association Awards.
 

Contents

PRIVACY IN THE FUTURE
7
My Data Myself
12
Home Sweet Networks
21
3
30
Make Web Forms Shoot Blanks
36
Die Spy Die
42
Email
45
Watching the Digital Detectives
52
The Sue Me Sue You Blues
64
At the Store
94
My Identity Has Been Swiped
100
On the Road
111
PRIVACY AND UNCLE
133
Political Privacy
141
Slamming Spam
158
Whither Washington?
165

Online Shopping
58

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About the author (2005)

Daniel Tynan has written about Internet privacy and security for nearly a decade. His work has appeared in more than 40 national publications. As executive editor at PC World, Tynan edited a special issue on Internet Privacy that won a Grand Neal Award and was a finalist for a National Magazine Award. He has won more than a dozen other honors, including nine Neals, four Maggies, and two Computer Press Association Awards. Tynan has contributed to PC Annoyances (O'Reilly), The PC Bible (Peachpit Press), and Super Searchers Go to the Source (CyberAge), and has appeared on CNN, CBS, NPR, and other national media outlets. Yet he remains humble and self-effacing, living with his family, two dogs, and eight chickens in beautiful Wilmington, North Carolina.

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