Electronic Frontier Foundation

There are a lot of reasons for you and me to be concerned about how legislators, too many of whom are woefully uninformed about technolgoy and some of whom could care less, enact legislation that affects the Internet, particularly in the post 9/11 attempt to make our country more secure by making it less free . This morning, after neglecting it for a long time, I finally joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation. There's no cost for membership, but there is possibly a high cost for non-membership. I find myself in agreement with their objectives and their approach to making a difference. I'd recommend that, if you care about the future of the Internet, you examine their website and join too.

One particularly good set of recommendations can be found in this document, EFF's Privacy Top 12. I recommend reading the detail contained at the site under each of these recommendations (written by Stanton McCandlish, EFF Technology Director), but here they are in bullet form.

1. Do not reveal personal information inadvertently.
   
2. Turn on cookie notices in your Web browser, and/or use cookie management software or infomediaries.
   
3. Keep a "clean" e-mail address.
   
4. Don't reveal personal details to strangers or just-met "friends".
   
5. Realize you may be monitored at work, avoid sending highly personal e-mail to mailing lists, and keep sensitive files on your home computer.
   
6. Beware sites that offer some sort of reward or prize in exchange for your contact information or other personal details.
   
7. Do not reply to spammers, for any reason.
   
8. Be conscious of Web security.
   
9. Be conscious of home computer security.
   
10. Examine privacy policies and seals.
    
11. Remember that YOU decide what information about yourself to reveal, when, why, and to whom.
    
12. Use encryption!
    

- posted by Perry @ 10:07 AM