Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Why Buy a Privacy Screen?

Many people have installed privacy screens in their homes. This seems rather odd, as though we can’t even trust each other. However, there are many reasons why you would want to have a privacy screen in your home. If you are considering buying one, think of the following benefits and how they could apply to you. Privacy screens can come in handy not only at home, but also in work situations around the office. Even if you hadn’t thought of buying a privacy screen before, you might realize that the pros outweigh the cons in many situations.

If you are someone who likes to be completely alone when they undress or change, a privacy screen could be a good thing for you to buy. They can be set up in any part of a room, and a quick duck behind them will leave you completely guarded from any prying eyes that might be out there. Privacy screens are very useful for being a quick and portable wall between whatever you are trying to hide and whoever might be trying to look. They heighten your level of privacy in any situation.

Privacy screens are available from many different furniture stores, although they are slightly less popular than other more common pieces of furniture. You can find some nice types of screens in these stores. If there is something that you haven’t been able to find, but you feel like it would make a perfect privacy screen, then you can also look online for vendors who will sell you what you need. The shipping costs on these are usually fairly high, so unless you’re sure that you can’t find anything in a regular store, you should probably try not to go online.

Privacy screens also have a very fashionable side to them, and make great fashionable additions to any room. They have a sort of ancient Japanese feel to them, and they really change the atmosphere by accenting a room. They come in hundreds of different colors and styles, so you will surely be able to find something that goes well with the rest of the furniture that you have already put in to the room. So look for them today, and find out about the various ones that are available to you, and what sort of styles they come in.

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act: How It Affects You

The electronic communications privacy act was passed by the U.S. government in 1986 in order to place some order on electronic messages. The original bill was designed to prevent the government from accessing emails without the proper authorization, and the electronic communications privacy act was an amendment to this bill. It allows for businesses, corporations, and individuals to be confident that their email messages are secure. It was considered a great step forward for electronic privacy, and even today it protects you. Here are some of the ways that it has made a difference.

When you store email, you aren’t really storing it in a safe place. It may be in a password-protected inbox that only you can access, but the data is still out there. Depending on the type of email service you use, it is either on the internet somewhere, or stored within your very own computer. If someone with the right resources wants to read your mail, it is most likely that they will be able to after enough trying. This is a scary thought, especially if you send or receive any important emails. You never want your emails’ security to be breached, even if it is by the government.

If the government requests to see your email, you will usually have no reason whatsoever to refuse them access. But when someone accesses your email without even asking you first, it can be an extremely heinous breach of security. This is what could have happened with the government prior to the privacy act. If it was deemed necessary for a case or for an investigation, they could have used whatever means necessary to find the emails in your inbox and read them. This resulted in quite a scare among many people, as I’m sure you can agree with.

Fortunately, this madness was ended with the privacy act. No matter what, you will have to give permission for the government to access your electronic mail in any way. In a world of lowered senses of privacy, you can now be sure that your electronic data is as safe as it is going to get. It is hard to put security restrictions on electronic information, but the privacy act will certainly try.

The Importance of Privacy

We live in a very invasive society. It would seem that those in power know way too much about us. Since all of our information is on file, including our tax paying records, medical records, credit records, criminal record, and so on, anyone with access to this information can know what you have done practically every day of your life. Here I will outline some of the most invasive privacy breaches committed by both the government and the private corporations we do dealings with. When you are done reading, you may feel differently about how much information you would like to give out.

Using online services, someone can pay a very small fee and have a check done on any person in the USA. These checks are supposed to be a thorough look through the person’s background, and generally do a very good job of it. They tell things like arrest records, history of places of residence, and many other personal things related to a person’s past. This information may not be embarrassing necessarily, but it can still feel like a major breach of your privacy to have it available to anyone in the first place.

These online services are generally used by employers to do a little background check on the people they are thinking about employing. By seeing someone’s personal history, employers can let a criminal record from years in the past get in the way of actual job skills that could contribute to a company. Many would argue that it is making the hiring process unfair due to employers looking past the really important things.

But what can you do about having this information out and available for everyone to see? Unfortunately, there is not much that you can do to have it removed. Our society has become extremely invasive, and no longer seems to respect someone’s right to share or withhold their own personal information as they see fit. While it allows for many convenient things such as employment checks, the privacy breaches make many people very uneasy. If you feel that you should do something, look into some of the groups that are supportive of movements to make the world more private again.

Ensuring Internet Privacy for Yourself

When you are on the internet, you may have a large fear that someone is snooping around in your data. When the internet is used for sensitive things such as e-commerce or online banking, this becomes an even bigger issue. If someone can see the information that you are sending to make orders online, then they would probably be able to use that same information for their own gain. So when you are using the internet for whatever purposes, you should take steps to make sure that you are not being compromised by someone with malicious intentions.

The first step is to secure your network. If your own computer is the most secure in the world, it doesn’t matter if your data is sent out onto a network that will jeopardize its safety. If you use a wireless network, you will probably want to make sure that all data sent over the network is secured through encryption. There are many different encryption systems available, and by using one of them you will be able to keep people from listening in on the data you send. This can also keep your wireless internet from being stolen by people in range of the signal.

Once you are sure that your network is secure, it is a good idea to use some sort of security software on your computer to ensure that everything sent and received is legitimate. This way, you can avoid getting any viruses or spyware that can compromise the integrity of your computer. There are many free programs available to the public that will take care of these problems. It is recommended that you install them right away, because the internet is a huge cause of privacy breaches through advertising and malicious hackers.

If you are ever using a public internet terminal, you should always be very smart about internet privacy. Since you don’t know whether the computer is secure or not and you can usually do noting to check, you should do absolutely nothing that would be harmful to yourself in the event that the security should be breached. This means that you should avoid writing personal emails or doing any online banking until you are back on a personal computer. As long as you are smart about these sorts of things, your data will be as secure as can be.

Email Privacy: Are Your Messages Secured?

In any corporate environment, it is important for email messages to be seen only by those intended to see them. Unfortunately, it is becoming harder and harder to ensure that your email messages are not being snooped upon, and harder to be sure that your data is secure. There are many different places that this snooping could come from, and many different ways that you can prevent it from happening. So take action towards making your emails safer from prying eyes, and create a more secure environment for you and everyone else around you.

Naturally, you should always restrict your email account with a password. This will prevent people from being able to access your information without your consent. It will at least protect against people using traditional methods to access it. Since the messages are on your computer, it is impossible to fully secure them. But using a password that is hard to guess will certainly make it a lot harder.

Next, you should install a top notch antivirus program on your computer. Someone might try to intercept your outgoing emails using some sort of virus. This could include a keylogger, which sends everything you type to someone who will be able to use it maliciously. Antivirus software will protect you against these harmful programs, and allow you to be sure that your outgoing data or password is not being intercepted by people who know how to use it.

Depending on the email service you use, you might already be benefiting from programs that allow for the encryption of data while it is being sent from one place to the next. This is more on the server side of the email process, but will help you in your desires to stay secure.

Next, you should simply avoid sending, receiving, or storing sensitive information with your email account. There are many other ways to exchange sensitive information. A fax machine is definitely an option, since these are much less likely to be able to be interfered with. So if you have the option of discussing things over the phone, or simply handing a hard copy of the data over, do this instead. It is much preferable to any other method of sending data, especially email.