A new, trackless search engine has recently arrived on the block -er pond.

The new critter is called duckduckgo.

Yes, really.  Duckduckgo.com.  Wierd, funny, (is this a joke, huh?)
And somewhat memorable, and evidently no joke.

She, or he (gender of duck yet to be determined) purports to respect your privacy by not remembering everything you do, as opposed to those neighborhood busybodies, Bing and Google, who love to gossip by passing on your search terms to sites that you visit.

Not only does she promise to not save your search history, she promises to not even save your IP address, nor pass on your search terms (in most circumstances), nor assign a ‘unique identifier’.

WHAT? A search engine that isn’t out to make money off your lack of direction in life, your need for speed, your thirst for knowledge, your seeking of truth, or at least the best price on the latest gizwangbam gadget?

And not only that, she will also encrypt your search by merely adding an “s” onto http. Whoa, doggies!  Er, Whoa duckies!

How about that, folks?

Give ‘er a spin!

https://duckduckgo.com

While you are at it, check out her privacy page for an enlightening discussion about search engine privacy, or rather, the lack of it.

http://duckduckgo.com/privacy.html

How to craft a well protected browser:

Practically  speaking, anonymity is very difficult to achieve on the web, but with some small effort, you can increase your privacy significantly.

Here is the recipe:

• the latest version of the Firefox browser (if you can keep up with their fast-track version cycle!)
• Always make sure that Adobe Flash is updated to the latest version.
• Firefox plugins

1. Better Privacy
2. Ghostery
3. NoScript
4. Https-Everywhere
5. Adblock Plus

Then set the browser options to:

1. Set the cashe to a relative small size, say 10 MB.
2. Delete cashe on exit (temporary files)
3. Delete history on exit.
4. Delete cookies on exit. Note: also set Better Privacy to delete ‘super cookies’ (flash cookies) on exit.
5. Select the “do not track” option (under the privacy tab)
6. Use a password manager such as RoboForm

Don’t forget!  You are still not private or anonymous. So be nice.

Remember “Practice Safe Computing”

Got it

Recently, Startpage.com made encrypted search the default.  They now use SSL for all searches.  Previously it was optional.  This may be of interest to anyone who doesn’t care for having extensive online search profiles stored by Google or Bing or other search engines.  We recommend it.

We have been checking out online backup solutions, also known as cloud backup.  We all know we should backup regularly, but do we do it?  The advantage of most of the online backup solutions it that once set up they automatically backup the files and folders that you have included.  No need for conscious thought. (?)

We have recently tested two providers. SugarSync and CrashPlan

Both have their advantages.

SugarSync seems better for collaboration; sharing files with others.  Similar to Dropbox.

CrashPlan is one of the more economical for large files and large backup sets.  One relatively unique feature is that it offers free backup to other computers or drives that you own, or to a friends computer.  Otherwise, it and Carbonite seem very similar.

Links:

SugarSync

CrashPlan

Everyone’s nightmare:

• You accidentally deleted important files
• Your hard drive crashes

There are a number of good tools available for free to recover lost files.  Here a a couple of good ones.  These run within Windows.

• Recuva by Piraform  http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download
• Free Undelete  http://www.officerecovery.com/freeundelete/

If the above programs won’t work with the damaged drive because the file system is corrupted, try Parted Magic.  This Linux boot disk can be very useful for recovering deleted and “lost” files, even from a hard drive that has a damaged file system.  If the included file explorer does not find them, try the file recovery program – Test Disk

• http://partedmagic.com/doku.php

It also has an excellent disk partition tool, hence the name, “Parted Magic”, as well as many other useful tools.

One of the most common, and most difficult treats to eradicate, are the various fake antivirus “programs”.

If you get one of these and it is not stopped immedialtely by you or your real antivirus program, it may be necessary to consult a professional because this treat can deeply infect your computer in a short amount of time.

A good article about this threat can be found at the following link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44523031/ns/business-consumer_news/t/how-avoid-nasty-fake-antivirus-scam

Opera?  No

Chrome? No

Firefox? No

Safari?  No

Internet Explorer 9?  Yes

As per the following source article, Internet Explorer is by far the best browser at keeping Malware off our computer. (But you do need to listen to it)

In this competition, IE9 was effective at preventing 92% of malware infections.  IE8 blocked 90%.

The nearest competitor only blocked 13%.

Note: SmartScreen Filter must be ON.

(this is about stock, off-the-shelf browsers, not security enhanced browsers such as Dragon, or add-ons and security and privacy plugins, etc.)

Source

Smarphones are great devices, but their convenience brings significant privacy concerns.

Check out this Computerworld article for more information and some ways to help increase your privacy.

Startpage.com in now providing google search results without sending identifying information to google. And that is a good thing. For even more privacy, startpage.com is available using SSL encryption, by using HTTPS:

https://startpage.com

Startpage is one of the few search engines that does not record your every move; your every search and what you click on.

“Practice safe surfing”