Collusion | Tracking Your Trackers

Have you ever wondered how the ad's on the side of your Facebook page sometimes seem to be way too tailored to your exact interests and hobbies. Well, this is isn’t as much of a coincidence as you might think. Whenever you visit a website, there are ‘cookies’ – and no these are not the delicious cookies your mom might make – these cookies are small pieces of data that a website sends to be stored in your web browser every time you browse that site. Whenever you load the same site, the browser sends the cookie back to the server to inform that website about your previous search history.

Essentially this means that every time you log on to the Internet, the websites you visit are creating records about you based on what you have searched in the past on those sites. For example, if you post a Facebook status saying:

           

Facebook will take that information, and give you advertisements that are relevant to that topic, for example this add for getoutsideshoes.com:

Don’t get me wrong, this part of tracking cookies is actually pretty cool. It gives websites like Facebook the ability to track your interests, posts, and likes so they can produce adds that are catered to you!

However, there’s also a component to tracking cookies that is quite scary to think about. This part is when third-party cookies are tracking your movements online. Now what is a third-party cookie you might ask? Well, these aren’t the regular cookies like the ones Facebook or Twitter use to gather data about your online browsing, these are the cookies from sources other than the ones that you are visiting.

This means that other websites are compiling information about you without your permission. So many of these sits track users from other sites without asking, which I think is a huge invasion of your online privacy. We, as users of the internet, should be able to choose which sites we give permission to track us, not the other way around. Sites should not be able to track and store data about us without our consent. Well, this is where Collusion comes in.

Collusion is an Add-On to Mozilla Firefox that gives you a graph showing you the websites that are using third-party cookies to track your activities online. That data creates multiple webs of contact between companies and trackers, to give you the information that you should know in order to understand how websites are using your information, and which third-party cookies are taking that information for themselves. Collusion also gives you the option to stop third-party sources from tracking you using cookies, which I think is pretty cool!

After surfing the web for about half an hour, I got my own Collusion graph to see who's tracking me, and this was the result: 

The circles that are outlined in blue are the ones that I actually visited, while the ones outlined in white are the ones that I never actually visited, but gained access to my information through advertisements on the pages I did visit. 

Looking more closely, I only actually visited six sites in total, but loads of other sites were still able to access my information and data because of third-party cookies and tracking. This really opened my eyes to how nothing you put on the internet is actually private and how if someone really wants to access something, they can. Hopefully this has educated you a bit to be more wary of the things you're posting online. 

If you want to download Collusion and see how it works for yourself, you must first download Mozilla Firefox and once you’ve done that you can download Collusion.

Now you're ready to start tracking your trackers!

Cloudy with a Chance of Computing

For this week's tutorial, the both of us, Nicole Grella (@nicolegrellaRU) and Danielle VanHelden (@danielleannaRU), chose to further our understanding of 'cloud computing' because it is used by millions of people every single day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMH-AmzVknQ&feature=youtu.be

Thanks for watching!

Google Syntax - Making Google Searches Even Easier!

If you, like me, didn’t think it was possible for Google to make searching for things on the Internet even easier, then you sure are wrong!

It turns out there are several Google ‘shortcuts’ that can make finding anything from a definition to a specific brand or item, even simpler.

Here are some of the most useful ways to use Google more effectively:

How would you search for an exact word or phrase?

If you put the word or phrase you are searching for in parenthesis [“ and ”], Google will specify the search so that the results will contain exactly what is within the quotation.

Did you know that ‘Carpe Diem’ is a Latin phrase meaning to ‘seize the day’? Well, now you do.

How would you search for something on a specific site?

In order to search for something on a specific site, lets say you are looking for the Women’s Department at Macy’s, all you have to do is search [site: macy’s womens] and the first link should lead you straight to the Women’s Department at Macy’s!

How would you correctly search for a definition?

Now this one is really easy. All you have to do is type [define:] and then the word that you want to define, into the Google search bar. Google will give you the exact definition of that word at the top of the search page.

For example, if you didn’t know before reading this what the word “syntax” means, now you’ll know! (I had to search the definition before I even started writing this)

How would you search for a specific product available within a specific price range?

Let’s say you’re looking to buy a Polaroid Camera between $100 and $200. Just type [Polaroid Camera 100..200] into the search bar and this is what you’ll get:

How would you search for a specific filetype?

Depending on the type of file you are searching for, you just have to type in the name followed by [ext.pdf] or [ext.doc] for example. The first result in your search should give you the [PDF], [DOC], [PPT], etc. file for the topic you searched.

How would you include or ignore words in your search?

Including or ignoring words in your search is as simple as adding a + or – to those words which you would or wouldn’t like included. For example, searching [computers – windows], gives you results for everything computer related, excluding Windows computers. The first result this search turned up was actually an ad for the new MacBook Pro from Apple. 

How would you find related pages?

All you have to do to find similar pages is type [related:] followed by whatever you want really. Here’s an example for all those Harry Potter fans out there (including myself):  

How would you find a topic, searching all available synonyms of a word?

Just by adding [~] before the topic you are searching for will give you thesaurus results for that word, as well as search results based on synonyms of the word. An example would be to type [~happy] into your Google search bar, and the result would be:

How would you find the time in another country?

I think by now you will be able to guess how to shortcut finding the time in another country. It’s as easy as typing in [time:] followed by your country of choice. For example,

How would you find out how many Egyptian pounds you get for $20 Canadian dollars?

If you know the abbreviations for Canada and Egypt then this should be quite easy for you. Using this example all you’d have to type in would be [20 CAD to EGP] and then you’d find out that $20 is 133 Egyptian Pounds, give or take a pound. It’s as simple as that. 

If you're looking for more Google-related shortcuts, simply type [related: google shortcuts] into Google and you're sure to find some! You can also check out this video for more helpful tips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Je2RGx-zM

Social Media Best Practices

Are you a ‘YouTuber’ trying to gain more followers and promote yourself on social media? Then you have come to the right place.

Whether you’re a beauty guru, a gamer, or a vlogger, the more you promote yourself, the bigger your following becomes. This can be achieved through gaining subscribers, but is also dependent on your activeness on other social media sites.

Here are some social media best practices that are sure to help you expand your online following!

1) Network and Engage

By narrowing your interactions on social media, you are basically telling people that what they have to say isn’t worth your time! Follow people back and communicate with them in order to give them the content they’re asking for.  

2) Create Relationships

By collaborating with other YouTuber’s, you are showing your viewers that you are willing to promote others as well as yourself. Also create relationships with your subscribers to show them how important they are to you.

3) Post Wisely

Although it is crucial to stay connected with the community and keep up social relationships, if you are posting anything from status updates, to retweets, YouTube videos, or photos too often, it can be overwhelming for your audience and have a negative impact on your social status.

4) Build Trust

As a member of the social community, building trust is an invaluable skill. This can be accomplished by simply tweeting your followers back and responding to their comments on your videos and pictures, because it shows that you value their opinions and feedback!

5) Respond to Compliments and Criticism

It’s always easier to respond to positive feedback, but try to answer the negative as well. Look at it as constructive criticism and use it as an opportunity to thrive.

If you want to see how it’s done, check out Tyler Oakley at http://www.youtube.com/user/tyleroakley, and click the links to his Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr for more content!