Archive for Privacy

Twitter and Pinterest Email Digests: How to Opt Out

June 14, 2012 admin Pinterest, Privacy, Social Networks, Twitter No comments

Twitter and Pinterest Email Digests: How to Opt Out

You may have noticed that in the past few weeks, you started receiving digest-type emails from Twitter and Pinterest. While these emails may contain some information that is useful to you, they may have come as a surprise. This guide shows you how to to opt out of these emails if you wish to.

Twitter

On May 14, 2012, Twitter announced that they would be sending out weekly email digests that claim to share “the most relevant Tweets and stories shared by the people you’re connected to on Twitter.”

The digest also includes what they call, “also features the most engaging Tweets seen by the people you follow, even if you don’t follow those who wrote them.” You can click through on these and see the details of who re-tweeted or Favorited those tweets.

If you want to opt out of these emails, simply go to your notification settings. At the bottom of this page, you’ll see the settings for “Updates.” The weekly digest is the bottom option. Uncheck that box if you don’t want to receive them.

Don’t forget to click “Save Changes” when you’re done.

Pinterest

Late in May 2012, Pinterest began sending out weekly emails that include:

  • Your Weekly Stats: How many people started following you and who they are.
  • Popular Boards: These appear to be boards that are popular amongst Pinterest in general and seemingly related to the interests you’ve indicated.
  • Pins You’ll Love: These appear to be popular pins from people that you follow.

If you don’t want to receive these emails, you can find a link at the bottom of the email to change your preferences. Or go to “Settings”:

Choose “Change Email Settings”:

There, you can turn the digest email settings to “Off”:

Don’t forget to click “Save Settings” when you’re done.

Now you can cut down on the emails you get from Twitter and Pinterest:)

Thank you for reading!

Scott

 

 

LinkedIn Security Breach: Millions of Passwords Compromised and What You Should Do About It

June 12, 2012 admin LinkedIn, Privacy, Security, Social Networks No comments

LinkedIn Security Breach: Millions of Passwords Compromised and What You Should Do About It

On June 6, 2012, LinkedIn announced publicly that may have suffered from a security breach that compromised the passwords of many of its members. On June 9th, they confirmed that the security breach definitely occurred and may have effected up to 6.5 million users. They say they are working with the FBI to track down the criminals involved.

Information You Should Know About This Breach

  • LinkedIn says that they have disabled the passwords of members they believe to have been at risk.
  • LinkedIn does not believe that the actual accounts have been breached because of the stolen passwords.
  • According to Rapid7.com, many of the passwords that were cracked were simple words like “link”, “god”, “work” and number patterns like 1234.

If Your Password Has Been Disabled

As  mentioned, LinkedIn has disabled the passwords on the accounts they believe have been breached. You should have received an email notification on how to reset your password.

NOTE: There are no links in this official email to help protect you from phishing attempts…you should never follow links in an email to reset your password if you didn’t specifically request it. Instead, if you got the email from LinkedIn. You should open your browser, go directly to LinkedIn.com and then follow the instructions on resetting your password.

If Your Password Has Not Been Disabled

Even if your password has not been disabled by LinkedIn, it’s still a good idea to change your password.  Here is how to change your LinkedIn password:

Go to https://www.linkedin.com/uas/request-password-reset?trk=pwbanner – to reset your password.

You will then get a notice that tells you to check your email for a password reset link.

You CAN click on the link in this email because you specifically requested it. It will include your full name that you used for LinkedIn account. The email will look something like this:

Once you’ve clicked the link in the email, you’ll be taken to a page that asks you to enter and confirm a new password.

Once you click “Reset Password” you should see the following and be all set:)