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Communicate efftively on the internet

Communication is one of the activities we human doing everyday in our life. To make people to people communicate more effectively, we starting to develop and use the tools and platforms on the internet.

Security and privacy of Yahoo

The security and privacy systems and policies of Yahoo.

Yahoo,  2010, Yahoo security and Privacy, Viewed in 29 Jan 2010 <http://security.yahoo.com/>

Skype security and privacy

The security of your information is of the utmost concern to us here at Skype and something we take very seriously. We are committed to ensuring your exprience with Skype is as safe and secure as possible.

Protecting your information, be it your personal or financial details or even the conversations themselves, is one of our top priorities. We have invested heavily in developing controls to protect against current and future security threats in these areas.

Skype Limited, 2009, Security, Viewed on 18 January 2009. <http://www.skype.com/security/>

Privacy on the internet

 

Advances in technology, including the internet, have dramatically changed the way we collect and use personal information. Personal information can be transferred globally and more rapidly now than ever before. This has influenced the way we think about privacy and the protection of personal information.

What technologies may impact on my privacy?

Many new technologies involve the handling of personal information and therefore have the potential to impact on our privacy. The impacts can be positive or not so positive, depending on how the technology is used. Just a few examples of these new and emerging technologies include:

• Bluetooth technology
• Transport technologies such as electronic tolls, GPS navigation systems and automatic number plate recognition systems
• Smart cards (credit cards with a chip)
• Radio-frequency identification (RFIDs) tags on goods you purchase
• Biometrics (facial recognition e.g. new passports).

It is important to remember that not all technologies are privacy intrusive. If privacy is built into the design many new technologies are capable of being privacy enhancing.

As part of its policy role, the Office provides advice to agencies and organisations as to the potential privacy risks of such emerging technologies. Developing a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is an effective way to identify and minimise privacy impacts.

How do I protect myself online?

To help safeguard your privacy, the Australian Government has released a StaySmartOnline website with information and tips on how you can protect yourself online.

Cybersmart, developed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, provides resources and practical advice to help young kids, kids, teens and parents safely enjoy the online world.

What are the privacy risks associated with social networking?

Social networking has become an extremely popular online activity that allows people to: socialise online, send messages to one another, share interests and information, chat, and post information, photos and videos.

Like many activities on the web, there are some privacy risks associated with social networking, but these can be lessened by taking steps to protect your personal information online.

http://www.privacy.gov.au/topics/technologies

Skype

Skype is software that enables the world’s conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. Everyday, people also use Skype to make low-cost calls to landlines and mobiles. Skype was founded in 2003. It’s based in Luxembourg, with offices in Europe, the US and Asia. It’s owned by an investor group led by Silver Lake and which includes eBay Inc, Joltid Limited and Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Andreessen Horowitz. (Hill, 2009)

Responsible for 8% of global international calling minutes, and with its users making 3.1 billion minutes of calls to landlines and mobiles in the third quarter of 2009, Skype is a leading global internet communications company. And of course, Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls are completely free. In the third quarter of 2009, Skype users made 27.7 billion minutes of Skype-to-Skype calls, and over a third of these were video calls.

Skype can be used as an Instant messaging service, or as a telephone… with a special Skype phone, or traditional headseat. It even works for video calls, too. Calls to and from other Skype members are free. Calls made to and from cell phones, or land line phones are charged at a per minute rate, unless you are paying a monthly fee ($2.95/month gets you unlimited calls in the USA) that will get you unlimited calls (within the fair use policy.) There are also plans for unlimited international use.

Since the dawn of the first version of the program, the Skype community continues to grow, offering a wide variety of features and services used in conjunction with the program. These are:

• Skype-In: This program allows people using landline phones to reach a Skype user on his or her computer via a regular telephone number. The telephone number can be assigned for 3 months at a time for $12, or $24 for an entire year. Numbers are available all over the United States, and in several countries worldwide. (Watrous, 2009).
• Voice Conferencing: This feature was introduced in 2006 and allows customers to hold video conference calls with other Skype users. This feature became available for the Linux OX. (Watrous, 2009).

Skype To Go: The newest feature available to Skype Pro users, allows people to make international calls from their mobile phones, at the Skype-Out rate they use for all calls from their computer. (Watrous, 2009).

• Skype Mobile: In April 2008, Skype released Mobile Skype, compatible with around 50 different phones. The list of compatible phones continues to grow as programming and technology continue to sync. (Watrous, 2009).

 Reference

Watrous L, 2009, A Brief History of Skype, Mojave Media Group, Viewed 25 Jan 2010

http://www.brighthub.com/office/collaboration/articles/6109.aspx

 Hill M, 2009, Evaluation online communication tools, Viewed 25 Jan 2010

http://intelligentmeasurement.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/evaluating-online-communication-tools

Computer Security Terms

Some useful computer and online security terms including definition of it. Example like information and details about firewall, anti-virus and online safety.

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/terms/default.aspx

Online security for using MSN

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/communities/newuserresources.mspx#EID

The directions for protecting yourself and the othes when using MSN or windows live services on the internet.

advantages and disadvantages of online communication

The development of internet has provided an easy and faster way for people to communicate each other, it has changed the world rapidly. First, the fast developed digital communication allows people to share and communicate with people from different areas, without boundary, there is no geographic limitation. Second, information is probably the biggest advantage internet is offering. The internet can provide huge amount of information, people can find almost any kinds of information from internet. At the same time, the search engine such as Google provides an easy way to user to find the information.

 However, a coin has two side, the disadvantages of digital communication are various. The online security is one of the biggest threats of digital communication, thousands of spy software, hacker are trying to enter user’s computer to get their privacy, although there are many software can help user to get away from these threats, however, a IT report has showed that the lost are caused by online security issues are 400 million per year. Second, the online communication may reduce the relationship between people. The online communication allows people communicate with people from internet, MSN and etc, if you have something want to tell your friend, just make a phone call, and people do not has to talk face by face. Therefore, people may rely too much as digital communication and ignore the traditional communication, because with the decreased chance of communicate face by face, the relationship between people may be affected. Third, online communication requires people at least has a computer that can access to internet, otherwise they can not use online communication, therefore, it does not working on the areas where can not access to internet.

How to use MSN and Hotmail

Hotmail and MSN are provided for free by Microsoft. An exception to this, is if you had MSN Internet previously, then you are given lifetime access to your original MSN email address. Hotmail is a web-based email program and has more limited storage and functions.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2147792_use-msn-hotmail-email-quickly.html

Information and History about MSN

MSN is an internet service provider and a popular social networking site. It’s also a platform for registered users to share and exchange information and details in different format. It can be include   pictures, text diary and videos. It is created by Microsoft on August 24, 1995, it is release in the same time with Windows 95. The MSN services have since been extended to Microsoft’s Hotmail webmail service and the MSN Messenger, also some of the Microsoft-branded websites. With 9 million subscribers, MSN is the second largest ISP in the United States behind Time Warner’s America Online service with 26.5 million.

MSN.com is now the second most visited English website on the internet, behind their competitor Yahoo.com, due to the usage of the default home page for the Internet Explorer web browser. Recently the word “MSN” has come to be synonymous with “MSN Messenger” in internet slang. To use MSN Messenger, the users must have a Microsoft .NET Passport.

Reference list:

“MSN.com”. msn.com. <http:// www.msn.com/>.