Anonymizer just released the results of a new survey of people’s use of privacy protecting technologies. The short answer is that the old standards, anti-virus and firewalls, are widely used. Unfortunately they don’t actually do much to protect your privacy. They are more about security.

For full details, read the article.

Thanks to a PrivacyBlog reader for pointing me to this article: Blackhat SEO – Esrun » Youtube privacy failure

It looks like it is easy to find thumbnail images from YouTube videos that have been marked private.

If you have any such videos, go back and check that you are comfortable with the information in the thumbnails being public, or delete the video completely.

Schneier on Security: Domain-in-the-Middle Attacks

Bruce Schneier on the real world effectiveness of a very simple domain name based man in the middle attack.

Here is a Wired article on the same issue showing how it was used to steal 20 GB of email from a Fortune 500 company.

Amazon Customer’s Privacy Exposed

In theory, your Amazon wish list should allow people to buy you gifts, but should not reveal anything but the list of items you want.

Evidently, if you buy something for someone off their list, you can then see the delivery address in the order reports in your account.

Solution is to remove the delivery address from your list. Your friends and family would have to enter the delivery address manually, but one hopes that they already know it. A good description of the process is in the above linked article.

Randi Zuckerberg, marketing director and co-founder of Facebook said:

I think anonymity on the Internet has to go away… People behave a lot better when they have their real names down. … I think people hide behind anonymity and they feel like they can say whatever they want behind closed doors.

<irony> This of course explains why no one is a jerk or a bully on Facebook. </irony>

I have been doing this Anonymity thing for much longer than Facebook has existed. I have seen the debates and watched the reality. I am convinced that the problem is that most Internet spaces are impersonal, rather than that they are anonymous. People will be outrageously rude and offensive online while being unfailingly courteous in person, even if both situations are in real name.

In reality, most “real world” interactions are functionally anonymous, yet most of us behave most of the time.

I won’t even get in to how terrible her idea would be for people under repressive regimes.

Facebook: “Anonymity on the Internet has to go away” | ZDNet