Facebook Privacy Checkup 2011

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Time for a Facebook-privacy checkup

By: Dennis O'Reilly
August 12, 2011
howto.cnet.com
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Facebook wants to be a part of everything we do on the Web. The company's philosophy is that the Internet is more fun when it's shared. In some ways social networks are like parties that never end. The problem is, we can't be sure who else Facebook has invited to the party, and whether these unknown guests can be trusted.
This week there was a minor dust-up about our friends' phone numbers being exposed to strangers. On Wednesday the official Facebook page explained that the feature has been in place for some time and does not publish the numbers. As with the contacts in your phone, only you can view the numbers, according to the post.
Well, the phone numbers are available to Facebook, of course. How did the numbers get there? Either your friends supplied their own numbers or you imported them via the sync feature of the mobile Facebook app. The company uses the numbers to "improve the quality of friend suggestions to you and your friends," according to the Facebook page for removing imported contacts (you may need to sign into the service first).
Before you click the Remove link on the Facebook Remove Imported Contacts page, make sure the sync feature is disabled on the mobile Facebook app: as the page states, "open the Facebook application on your iPhone, click the Friends icon in the main menu, then click Sync in the upper-right."
Two days after the public-phone-number hubbub, there were almost 10,000 comments on Facebook's explanation post--no, I didn't read them all. Clearly, people are confused about who their Facebook information is shared with. While the service allows you to determine how much of your profile, posts, and other personal information is made public, its recommended settings allow your status, photos, posts, family, and relationships to be shared with everyone.
A tour of Facebook's privacy options
The recommended setting for who can view your Facebook contact information is Friends Only. To prevent your phone number from appearing in your friends' contacts list, sign into your Facebook account, click Accounts > Privacy Preferences > Customize settings. Scroll to "Contact information," click the drop-down menu next to the phone number, and choose Customize. Select Only Me in the drop-down menu next to "These people" and click Save Settings.

Make sure you are the only person who can view your phone number on Facebook by selecting Only Me in the number's view options.

(Credit: screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly)

While you're on the Customize Settings page, you may also want to make some other changes. For example, if you prefer not to let friends know your whereabouts, make sure Enable is unchecked for the People Here Now option under Things I Share.
Much has changed about Facebook's privacy options since I reviewed the settings in "Keep your Facebook profile private" almost two years ago. The Facebook Help Center provides information on the privacy options for each Facebook feature.
One setting I recommend you disable is Instant Personalization, which shares your Facebook doings with companies Facebook has chosen as its partners. On the Privacy Preferences page (Account > Privacy Preferences), click "Edit your settings" under Apps and Websites, choose Edit Settings next to "Instant personalization," and make sure "Enable instant personalization on partner websites" is unchecked.

Disable Facebook's Instant Personalization feature that shares your Facebook information with the company's partners by unchecking this option in Privacy Preferences.

(Credit: screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly)

Last March I described in "Privacy: Facebook's Achilles heel" how the information you post on Facebook and other social networks can be used against you by third parties. A month earlier I wrote about the shortcomings of Facebook's HTTPS feature. And Facebook's security advice for parents and teens was the subject of a post in April 2010.
Social networks must strike a balance between encouraging their customers to share personal information (the source of their profits) and protecting their users from sharing too much with too many. Most people trust these services implicitly to keep them safe and not infringe on their privacy. Once that trust is lost, the services face an uphill battle to regain it. Let's hope Facebook and other social networks prove to us that they deserve our trust.



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MISSOURI: Possible Evidence Found in Search for 3-Year-Old Breeann Rodriguez: FBI Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending August 12, 2011

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Washington, D.C. August 12, 2011

FBI National Press Office

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1. St. Louis: Possible Evidence Found in Search for 3-Year-Old Breeann Rodriguez
   Special Agent in Charge Dennis L. Baker announced that two bicycle training wheels were found. The wheels could possibly be from the bicycle that disappeared along with Breeann Rodriguez. Breeann’s father has seen the training wheels and believes they belong to his daughter because of how he manipulated the training wheels and bike to lower it for her height. Full Story
   
2. Newark: Bloods Gang Leader Pleads Guilty in New Jersey to Racketeering Conspiracy
   Vincent Young, the leader of the Fruit Town and Brick City Brims set of the Bloods street gang admitted to conspiring to distribute narcotics as part of a racketeering conspiracy. Full Story
   
3. Washington Field/Pittsburgh: Pennsylvania Man Pleads Guilty to Terrorist Solicitation and Firearms Offense
   
   Emerson Winfield Begolly pled guilty in Pittsburgh to soliciting others to engage in acts of terrorism in the U.S. and to using a firearm during and in relation to an assault on FBI agents. Full Story
   
4. New York: Sixty-Five Yonkers Gang Members, Associates, and Others Charged with Narcotics and Firearms Offenses
   
   Five separate indictments were announced charging 65 defendants with federal crimes, including murder, narcotics distribution, and firearms possession. Fifty-nine of the defendants are members or associates of either the Elm Street Wolves or the Cliff Street Gangsters. Full Story
   
5. Philadelphia: Family Physician and Pharmacist Among Those Arrested in Drug Conspiracy and Health Care Fraud Case
   A 498-count indictment was unsealed charging 53 defendants, including a Montgomery County physician and a Northeast Philadelphia pharmacist, in a multi-million-dollar drug conspiracy involving phony prescriptions, phony patients, and an alleged drug trafficking organization. Full Story
   
6. Houston: Businessmen, Loan Officer, and Title Company Attorney Indicted for Wire Fraud and Money Laundering in a Multi-Million-Dollar Mortgage Fraud Scheme
   Two Houston businessmen, a mortgage company loan officer, and a title company attorney and escrow officer were indicted for their alleged involvement in a scheme to defraud residential mortgage lenders of more than $22 million in loans. Full Story
   
7. Los Angeles: Los Angeles Jury Convicts Two Church Pastors and Their Employee of $14.2 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme
   Two pastors of a now defunct Los Angeles church and a woman they employed at their fraudulent durable medical equipment supply companies were convicted of conspiracy and health care fraud charges in connection with a $14.2 million Medicare fraud scheme. Full Story
   
8. Miami: Miami Woman is 10th Person Arrested for Her Role in Leading $27 Million Health Care Fraud Conspiracy
   The arrest of Elizabet Lombera was announced relating to counts of health care fraud violations and aggravated identity theft. Full Story
   
9. Tampa: Jamaican Man Sentenced for Role in $220 Million Investment Fraud Scheme
   
   David A. Smith, a Jamaican citizen who was living in the Turks and Caicos Islands was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering offenses. Smith was also ordered to pay $55 million in restitution. Full Story
   
10. San Diego: Baby-Selling Ring Busted
    
    Theresa Erickson entered a guilty plea in which she admitted to being part of a baby-selling ring that deceived the Superior Court of California and prospective parents for unborn babies. Full Story

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Kim Kardashian Photo Picture Image Pic Scan Top 10 Web Seach 2010 and 2011

Kim Kardashian

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You searched and searched. And what - or who -were you looking for?

Tiger Woods, Justin Bieber and Kate Gosselin were a few of the folks you sought out this year. But you were also intrigued by Sandra Bullock, Kim Kardashian and Lady Gaga.

According to AOL's Year End Hot Searches of 2010 list, just out, Tiger Woods, the BP oil spill, and Betty White were among the top searched terms. Here are some highlights:

Top Celebrities: Tiger Woods, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Sandra Bullock and Kate Gosselin

Top News: BP Oil Spill, Unemployment, Haiti Earthquake, Toyota Recall and Tea Party

Top Health: Bed Bugs, Salmonella, BPA, Celiac Disease, and Shingles

Top Movies: Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3, Twilight Eclipse, Shutter Island, and Iron Man 2

Top Trends: Betty White, Pants On the Ground, Vuvuzelas, Silly Bandz, Old Spice Guy, and Jeggings

Top Shopping: iPad, Brazilian Blowout, Blackberry Torch, Kindle, and Droid X

Bing.com also has released its Most Popular Overall 2010 Searches, and Kim K. tops that list:
1) Kim Kardashian
2) Sandra Bullock
3) Tiger Woods
4) Lady Gaga
5) Barack Obama
6) Hairstyles
7) Kate Gosselin
8) Wal-Mart
9) Justin Bieber
10) free
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Filmed in Hermann, Mo. Horror Movie 'Ratline' Released on DVD

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RATLINE – The DVD Review

August 12, 2011
by Tom Stockman
wearemoviegeeks.com
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Drug dealers, serial killers, Satan worshippers and immortal Nazis are some of the ingredients of the bloody stew that is RATLINE, a tough, well-made shocker from St. Louis-based regional filmmaker Eric Stanze. RATLINE is not a “boo!” sort of horror flick. It’s not about stalkers in dark corners or monsters under the bed. It’s about the evil that men often do, if not necessarily in real life, then certainly within really nasty horror flicks like RATLINE. It;s an angry, humorless film filled with sex and gore, but writer/director Stanze is not one of these independent filmmakers who;s simply in love with his own nihilism. He’s working from his own smart script that attempts to say something important about the murderous energies at loose in society. RATLINE is not without flaws, but it’s an aggressively low budget piece of horror weirdness that defies expectations and is remarkably accomplished.

A ratline is a wartime term describing a system of escape routes for Nazis and RATLINE takes a long time getting to that definition. The film opens with the aftermath of a drug deal gone sour with bad blonde sisters Crystal and Kim (Emily Haack and Alex Del Monacco ) on the run from a pile of corpses with a pile of cash. They hide out in in Hermann, Missouri where they are taken in by their innocent, naive friend Penny (Sarah Wofford). A parallel plot briefly seems to follow a Satan-worshipping couple on the prowl for a human sacrifice. The two abduct a mysterious drifter named Frank (Jason Christ) who quickly and bloodily dispatches the pair in a scene featuring the first of the film;s several decapitations. Frank arrives in Hermann where he confronts Penny’s uncle about a Nazi flag in the old man’s possession that has superhuman powers. It turns out Frank is actually a Nazi villain who has stopped aging and is looking to reactivate an evil experiment left over from the waning days of the Third Reich.

RATLINE is a powerful narrative, told so directly and strongly that an audience mostly in the mood for a good old exploitation film may be rocked back on its psychic heels. It begins with a bang then lets the story and the mystery build at a deliberate pace while the direction never lets us out from under real dramatic tension. It takes its time getting to where it needs to go but Stanze has a good ear for dialogue and nuance. And there is evil in this movie. RATLINE makes great location work in the Missouri town of Hermann. It’s a charming and vibrant historic town, where tourists descend on its wineries, especially in the Fall (when it appears that RATLINE was shot there), but Stanze makes it look ruinous and malevolent. Especially effective is his use of an enormous background graveyard. The location doesn’t play into the plot but it shades the tranquil burg as a creepy corner of the earth, a metaphor for the surface and buried lives of the town. Stanze smartly bypasses his low budget by illustrating the Nazi back story in the form of an unearthed 16mm ‘educational’ film and it’s in this extended sequence that RATLINE best transcends its low budget. The scratchy, splicy B&W footage of gruesome experiments, atrocities and magic is as horrifying as the deepest level of hell and is reminiscent of the similarly demented Nazi flashback sequence in Jack Curtis’ 1964 cult item THE FLESH EATERS.

READ MORE

RATLINE  (trailer)
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Ratline, directed by Eric Stanze (Deadwood Park, Scrapbook) and written by Stanze and Jason Christ, stars Emily Haack (Scrapbook, Savage Harvest 2: October Blood), Jason Christ (Deadwood Park, The Undertow), Sarah Swofford (Sugar Creek), Amanda Pemberton (alt-model “Apnea”), Alex Del Monacco (Playboy video and pin-up model), and DJ Vivona (Ice from the Sun, China White Serpentine). The film is produced by Jeremy Wallace, Eric Stanze, Jason Christ, and Jessie Seitz.

Synopsis
In a flash of blood-drenched violence, Crystal Brewer's life has taken an unexpected turn. On the run from the law for her part in a gruesome drug money heist gone wrong, she has become seduced into a seedy underworld of death and betrayal. Escaping into the night with her half-sister, Kim, Crystal seeks refuge in a small Midwestern town to make sense of her life-threatening ordeal. However, any plans for solace are soon derailed when she crosses paths with Frank Logan, a mysterious stranger with a bloody history of his own.

An ex-Nazi, who escaped battle-ravaged Europe after the war, Logan worked in the SS Paranormal Division, conducting experiments in the occult. Logan believes exposure to supernatural forces has rendered him immortal.

A diabolical plan has been set in motion to re-open the supernatural floodgate that was first explored by the SS during World War II. Crystal unwittingly becomes a key ingredient in Logan's plan.

Until now, this ex-Nazi believed that he had all the time in the world to pursue his devious agenda. Due to recent discoveries, however, he now knows that his lifespan is normal, and that his time on Earth is growing short. His was a story of evil. Now it is a story of mortality.

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