If you have a guest over who would like to use your computer to access their email or Facebook or cruise the internet, you can ensure that they don’t accidentally  or intentionally breach your privacy. By activating a Guest account for them you can give your guest a safely limited account that won’t allow system changes. Additionally, you can protect the administrator’s account and any other account with a password.

Enabling a guest account helps draw a line between browser preferences, history and bookmarks, and personal files, and other system settings.

To activate the Guest account, Click the Start button, then Control Panel and find Users, User Accounts or, as in Windows 7, “User Accounts and Family Safety”.  Click on “Add or remove user accounts” and find the Guest account.  If it is off, click the icon to turn it on.

Now that you have an active Guest account, here is a very simple yet effective method to let your Guests access your computer without the fear of exposing your personal documents and files. Furthermore, this method could be used to limit access to folders for just about any user and not only the Guest users.

Step 1: Make sure you are logged in to an administrator account. Right-click on any folder you want to block from Guest users and open the Properties window.

Step 2: In the folder property window, open the Security tab and click on the Edit button to change the permission settings.

Step 3: You will see a list of groups and users of your system. As there’s no privilege level defined for Guest user here, click on the Add button to include the Guest user.

Step 4: In the Select Users or Groups window write down guest in the text box below enter the object names to select and click on the button Check Names. Windows will now check for the user or group name for its existence. Once the window has identified the user, click on the Ok button.

Step 5: Now select the Guest user in the list, and check deny on the permissions you want to revoke from the user and click Ok.

Step 6: Windows will ask you for your confirmation by a Security Warning dialog box. Click on Yes and wait for Windows to change attributes for the files.

From now on, if a guest user tries to access a folder, you’ve denied them permission to access the folder so they will be prompted to enter the admin password.

From piracy to privacy, and cybersecurity to spectrum, Congress this year will be wading into several potentially blockbuster issues that could affect a wide swath of the tech community.

Below are just a few of the major issues to watch for.

Online Piracy

When the House returns later this month, Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, has vowed to continue a markup he started before the holiday break on legislation that would provide new tools to curb piracy and counterfeiting on foreign websites.

The committee spent two days last month wading through dozens of amendments to legislation known as the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. The bill aims to cut off funding and U.S. access to foreign websites that offer pirated movies, music, counterfeit running shoes, luxury purses, prescription drugs, and other items. The amendments were offered by a bipartisan group of critics on the committee, and the bill is expected to now pass the committee.

Smith has said he would consider a request by some opponents to hold another hearing that would examine concerns that the legislation could interfere with efforts to bolster the security of the Internet’s domain-name system. But he plans to continue the markup regardless.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved its own version of piracy legislation in May, but Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has been blocking it from moving to the Senate floor. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has scheduled a vote for Jan. 24 on a motion to begin debate.

Cybersecurity

Leaders in both chambers have promised to move forward with wide-ranging cybersecurity legislation this year. While the intent may be clear, the details remain murky.

Reid plans to bring comprehensive cybersecurity legislation to the floor during the first month of work after the Senate returns on Jan. 23. Various draft legislation has been making the rounds.

Potential proposals include clarifying the role and authority of government agencies to tackle cyberthreats, defining what “critical infrastructure” may warrant additional government protection, and ways to increase information sharing between the government and corporations.

While the Senate plans to tackle cybersecurity in a comprehensive bill, the House may be taking a more roundabout approach. In October, the House Republican Cybersecurity Task Force proposed developing smaller pieces of legislation in the various standing committees that could be packaged into a larger bill.

“We are generally skeptical of large, ‘comprehensive’ bills on complex topics, at least as the bills are being written,” the task force wrote in its report. House members have proposed several bills, including one from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., that aims to allow the government to share more information with businesses.

 Spectrum

Congress will also continue work in the second session on legislation that would free up more spectrum to meet the public’s growing demand for wireless technologies.

The spectrum legislation is likely to be part of the larger debate over whether to pass a one-year extension of the payroll-tax holiday. The House included spectrum legislation in a payroll tax bill it passed last month. And some of the key players in the spectrum debate have been named as conferees to help negotiate with the Senate on the issue, including Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich.; Energy and Commerce ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif.; and Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., chairman of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee.

 Privacy

Privacy will continue to make waves on the Hill and regulatory agencies, but the chances that lawmakers will actually pass a bill at this point appear remote. Nonetheless, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Commerce and Trade is expected to hold more hearings. The panel’s chairwoman, Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., has said she is still undecided on the need for legislation.

Her panel has approved legislation that would set national standards for how companies must respond to data breaches. The data-breach bill, however, is still awaiting action by the full committee.

In the Senate, a spokesman for Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said privacy remains a priority but the panel is still crafting its agenda for the second session.

 Cloud Computing

While the government has joined businesses in moving toward cloud computing, significant legislation on the issue has been delayed in Congress.

Cloud computing, in which data and programs are stored on remote servers and usually accessed online, offers ways to cut costs and increase efficiency but poses a range of concerns over privacy, security, and liability.

Many industry leaders say legislation is needed to clarify existing law and provide certainty to encourage investment in the new technology.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s Cloud Computing Act of 2011 generated a lot of buzz when the Minnesota Democrat announced it at a Best Buy store in her home state in April. But seven months later, the bill floundered after Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who was originally floated as a cosponsor, bailed.

Late last year Klobuchar said she is working with new authors to introduce the bill.

Other issues that could emerge this session include debate over legislation that would require online retailers to collect sales taxes from out-of-state customers. Also on the Senate’s docket are two nominees to the Federal Communications Commission. They were approved by the Senate Commerce Committee but their final confirmation vote is on hold while Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, spars with the FCC over the handling of the LightSquared proceeding.

Source: National Journal

Computer Clarity

The World’s Most Private Search Engine now makes SSL encryption the default

Oct. 24, 2011

As of today, Startpage, by Ixquick, the “world’s most private search engine”, automatically encrypts ALL searches. Startpage was the first search engine to offer SSL encryption in 2009, and today it again breaks new ground by making SSL encryption the default.

SSL encryption, also known as secure socket layer encryption, is widely praised by security experts as the most secure way to surf the web. Startpage’s encryption prevents eavesdropping by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who may become legally required to store massive amounts of personal information on you.

“In combination with the U.S. Patriot Act, snooping ISP’s pose an enormous, Orwellian privacy threat,” says Robert E.G. Beens, CEO of Ixquick and Startpage. “That’s why we’ve decided to change our website default to 100% SSL encryption, to further protect the privacy of our users’ Internet searches.”

All visitors to Startpage.com and its sister meta-search engine Ixquick.com will benefit from the new encryption service, which will automatically redirect them to the secure website. Users will see the letters “HTTPS” in the URL bar, indicating that all data will be transmitted in encrypted form. Any hacker or eavesdropper who accesses the connection will simply see gobbledygook.

Other search engines have begun to follow Startpage’s lead by offering SSL encryption. However, the privacy benefits of using SSL with other major search engines may be misleading, since those search engines themselves record users’ IP address and store extensive records of their searches.

“When you use Startpage, your IP address is not recorded, your visit is not logged, and no tracking cookies are placed on your browser,” explains Beens. “In fact, Startpage does not record any information about its users. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.”

Consumer privacy expert and Startpage spokesperson Dr. Katherine Albrecht concurs. “Now our users get the outstanding privacy of Startpage combined with the power of Google search results, and it’s all wrapped up with a tidy bow of encryption.”

“When you perform an encrypted web search through Startpage, we remove all identifying information from your query and submit it to Google anonymously through our own servers,” she explains. “We obtain Google’s search results and serve them to you in total privacy. Then we delete all records of your visit.”

Automatic SSL encryption is just the latest addition to the growing family of privacy features which combine to make Startpage the world’s most private search engine.
About Startpage “The World’s Most Private Search Engine”

Startpage by Ixquick is an award-winning search engine that is third-party certified and fully anonymous. It is the only search engine to offer a free proxy service, and the first to offer SSL encryption. Startpage has earned the coveted EuroPriSe “trust mark” for outstanding privacy and data handling practices. It is also certified by Certified Secure and registered with the Dutch Data Protection Authority.

https://www.startpage.com/

Original Source

Computer Clarity