Posts Tagged ‘social media’

Google is watching you

Posted: March 28, 2012 in Social Media
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Everything you type in Google’s search bar is saved.

Here is an example to make it simpler.

Let us say you are writing an article about HIV.

You search for “HIV”

You get the regular results and you move on.

Google remembers that you looked up HIV. Google already has your GPS location saved, your computer’s IP address and all the rest of information from your YouTube channel, Picasa, and Google plus account. Google can even collect private information from content of your email if you are using Google’s Gmail. So Google already knows what movies you watch on YouTube, pictures you browse on Picasa and keywords that you use frequently in emails. Even though Google will not divulge such information directly, it will still be shared with third parties in order to create targeted advertisement.

Here is the result:

When you browse the net, you will start seeing more advertisement about HIV medications and resources targeted based on the search term you used while preparing that paper on HIV. A coworker, a friend or family member can guess what search items you frequently use based on the type of advertisement they see pop up on your screen.

Imagine you search “bankruptcy” and think that your bank or credit company might eventually get such information. Imagine the personalized ads you will get if you search “gay”, “revolution” or “domestic violence resources”. You got the idea.

In addition, when your information and search history is stored it is at risk. Your search history can be ordered by court (It happened). Google could get hacked (It happened). A bad Google employee might go snooping (It happened)

There are safer alternatives to the search mogul. DuckDuckGo is only one out of many search engines that does not collect or track your search history. You remain anonymous.

Another alternative is to learn more about the privacy policy and options you have with Google to conceal your private information, like wiping your history or adjusting your dashboard.

 

You might also want to read my previous post: What is your Google Problem?

My other posts about social media:

A personal assistant to manage your social networks!?

Posted: February 17, 2011 in Social Media
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You do not need a personal assistant to manage your growing list of social networks. Here are few tips that might help you multitask:

1. Use the same username for all your accounts. Many providers allow you to sign in using a Facebook or Email account. (Yahoo and Quora, to name a few.)

2. Use same or similar passwords for all your accounts. For better security, consider coding your passwords. Let’s say your password for Gmail is “123G”. Make your password for Twitter “123T”, for Facebook “123F” and so on.

3. Network your different networks. Most providers allows you to connect your account to other sites. For example, when I upload a video on YouTube, a link is automatically sent to my Google Buzz, Yahoo, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

4. Consider using a social media dashboard to help you manage all your accounts. I prefer Hootsuite which manages my personal and volunteer Twitter accounts, my personal and volunteer Facebook pages, my Linkedin, and Foursquare among others. Hootsuite can translate any text to any language. This comes handy when I want to Tweet in Arabic.

I have to say though, I am an amateur when it comes to social networking. With only 256 followers on Twitter and frequent visits to Quora to figure out how things run here, I do not claim to be an authority in this field. I just wanted to share with you few things I found helpful. Share yours!

Please comment below with more tips.

The power you didn’t know you had!

Posted: February 10, 2011 in Social Media
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Facebook can be the birthplace for revolutions.

We are all Khaled Said (كلنا خالد سعيد) had a pivotal role in triggering the protests in Egypt demanding president Mubarak to step down.

YouTube shows it all.

Meet Wael Ghonim, Google’s MENA executive and the mastermind behind the above mentioned Facebook page. He was “kidnapped” by Egyptian authorities and recently released.

Twitter spreads the word to the world.

Gone are the days where only power and money controlled the media. Nowadays, people like you and I have our share. Read how few talented and devoted activists made #Gaza trend worldwide on Twitter to raise awareness about essential human rights violations by Israel.

Blogs speak loud.

The internet became the most efficient medium used by minority and oppressed groups. Take the lesbian and gay community in Lebanon as an example. Bekhsoos, a queer Arab magazine published weekly by Meem, gives a strong voice to Lebanese and Arab lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals. The Lebanese LGBT Media Monitor provides daily news feed read by more than 3000 fans on Facebook.

Then comes censorship.

No wonder the internet is the first to go down during uprisings (example Egypt, Iran and Tunisia) and social media is censored by many ruling regimes. The “Enemies of the Internet” list drawn up in 2010 by Reporters Without Borders presents the worst violators of freedom of expression on the Net: Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam.

However, censorship is often futile. Look at how censorship helped a site like WikiLeaks become a global movement changing politics the way we know it, to say the least. Listen to why the world needs Wikileaks, by Julian Assange on Ted.

My Point!

The point I am trying to make is that social media is becoming a necessity. You need to hop on if you have not yet. It is an essential tool for free speech, spreading awareness, connecting people and gathering support for causes that you might otherwise feel detached from, like sexual aggression against womyn in The Congo or gay and lesbian rights in the Arab world.

I joined Twitter motivated by fear of lagging behind. I thought if 175,000,000 are on it then I should too. Initially, I could not understand the point behind twittering, but I still tweeted. This has changed significantly. THere is much more to Twitter than I ever conceptualized. Few weeks ago I attended a medical “symposium” or “chat” about Early-Onset Alzheimer’s disease on Twitter, hosted by #MDchat in conjunction with Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Alzheimer’s Association. I even used Twitter to chat with tech support of GoToMeeting to troubleshoot a problem. A great part of my human rights activism is done on Facebook, Twitter and WordPress. This brings me back to my point:

A flutter of a butterfly’s wings in Beirut can cause a typhoon in Tokyo.

Typing a word can be the flutter.

All you need for change is a keyboard. What are you waiting for?

Can we survive offline!?

Posted: February 5, 2011 in Social Media
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This went viral on Twitter. Here is my clean version of it:

Photo from Flickr

Twitter: “Let us all do it!”

Foursquare: “I am doing it here.”

Quora: “Why do it?”

Facebook: “I did it.”

Youtube: “Watch me do it.”

Linkedin: “I do it well.”

So if it is all done there, can we still survive offline? The change is happening so fast, you almost feel you are always behind.

My parents did not have internet. “I am on the phone” could only mean “I am talking on the phone”.

Their parents did not have cell phones. “I can’t reach her” could only mean “She is not home”.

Their grandparents did not have home phones. “I gotta drive there”

Their grand-grandparents did not have cars. To go meet someone in the city was considered “traveling”.

So now we e-meet someone on Facebook, socialize on Twitter, geotrack their daily activities on Foursquare, look up their house on Google maps, check their Curriculum Vitae on Linkedin, listen to their favorite music on Ping, and meet their family and friends on Flickr. All this before we even “meet” them.

So is this a curse or a blessing? It can be a double-edged sword. The cons are obvious: issues related to privacy, addiction, paradoxical isolation to name a few. In my following post I will discuss what else social media has to offer, how to make the best out of it and  how to manage multiple accounts without investing additional time.

Stay tuned!

Slacktivism – A misnomer for a noble act!

Posted: January 23, 2011 in Human Rights
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I just read Nadine Moawad’s post on Slacktivism. You can read it here: “On Slacktivism, Old and New“.

I agree that slacktivism can be “on-land” as much as on-line.

I do not like the term though. It assumes that all people should be human rights activists and those who do little are slacking off.

I believe people have the right to “just live, day by day” and the choice not to be activists or aware. I agree that we would want everyone to be conscientious and caring, but if one does not have the desire to be then she/he should have the right not to.

I would applaud the little effort (what you refered to as “click-of-a-mouse useless action”) that “non-traditional activists” (the term I prefer to use) are willing to do from time to time like wearing a ribbon for a certain disease awareness. I do not see that as slacking off by an a person who by default should be an activist. I rather see it as an essential first step priming a person to become an activist or even inspiring another to be.

Did not we all start there!?

You do not need to be “active” to be an activist. I believe anyone who clicks that button, wears that ribbon, shares this post, or even speaks up once against discrimination is making a great difference. I even believe the most influential activist is that marginalized individual who breaks stereotypes via self-improvement (better health, higher education, tolerance of differences, conscientious treatment of the other…) without even being directly involved in any kind of traditional activism.

Be an activist today by following one. Very few feminist or human rights activists I follow regularly. Nadine Moawad would be one of those great people. She stands up for the rights of womyn, queer individuals, domestic foreign workers, Palestinian refugees and those under occupation, among many other marginalized groups in the Lebanese and Arab diaspora.

With an active Blog, a YouTube channel, FaceBook account, Tumblr, Picassa and more than 3000 followers on Twitter she got all her connectivity bases covered. She even checks-in on Four Square.