Friday, April 16, 2010

Part I - The following are privacy policies from their respective websites:

Facebook

  • Facebook may retain the details of transactions or payments the user makes on Facebook and will only keep a user's payment source account number with their consent.

  • Signing up for Facebook requires that one give them their name, email, gender, and birth date, as well as giving the user the option of providing additional information to help friends find the user. Sometimes, they may ask for additional information for security reasons. A user can visit their profile at any time to remove personal information.

  • Facebook does not own or operate Facebook-enhanced applications or websites, so when a user visits applications and websites they are making their Facebook information available to someone other than Facebook. To help those applications and sites operate, they receive publicly available information automatically when a user pays them a visit. Facebook, however, gives you tools to control how information is shared.

Google accounts

  • Google asks for your personal info when you sign up, and may request your credit card info for certain advertising services (maintained in an encrypted form). They may combine your submitted information with information from other Google services or 3rd parties to improve quality of services (which you can opt out of).

  • information that you provide to another website using a Google service may be sent to Google, and is processed under Google's Privacy Policy, but Google still encourages you to read their privacy policy as they may have a different one.

  • Google sends one or more cookies when you visit it to identify your browser to improve service quality, as well as for storing user preferences and improving search results and ad selection.

Wells Fargo

  • Wells Fargo does not sell customer information to third parties.

  • Wells Fargo does not sell customer information with outside parties that may attempt to market their services.

  • Physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards meet or exceed federal standards in regards to protecting consumer information.

iTunes

  • Apple does not sell or rent contact information of its users to other marketers

  • Apple believes it may help the customer to make certain personal information about them available to companies that Apple has a professional or strategic relationship with. These companies (obligated to protect the user's information as well) may help us process information, extend credit, fulfill customer orders, deliver products to the user, manage and enhance customer data, provide customer service, assess your interest in our products and services, or conduct customer research or satisfaction surveys.

  • At times apple may be required by law to disclose personal information for issues of national security, law enforcement, or other issues of public importance.

Xanga

  • Unless specifically stated otherwise (e.g. on the page where you submit the information), any information that you choose to fill out on our profile pages will be posted on your Xanga site and will be potentially accessible to the entire world.

  • Your email address is never publicly displayed by Xanga. But when you email someone through Xanga, your email address will be revealed to them (e.g. as the “from” or “reply to” address on the email you send through Xanga). In addition, Xanga has a search feature that allows others to search for you by your email address, but you can control whether you appear in these search results by using the settings inside your Xanga account.

  • Xanga users have “Privacy” options to help them control the visibility of their posts. They can choose from: private (visible to only that specific user when logged in), protected (visible to only a set group of individuals, or simply visible to everyone EXCEPT a group of individuals), or public. Xanga may access any portion of the user's website for operational purposes.
Part II - My custom settings for each of these accounts are listed below.

Facebook
My instant messaging screen name and cell phone number (which I do not provide to Facebook to begin with) are set to be visible to anyone in my networks. The default option was for them to be visible if provided, but I do not like the idea of having them available to anyone, so I chose not to provide them.
My websites are set to only be visible to friends from my Texas A&M network. This is a custom setting and just another precaution I wanted to take to keep my blog from being visible to people I absolutely have no connection with.
My email addresses are only accessible to my Facebook friends. I changed this so that I would not have people contacting me without my permission.

Google
My profile picture is set to be visible only to those with whom I have accepted a chat request. I was suprised that this was a default setting, and I chose not to change it because I do not mind my friends seeing my picture.
My google profile itself is set to private and is only visible to me. I am relatively certain this is a default setting as I had no idea a profile existed in my name to begin with. I did not change this setting because I think that Google has a lot of information about me and I do not want it available to everyone.
In the event that I lose my password, I have a security question set up that I must answer before I have it sent to an alternate email address. I like the precaution because I have important information on my account and do not want it to be easy to obtain.

Wells Fargo
They are all default settings. I cannot change them because they are the bank's standards, but I do not mind because I feel that my information is secure.
Wells fargo has a secured log on, so that outside sources cannot access your personal information, so basically by default I have all of my personal information protected.
I have a security question in case I forget my password.
My bank accounts are also set to where only the last 4 digits of the account number are visible.
My account also logs me off if I leave it alone for 5 minutes, to protect my identity.

iTunes
I have a security question in case I forget my password. This default setting makes me more at ease in the event that I forget my password, because then some random person will not be able to get my account information.
I have to re-enter my password every time I make a purchase. Also a default setting, but I like that it is something I cannot change because then no other perosn can use my account on my computer without my authorization.
iTunes has a credit card number saved to my account to make transactions. A personal setting, this setting allows me to make transactions easily. However, it kind of makes me nervous having my credit card linked to anyone else but me.

Xanga
My account is set to Protected so that I am the only one who can see it other than people I have approved to see it. I had this account when I was a freshman in high school, so the reason I changed it to that setting was to keep child predators from getting information about my life, classes, school, etc.
On my profile, my first name is the only real personal information about me, so that, again, people would not figure out everything about me.
My posts are set to be visible to my approved list of users, but some of them are customized to be visible to just me or a specific person. I did this to give some privacy to things that were only meant for certain people to hear.
All of my settings for Xanga, additionally, were customized.

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