What do they know about you? 4 online privacy resources you should visit today

• The NAI Opt-out Tool

Simple tool that shows you which tracking cookies are on your computer and allows you to “opt out” of the behavioral advertising delivered by the companies included in the tool.

Note that opting out of a network doesn’t mean you will see online ads. Rather, it means that the network from which you opted out will no longer deliver ads tailored to your web preferences and usage patterns.

• Google Ads Preferences Manager

View and edit the information Google uses to show you interest-based ads on websites in Google’s ad network. Add or remove interest categories associated with your web browser, or opt out of seeing behaviorally targeted ads altogether.

• Google Dashboard

Find the answer to the question, “What does Google know about me?” with this service, which shows you information stored in your Google Account. From one central location, you can easily change your privacy settings for services such as Blogger, Calendar, Docs, Gmail, Picasa, and Google Profiles.

• Omniture/Adobe Suite Opt-out

2o7.net and omtrdc.net are domains used by Adobe to help provide portions of its SiteCatalyst, DataWarehouse and SearchCenter products. Specifically, these domains are used by Adobe to place cookies, on behalf of its customers, on the your computer if you visit one of their customers websites.

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LIKE means SHARE for Facebook users

We’ve all seen it, the Facebook SHARE and LIKE buttons on blog posts, videos and other content throughout the web. Until now, LIKE meant a small story posted on your newsfeed and Facebook could get an idea of how important that content is. 

It seems that Facebook has released an update that changes the LIKE button’s functionality also SHARE the content. Now, after clicking the LIKE button, a full story with a headline, text snippet and thumbnail will be posted to your profile wall and into your friends news feed. You’ll also be given an option to comment on the story link.

I would imagine that Facebook users may not be so whimsical with their LIKEs, given that it will appear on their walls and in their friends’ news feeds, but for publishers with compelling content online, they should get a boost in traffic.

My prediction - forced LIKEs will anger the friends of non-discriminating Facebook users almost as much as Farmville updates.