Google+ Privacy: 5 Settings You Need to Know

What is VPN?

Virtual Private Network

Basically a way to surf without giving away your identity or your ISP. If you combine that with adblock you have very good control of what is loaded onto your computer.

There are many good Free VPNs. The two links below give you much of the information you need to protect yourself.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9012778/How_to_surf_anonymously_without_a...

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-anonymous-surfing-service.htm

Thanks. :)

How would that factor-in with regard to having joined Google+ and having friends and family circles?

Hypothetically (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)

If a group of people were to create false IDs known only to family and friends and use those on Social Sites, and "tunnel" in using VPNs, then they could share whatever they wanted and only they would know what's going on.

Don't know if you're old enough to remember "Party Lines" from the 40s. 50s, and early 60s on most telephone systems. But people could listen in to anything that was being talked about since you might be connected with as many as 12-15 other phones in other houses that were part of that particular "party line" so people developed codes to talk about personal information when talking to relatives or friends.

It's the same idea updated to the computer.

Okay, I see - some of my family members will find this too complicated and won't bother.

I have heard about party lines, but we never had those in my neck of the woods, although I am certainly old enough to remember. :)

Yes, I think many people find it too much bother or too complicated. But I like going to Yahoo, Yahoo.uk, or any other news source, or here, for that matter, and know that if someone wants to back trace me, it'll probably be much more effort than it's worth to them.

And it messes up the "research" all the sites do to target me specifically.

Ain't none of their business that I like jazz way better than anything but Dylan or Alanis Morissette or that Harold Bloom has forgotten more than Chris Hitchens will ever know.

Of course he's an arrogant ass. You have to be to write a book like that. re-reading "Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? " Much in there to think about.

Still haven't made up my mind about "The Western Canon," but again, much to think about.

Have you ever read Edward Said? He died a few years ago, was most famous for his book "Orientalism," but I think he and Bloom may have been friends. Said was a Palestinian with great respect for the Western Cannon, and yet, "Orientalism" uncovers so much of the arrogance and exclusion the cannon was built upon. Said, was also a brilliant man in his own right, but did not seem to possess any of the arrogance of Bloom.

I'll have to check out "Where Shall Wisdom Be Found"