The SurfSafety.com news letter is *never* sent unsolicited. You or someone using your e-mail address has joined our mailing list. If you feel you have received this news letter in error or wish to unsubscribe reliable means are provided at the bottom. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you appreciate the contents of this news letter why not forward it to everyone you know? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In this issue: 1. General announcements 2. Privacy potholes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you have any news you would like to share with others on this list, or would like to submit a guest article, you may send them for review possible inclusion at mailto:news@surfsafety.com. "A tale from the trenches" and "Golden nugget" will be regular features of this news letter to which you can also submit articles for consideration. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ General announcements ===================== Here in Southern New England pothole season is in full swing. For those of you who have never heard the expression (Which also means I envy you because you must have never encountered one), potholes are the holes which form in our roadways as a result of freezing every night and thawing every day of water just under the asphalt layer. They also pop up seemingly overnight, often catching us completely off guard. Many are deep enough to cause serious damage to the suspension and steering of our cars if we're not careful to avoid them. After we find them we avoid them, especially if we found them the hard way. It's no fun. When we do find them the hard way, the natural thing to do is share that info with others we know who travel the same route in the hopes they may avoid our fate. So too it is with e-mail over the internet. It's fun and easy to share information with others this way. It's also sometimes not so much fun if we accidentally share too much information, often without even knowing that we did. Hence the Privacy Pothole. It too can lead to serious consequences. Some have found that out the hard way. That's the purpose of this month's newsletter. To show you how to share information via e-mail without revealing things about yourself you'd rather not everyone knew. To avoid the pothole. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Privacy potholes ================ Have you ever received an e-mail forwarded from a friend? A funny joke? Tidbit of wisdom? Virus alert? Chain letter? I have. I know most of you have. If you haven't, it's only a matter of time. Are they fun? You bet! Useful? Sometimes. Harmless? Well, that depends on several things. Let's look at the issues more closely and examine why we need to be on guard constantly. The letters that seem to spread most quickly are the virus alerts. Everyone forwards them to everyone else in their address books with genuinely good intentions. The premise is that they are doing their recipients enormous good. Can it? Sure. Does it? Not usually. Why? Because most are hoaxes. The hysteria surrounding computer viruses is what fuels the perceived need to spread the word about them. In the case of hoaxes, it's the e-mail itself that's the virus. It feeds on fear. To put it even more bluntly, it feeds on ignorance. It's the users who are infected with fear and it spreads like wildfire! The problem here is that few take the time to stop and investigate whether or not the virus is real or a hoax before passing it on. The sad reality is that most are hoaxes. How can you tell? Simple. Just go to my favorite authority on the subject, McAfee Associates. For more information on virus hoaxes, please visit http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp Read what they have to say there carefully. Resist the temptation of a knee jerk reaction and check with the experts first before doing everyone you know a real disservice. Also understand that not everything is a hoax. Melissa was no hoax but it was harmless. Bubbleboy was worse and was without a doubt NOT harmless. But in both cases the only ones at risk were users of both Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. The rest of us who are not married to Microsoft products, or those of us happily divorced, had nothing to fear. What about chain letters? What is a chain letter? To over simplify it a bit, a chain letter is any letter which guilts you or scares you into sending it to everyone you know. A good example is one that says if you pass it on to so many others you'll have good luck, and if you don't expect bad luck. These spread most quickly among children and early teens with e-mail access. The problem that I have with such e-mail is if they've been declared a federal offense to send via postal mail, are they no less illegal to send via e-mail? Certainly not. The same rules which apply in the real world apply in cyberspace as well. There is much legal precedent to support my assertion. What real harm comes of it, you may ask? On the surface it would appear that it only promotes superstition. Other types of frequently forwarded e-mail are the funny jokes and tidbits of wisdom. Again, on the surface completely harmless. Lots of fun, even. Why am I so stirred up over all of this? Privacy. Remember? I started this letter talking about privacy. Why? The last time you were the third or forth in line to have received a forwarded message that was sent to dozens of other netizens each time, how much of that message was actually the original content? How far down did you have to scroll to get to the actual message body? What the heck was all that other crap you had to scroll down through to get there? I'll tell you what it is. It's one of the cleanest list of e-mail addresses you'll ever see. My 13 year old daughter innocently forwarded me two such email recently. Care to guess how many addresses I was able to extract from just those two e-mail? Two hundred thirty eight unique addresses! I'll give you a moment to compose yourself... Okay, now that you have gotten up off the floor and composed yourself again, here's another eye opener for you. I sent a letter to every address I was able to extract from those two e-mail warning them of the possible consequences of this type of carelessness. Of the 238, only 25 bounced back undeliverable. The rest are valid working addresses. How's THAT for a clean list? Let's talk about what went wrong and how to prevent it. The problem is that those upstream who forwarded it neglected to protect the identity of everyone else who came before them by cutting out their addresses before clicking that send button and forwarding it on again. To compound the problem, they sent it "To" everyone on their own address book list. By sending e-mail "To" more than one recipient, all recipients can see the addresses of all the other recipients of your message. When you "Forward" mail, all those addresses are added to the top of the message body. And so the list of addresses grows and grows and grows. Exponentially! The same is true if you use "CC" or Carbon Copy. By design, everyone CC'd sees the addresses of everyone else CC'd. The solution? Firstly, make sure what you're forwarding really has some form of redeeming value for your recipients. Don't waste everyone's time with crap. Especially not chain letters. Secondly, after clicking "Forward" but before clicking "Send", highlight and delete the addresses of those who the last person made the mistake of sending you. Their not doing so shows a total disregard for the privacy of everyone in their address book. You might even want to reply to them and kindly remind them that you're not too thrilled with the way they shared your address with others you don't even know. For that matter, do THEY even know everyone in their address books? Or are they just more faceless online acquaintances that have worked their way into our lives? (Side note: KNOW everyone in your child's address book PERSONALLY! If you can't put a name and a face to any address, it doesn't belong there. PERIOD!!! Too often our children confide in others they "meet" online which is not really meeting at all. By doing so we expose ourselves to potential danger and the influence of others who are befriending our children, becoming that confidant often with hidden, and sometimes sinister agendas. We're not in Kansas anymore.) Lastly, when you send it out, instead of sending it "To" everyone, "BCC" everyone. BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy. Every popular e-mail software has it. What it does is the same thing you will notice on the e-mail I send you. It hides the identities of your recipients from one another. It shows them that you respect their right to privacy. So, instead of putting your recipients in the "To" field, just put them into the "BCC" field. Here's a real what if for you but I think it's a valid what if. What if some of these chain letters and virus hoaxes are started by individuals hoping to eventually be on the receiving end of their own messages? What if those individuals are marketers and scam artists? What have they got if they do receive their own messages after making their rounds? One of the most valuable commodities on the Net, that's what! YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS! As if having your e-mail address handed over to complete strangers isn't bad enough, how would you like it if I told you I can probably turn fully one quarter of the 213 working addresses I received into names, telephone numbers and addresses by simply plugging them into reverse lookup databases freely available online? Does that drive the point home for you? To use a popular phrase, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Much like online "chat," this is not the child's play it was originally intended to be. It's bad enough to have our privacy invaded. It's even worse to have our privacy compromised by our friends who unwittingly turn us over to marketers and scam artists with the simple click of a button. Not everyone has your best interests in mind. In order to make the Net a safe place to be, we all need to reflect on the seriousness of our actions online, even the simple ones like e-mail. By forwarding any letter, good or bad, and not removing the addresses of those who came before you, you become part of the problem. By stopping it you become part of the solution. Which would you rather be known for? What do you say you and I start a NEW trend? Forward THIS newsletter to everyone you know. I'm serious! Do it now. And don't forget, use BCC. Learn what it is. Learn how to use it. We will all thank you for it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, that does it for this month. If you spot something news worthy, a new illegal drug name parents can add to their filter list, a hate group with a domain name to filter, or would just like to share your two cents worth, by all means, send them in. Let's form such a tight knit community of caring parents that nothing like the "Trenchcoat Mob "slips through the cracks ever again. Be informed. Be involved. And be well. Most sincerely, Mark Brasche Owner, New England Webmasters Author, Child Safety-Net http://surfsafety.com/ All contents Copyright 2000, New England Webmasters. All rights reserved.