Mozilla Recommends Bing Search Engine for Best Privacy »

When I saw the CNBC special ‘Inside the Mind of Google‘ I, like a lot of other people, was pretty surprised at Google’s statement about the privacy of users of its Search Engine:

If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines — including Google — do retain this information for some time…

O…..K. That is one way to answer the question, I… guess. Although that kind of elicits a surprised response similar to the dad that gets hit in the crotch when tossing a baseball for his kid’s batting practice.   (Google Bing it – its a hoot ).

Personally, I think it is slightly odd that Google would feel that way, especially when they don’t seem to respond the same way when the privacy tables are turned.

In a response, Mozilla is telling Firefox users to switch to Bing which is also surprising, since Mozilla has an agreement in place with Google through 2011.  I think that says a lot about how important Mozilla feels about privacy.

Perform Your Automatic Windows Update »

If we had a nickel for every time we see the Windows Update Shield icon in the system tray of a client’s computer, we would be retired by now. That little icon means you must take action to protect your computer with the latest updates from Windows.
Microsoft releases security patches on the second Tuesday of each month (called Patch Tuesday) so make sure you are performing Windows updates at that time. A good indication that you need to apply a patch is the little, yellow icon you see in the lower right corner of your screen. If you see that, click it and follow the prompts.
This month’s patch Tuesday sees Microsoft releasing a Security Update addressing 12 vulnerabilities and one of which is a patch for a Zero-Day issue in Internet Explorer. Check it out and if you see the little yellow icon, click it! It is there for a reason
Another step you can take is telling Windows to apply the security updates automatically. Then, you will not even see the Update icon in the system tray. The updates will be applied and you will not even know, which is handy if you have ever said, “Hmm. What does that little Yellow Shield mean? Oh well. It is probably nothing important.”
So, if you are a Microsoft Vista user and want to setup Automatic Updates, here is the information to get you going with that. If you are still on Windows XP, here is the information for checking your Update status.