Vanish from the Internet With This One-Stop Website | Wired.com


Even if you’re not Edward Snowden, there are times when excising your social media presence is necessary. Companies usually don’t make it easy, though, often hiding the delete button inside myriad confusing menus and settings. Save some time and bookmark justdelete.me, a new page that collects direct links for killing various accounts dead and puts them all on one, easy-to-use page.

Justdelete.me is an excellent resource and evidently quite a bit of work went into it. For instance, for Facebook, the link goes directly to the delete button (no “deactivation” shenanigans here.) But not all accounts are as simple: Sometimes you’ve got to contact customer service, or, like Netflix, they’ll cancel your account but won’t delete your data. Even here justdelete.me excels, linking to the relevant help pages and contact forms.

Give Robb Lewis the good Netizen of the month award. Although most competent computer users could eventually find all these various methods to delete online accounts, it’s quite a bit faster (and less frustrating) when they’re all on one page. He even put the source for justdelete.me on Github too — so if he loses interest or the various social media companies change their policies, this killer idea can live on.

justdelete.me

Article copied in whole from: Vanish from the Internet With This One-Stop Website | Gadget Lab | Wired.com.

Recent Internet Censorship Stories You May Have Missed


Copyright Takedowns on Twitter Are Up 76 Percent | Gizmodo
Twitter just released its latest transparency report detailing government requests for information requests, content removal requests and copyright takedowns. Not just one or two but all three categories are up in the first half of this year.

The UK wants to filter porn. Here’s how it might hurt the Internet. | Washington Post
Prime Minister David Cameron announced a plan to filter online pornography by default for households in the United Kingdom, saying the initiative is about protecting children and “their innocence.”

U.K. to compel customers to opt-in for internet porn | CBC
British internet providers will begin blocking access to online pornography unless customers specifically opt-in to surf sexually explicit material.

Tim Berners-Lee warns against governments controlling the Web | CNET
“When you make something universal…it can be used for good things or nasty things…we just have to make sure it’s not undercut by any large companies or governments trying to use it and get total control.”

What Internet Freedom Means to Me (and You) | Information Space
For the fourth of July, I thought it would be fitting (and fun) to get people’s ideas on Internet freedom.

Internet porn ‘opt in’ is censorship, say Canadians | Your Community | CBC
All internet pornography should be preemptively blocked in Canada, says Conservative MP Joy Smith of Winnipeg, which would force those who want to access adult content to “opt in” with their internet service provider….Many of those within our comments and on social media say that making citizens opt in to access adult content through their ISP would be a form of censorship.

A Map of the Countries That Censor the Internet | Gizmodo
The classification of censorship depends on political censorship like human rights and government opposition, social censorship, conflict/security censorship and various Internet tool censorship.

The Most Convoluted DMCA Takedown Request of All Time | Gizmodo
Anti-Gay group Straight Pride UK is abusing the DMCA takedown process to censor work by a journalist. No surprise there—the DMCA is twisted for all kinds of dumb purposes. The inexplicable part? The hate group filed a takedown on… its own press release. How dare you say that we said the words that we wrote in a press release.

Explore Mashable’s Crowdsourced Digital Bill of Rights


After six weeks of public discussions, document updates and changes, as well as incorporating input from digital rights experts, Mashable is pleased to unveil its first-ever Digital Bill of Rights, made for the Internet, by the Internet.

via Explore Mashable’s Crowdsourced Digital Bill of Rights.

Digital Bill of Rights

The State of Digital Rights: A Discussion | Mashable


For the past few weeks, Mashable has been crowdsourcing a Digital Bill of Rights to highlight the digital freedoms and protections our readers feel each user should be guaranteed as a citizen of the Internet.

After hundreds of comments and contributions on the Google Doc and through social media, a Digital Bill of Rights by the Internet, for the Internet, has been created. The document, though, is a work in progress as more users from across the world continue to include their thoughts and additions to it.

via The State of Digital Rights: A Discussion | Mashable.

The World’s Biggest Data Breaches in One Stunning Visualization | Mashable


The World’s Biggest Data Breaches in One Stunning Visualization | Mashable.

See the entire data visualization at Information is Beautiful.

Data Breaches

ALA joins Apple, Microsoft in demanding surveillance transparency | District Dispatch | ALA Washington


Today, the American Library Association (ALA) joined an unprecedented coalition of Internet companies and advocates to deliver a letter to the U.S. government demanding greater transparency around national security-related surveillance of Internet and telephone communications.

via ALA joins Apple, Microsoft in demanding surveillance transparency | District Dispatch | ALA Washington.

The Best Search Engine You’re Probably Not Using | Gizmodo


Do you like privacy? Do you shun surveillance and eschew spam? Do you like simplicity? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you’ll love DuckDuckGo.

via The Best Search Engine You’re Probably Not Using | Gizmodo

DuckDuckGo

How social media is changing privacy in medicine | The Search Principle


The Promise And Peril Of Big Data | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation


“From health care to city management, we hold out a lot of hope for data–and even more, “Big Data”–to fix our problems. And, in many cases, it surely will. But the perils of personal information being freely available to all–from fraud, to identity theft, to authoritarian intrusion–are also clear. Data is a double-edged sword that’s just as likely to deprive us of our individualism, as serve up the perfect, and personalized, 21st-century solution.”

via The Promise And Peril Of Big Data | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation.

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