How To

So, Orbitz has spilled the beans, well some of them, and says it in essence up-sells to people based on which browser they use.

The site told The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) that it discovered that Mac users tend to pay as much as 30 percent more for hotel rooms. (Well, they are paying a premium for the computer too so it's not that surprising, although $20 to $30 more is significant.) Leveraging that information, Orbitz decided to experiment with displaying pricier hotels in search results to Mac users than to Windows users. Before you get too miffed, … Read more

A reader commenting on a Q&A about the rise in behavioral tracking for targeted advertising asked a great question: How does one browse sensitive subjects without being tracked via cookies?

For most Web activities, many people won't be bothered that they are served up ads for cars or even acne cream if they have been reading news about the newest Tesla or visiting dermatology Web sites. But what about when someone is researching a hereditary or embarrassing medical condition that one would not want revealed to advertisers, shoulder surfers or, worse yet, insurance companies?

Private Mode You … Read more

Chances are that you've deleted a file by accident. Sometimes you're lucky enough to still have it lingering around in your recycle bin, other times you panic after realizing you emptied it three days ago.

Undela is a Windows application that seeks to give you a second chance with your deleted files. Much like a similar app named Recuva, this app will attempt to analyze your free disk space for deleted data and display a result list of its findings. Once you find the file you're seeking in the list, you're just a … Read more

Many social media sites offer options to help protect your privacy on the Web. You can make your profile private, which won't allow anyone you haven't approved to see your information, or you can remove your name from the account and use a different nickname that only friends would look for.

However, these changes will only affect your content moving forward, not the stuff you've posted in the past. So if you're just seeking a quick fix to get your personal thoughts and pictures of past and present out of the results, this is how you … Read more

Every now and then, we need to make sure that the files we delete are really gone forever. Financial info, old work data, or poems we wrote in college all need to go down the memory hole with no chance of retrieval, and there are quite a few tools out there that get the job done. EraserDrop makes it easy, letting you drag and drop files to shred them for good. Here's how to use it:

What makes Facebook worth $100 billion? (Likely somewhat less, as Suzanne Vranica and Shayndi Raice explain in The Wall Street Journal.)

Topping the list is the revenue-generating potential of the company's upcoming Premium ads and other new advertising programs.

Facebook, Google, and just about every other big-name Web service make their money by selling ads that get targeted based on what they know about you. The companies say they don't sell personally identifiable information to third parties, but one way or another, information about their users is the services' bread and butter.

The Facebook Data Use Policy explains … Read more

It may have happened to you or to a friend, but the odds are good that you've seen the results of someone leaving their Facebook account unattended. Maybe embarrassing comments were posted, maybe pictures were altered -- or maybe personal info was swiped and used for nefarious purposes. Logging out of Facebook is the best way to avoid these pitfalls, but perfect vigilance is impossible for us humans. Fortunately, a Firefox add-on called Facebook Auto-Logout can take care it for us. Here's how it works:

The Internet companies that power your online life know that data equals money, and they're becoming bolder about using that data to track you. If they get their way, your every online step would be not only irrevocable, but traceable back to you. Fortunately, there are some positive steps you can take to reclaim your online history for yourself.

The online privacy software company Abine, which makes Do Not Track Plus, also offers a service called DeleteMe, which removes your data from numerous tracking sites and keeps it from coming back. In an unusual gesture, though, they've made … Read more

Even casual Facebook users can quickly accumulate a library of photos, videos, and posts reflecting the noteworthy and mundane moments in the lives of family and friends.

Facebook lets you download much of this information and recently enhanced its download archive to include IP addresses used by the account, relationship information, and other categories of personal data.

The download-tool update is being rolled out gradually. (When I downloaded a Facebook profile this weekend the added categories of information weren't included.) To use the profile downloader, sign into your Facebook account and click the down arrow next to the Home … Read more