BlackBerry launches $1 privacy chat add-on for BBM

Don’t want to fall prey to people snooping through your phones to see what sort of “juicy” conversations you’re having? BlackBerry’s introducing a new privacy subscription option for its BlackBerry Messenger users on BlackBerry platform, iOS, and Android. The $0.99 per month subscription lets you have private chats that don’t show the name and icon of the people conversing and the messages disappear after you’ve been inactive for a while. It also gives you the ability to edit messages and it has the old times and retracted messaging features.

Source: BlackBerry | Via: Engadget

Facebook creates Privacy Basics tutorial

If you’ve ever wondered how Facebook really uses your data and what information gets accessed by the site, you don’t have to remain clueless about it. Facebook has introduced Privacy Basics tutorial to help you learn to stay private on the site as well as understand how the app uses your information. The tutorial comes with three different categories: “What Others See About You,” “How Others Interact With You,” and “What You See.”

Facebook plans to update its privacy policies and terms of use next year so this would be a good place to see where you are with the service. If you have any feedback or criticism about the new policies, you can visit this page.

Source: Facebook | Via: Lifehacker

Apple posts message from Tim Cook on Privacy

A few years ago, users of Internet services began to realize that when an online service is free, you’re not the customer. You’re the product. But at Apple, we believe a great customer experience shouldn’t come at the expense of your privacy.

Apple has posted a page with a message from CEO Tim Cook pertaining to privacy. A follow up to some of Cook's comments during his lengthy yet meaty interview on Charlie Rose. The gist of the page is that Apple values user's privacy and refuses to monetize it or compromise it in any way.

 "I want to be absolutely clear that we have never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products or services. We have also never allowed access to our servers. And we never will," Cook states. The website has different sections focusing on how Apple products are designed for privacy of their users, how users have the freedom to manage their information and also US government information requests. 

Toronto's Lassoh App enables control over privacy and launches today on Indiegogo

With interest in personal security and online privacy at an all time high, Lassoh, the new social app that has brought security and privacy to the forefront of their development and engagement.

Lassoh is a social networking tool that has highly developed security and privacy strategy; Lassoh is an app ruled and regulated by its users for optimal geo-social engagement. Unlike the competition, networks such as Foursquare, Full Circle and Skout, Lassoh users don’t have to surrender their identity or personal information to engage in the social app community

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