The perils and pitfalls of social networking are nothing new, and with more people putting more of themselves “out there” online it has become unfortunately necessary to prune one’s online public persona. However, some employers and colleges are taking the unprecedented step ofdemanding private access to user’s social networking profiles. In some cases this could mean being forced to “friend” a superior, or even ordered to surrender your password. According to Bob Sullivan at MSNBC, some employers are doing more than simply looking over the information applicants have publicly available. Currently, the Maryland Department of Corrections asks that job applicants submit to a Facebook review. During this process, applicants must log into their Facebook accounts and click through their pages while an interviewer watches over their shoulder. If this sounds intrusive, that’s nothing: Just a year ago, applicants had to surrender their user name password to interviewers. The practice would likely have continued if employees hadn’tcomplained to the ACLU… Employers and Colleges Want Your Facebook Password |...

The coming changes to Google’s privacy settings were announced a while ago, but they’ll betaking effect tomorrow, so it’s worth a reminder. The new settings will allow Google to share your data between apps, something it never did before. This means that your web-browsing history may start influencing the ads you see in Gmail, or that the items on your Calendar might start influncing the ads you see on Google Maps. There’s nothing you can really do to stop this, but you can, however, limit the information shared if you remove your Google web history today, before it starts getting shared around tomorrow. Fortunately, removing your Google web history couldn’t be easier. Here’s how you do it: Log into your Google Account. Navigate  to google.com/history Click Remove all web history How To Delete Google Web History Before Policy Change |...

        The reason they cite is for the purpose of tracking 911 calls. Whether or not that’s just a smokescreen depends on your personal level of paranoia and frequency of illegal activites. Currently, if a non-GPS enabled phone dials 911, the provider has to triangulate the location, which is annoying and inefficient, apparently. Straight up GPS is just much better for figuring out exactly where you are, however that makes you feel. FCC Rules All Cellphones Must Have GPS by 2018 | Geekosystem. While everyone is worried about Facebook, the government is making everyone easier to track. Wonder how long it will take for this to be on...