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EULA stands for End User License Agreement. This is an agreement between you, the end user, and the software provider. EULAs come in two forms: paper and electronic. For example, if you buy software at your local electronics store, the software will come in disk form and likely have a EULA printed on paper and may even have an electronic version as well. If you buy software online and download it, it will have an electronic EULA as part of the installation routine.

EULAs define and restrict what you can do with the software. For example, most EULAs strictly prohibit copying and distributing the program. While this serves the software provider’s best interest and is a reasonable agreement, other clauses in EULAs take away your rights to sue should the software be poorly coded and damage your computer. In addition, EULAs often spell out that they will impose upon your privacy in some manner. Would you voluntarily allow a program to monitor how you use your computer? Chances are you have readily agreed to just this, not once but time and time again.

Do you really read the EULA? Paper EULAs often have tiny print and are filled with legalese. Electronic EULAs are also filled with small print, complex language, restrictions, exclusions and other notices. Plus, they require that you click “I agree” before you are allowed to install the software. As a consumer, if you want to use the software, you have to agree to the terms of the EULA.

What’s so bad about agreeing to EULAs? If the EULA is straightforward and fair and doesn’t strip away your rights or impose upon your privacy, then go ahead and agree. The problem with EULAs arises when they contain unreasonable conditions, limit liability, or invade your privacy. For example, did you know that many EULAs actually prohibit criticism of the product? Other EULAs admit that they will be adding programs such as pop-up ad generators and then go on to prohibit removing these unwanted programs.  

So, what can you do? Not much. When possible, read the EULA before you buy. Some software developers post their EULAs on their websites including Adobe and Symantec. However, most EULAs aren’t generally available until after you’ve made the purchase and opened the box - which makes your product virtually unreturnable thanks to stores’ “no return on open software” policies.

If reading the EULA beforehand is not possible, take the time to read the EULA carefully after you buy the software. If you are not comfortable with the EULA’s terms, don’t install the software. Call the software vendor directly and complain, asking for a full refund. In addition, let the electronics retailer know of your dissatisfaction with the product’s licensing agreement. The more consumers speak up, the better the chances of drawing attention to these concerns.    

Finally, get involved. Several consumer organizations have formed to speak out against unfair EULAs. Here are a couple of good resources to learn more:

AFFECT - Americans for Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions

Stop Before You Click - A campaign to promote fair terms

 While I understand the allure of MySpace, as a parent, I’m extremely concerned about social networking websites. My children aren’t old enough just yet to want a MySpace profile but I know that it won’t be long.

One of the common concerns that parents have with sites such as MySpace involves predators. Who’s looking at your child’s profile? What if they like what they see? What if they can find out where your child lives or goes to school? What if they can find out where your child hangs out after school?

This is a common concern and one that shouldn’t be taken lightly. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at information and come to conclusions. For example, if your child uses a screen name of “No1CardinalFan” and customizes his MySpace profile with “Go Arizona Cardinals!” one might make an assumption that your child lives in Arizona. Next, let’s suppose that your child posts that he is at the top of his class at Mesa High School. Could he live in Mesa, Arizona perhaps? Could a predator then look up the local newspaper and find a list of school awards, thereby figuring out your child’s name?

Scary, isn’t it?

Sure, you can teach your child not to reveal too much information but can you really be sure? What about the comments left by your child’s friends? Imagine that one of your child’s friends places a comment that says, “Meet me at Burger Hut tomorrow after school.” The predator already knows that your child lives in Mesa, Arizona - now he knows where and when to find him.

I joined MySpace about a year ago to see what the big fuss was all about. Honestly, I was terribly impressed. There’s no real age verification making it easy for kids to create their own profile without any sort of restriction. While I was experimenting with creating a profile, I suddenly found myself with several “friend” requests - most involving webcams and promises of scantily-clad adventures. Who’s sending friend requests to your child?  

I won’t be allowing my children to set up MySpace and other Social Networking profiles though by the time they are old enough, there will be other, equally disturbing, Web sites and dangers out there.

However, I’m not naïve. I may say “no” to MySpace but my kids may find a way to do it anyway. That’s why, even now as they are just getting comfortable with the Internet, we discuss the dangers of the Internet and how some people might pretend to be other than they really are. Education is the first step. These dialogues should be ongoing.

The second step is to keep an eye on what your child is doing online. While it may seem like the modern equivalent of snooping through your child’s diary, using software to restrict and monitor online activities is a necessary evil. Use parental control software to block access to sites such as MySpace and follow up by using monitoring software to see exactly what your child is up to.

I’ve been involved in several different groups where we have needed a simple email distribution list. While having members create “groups” of email addresses in their own address books is possible, it’s not ideal. First, everyone must somehow manage to create their initial list of contacts in their email client. This can be done by having each person manually input names and email lists from a roster or by providing your fellow group members with a list in a comma separated value (.CSV) format and having them import the list into their email client’s address book.

Let’s be serious for a minute here - do you really think that you can get the entire PTA, soccer league, church group, or service organization to do either of these steps? You’ll be lucky if ten percent of your group’s members do so. Now, let’s assume that by some miracle, you’ve managed to get the entire group on board and everyone has an identical email group. What happens when a member leaves the group? Will everyone in your organization remember to delete the departing member from their distribution lists? I doubt it. Same with when new members join - will everyone add the new member to their lists?

Yahoo Groups solves this dilemma and offers a variety of extra features that are sure to enrich your group’s communications. By creating a group, you can assign members, delete members, add new members and much more. All the rest of the group needs to do is remember a single email address. Whenever anyone emails the group, only current members receive the message. Now, no one (except for the group’s moderator) has to manage a membership roster.

However, when you first establish a Yahoo Group, you might be concerned about privacy. Who can join? Who can view the group’s membership directory? Who can read the group’s messages or view files posted? In some cases, groups are open to the general public and all are welcome. In other cases, privacy is essential.

Fortunately, you can make your Yahoo Group private. For example, let’s say you are creating a Yahoo Group for communicating with your son’s Boy Scout Troop. You don’t want the general public viewing your event dates or private emails, right? You really only want to invite the parents of each Boy Scout along with any troop leaders who need to be involved.

To do this, you must first create a Yahoo Group. This is done by following the prompts at the Yahoo Groups page. When you first create the group, the sign up process is extremely limited and privacy is not addressed. Because of this, you cannot start using the group until you have taken the next step and have made your group private.

If you have just now created your Group, you will be prompted to customize the Group in which case you will be able to privatize it during this step. However, I’m assuming that you missed this step which is why you are wondering how to make the Group private in the first place. You can do so after the fact by logging into your group (assuming you’re the group owner) and clicking the Management link (on the left side).

In the Management pane, find Group Settings (toward the upper right) and click Membership. Click Edit. Now, you can change your Group’s settings! Change it to Restricted or Closed. Closed provides the highest level of privacy (invitation only). Keep in mind that once you choose this option, you can’t go back - but then, why would you want to?

 While it’s recommended that you keep the family computer in a central location where you can supervise your child’s Internet usage, the fact remains that you simply can’t keep guard 24/7 - especially as your children get older. For example, you have more control when setting time limits on a six-year-old’s computer time than you do when restricting a teenager’s time. High school homework assignments can require hours of research - are you willing to hover for hours on end each night?

While supervision is one of your best tools, you can’t always be reading over your child’s shoulder. Instead, you need some sort of monitoring plan. Software is readily available to help you in this quest. For example, Windows Vista has a feature called Parental Controls that allows you to restrict websites, set time limits, and view reports about what types of websites your child is visiting.

Don’t have Windows Vista? You can always perform simple monitoring by checking the history list in Internet Explorer. This list will reveal all of the websites visited by date, by website, most visited, or currently visited today - provided that the history file has not been deleted. Computer savvy children will likely know how to clear the Internet Explorer history list, so relying on this technique for older children has its pitfalls.

Want a better way? Try software specifically designed to help you control and monitor your family’s Web usage. You don’t have to spend a fortune either. In fact, many of these programs are offered as a service to parents such as yourself. For example, PG Surfer is one such application from a leading software security firm, ParetoLogic Software.

Microsoft also offers a free tool, Windows Live OneCare Family Safety. This is another option that uses age-based filtering as well as blocking and monitoring of online activities. Both PGSurfer and OneCare Family Safety take parental controls to a higher level and put you back in control.

While monitoring products allow you to control and monitor Internet usage and history, they also have their shortcomings. Both PGSurfer and OneCare Family Safety allow you to set up multiple users accounts so that each family member has a profile. However, this means that each family member must log in and out of the computer in order to be effective. Because many people don’t do so, these tools generally automatically log out users after a set period of time.

While this helps prevent children from getting into too much trouble when using a computer under a different profile, it can be annoying to parents. After all, who likes being disconnected from the Internet and prompted for a password every five or ten minutes? Fortunately, this setting can be adjusted but the disconnections and prompts do continue, only at longer intervals.

Monitoring has a few inconveniences and takes a little bit of experimenting to find the right balance. However, it’s worthwhile to use one of these products. Not only will you be able to see what’s going on online, your children will know that you are serious about this issue. That alone may prevent them from getting into trouble.

I belong to several different Google Groups - all of which require privacy. One such group is a group of neighborhood moms who use the Google group to coordinate play dates with each other’s kids. We certainly don’t predators to know where and when we’ll be hanging out in public places with our children nor do we want our addresses, kids’ names, and other information posted publicly. My other group involves a circle of fellow writers who regularly critique each other’s manuscripts. None of us want our works in progress circulating on the Internet.

When you first set up a Google Groups, you have an option to make it: Public, Announcement Only, or Restricted. Public groups are open to anyone who stumbles across your group and wants to join it. Announcement groups are also open to anyone though only managers are able to perform many functions. Restricted groups are by invitation only. No one but members can view any information posted.

What if you originally set up a group as a Public or Announcement group but would prefer to make it private? Fortunately, this is easy to do. First, sign into your Google Group. You must be a Group owner in order to make this change. On the right side of the screen, you’ll see a list of options. Click on Group Settings. Next, click on the Access tab.

Now, you must go through each option and change it for complete privacy. The most critical options to change are:

• Who can view - change to “Only members can view group content”
• Directory listing - change to “Do not list this group”
• Who can join - change to “People have to be invited”
• Who can post messages - change to “Members only”

If you’re unsure about whether your group is private or not, you can quickly check your group’s status by going to the “About this group” link on the right side of the screen. This will show you a summary of the group’s membership, description, language, category, access, group e-mail address, and feeds. Look under Access. You will see who can view the group content, who can join, who can create pages, who can upload files, and who can post. If any of these settings are not restricted to members or managers only, click on “edit” and make the required changes.

That’s all there is to it!

Yes! I’m always amazed at how many people don’t realize that this is possible. As a writer, the ability to filter search engine results is incredibly valuable to me. For example, searching the Internet yields millions of results most of the time. I don’t know about you, but I’m not willing to click, click, click, click, my way through page after page of irrelevant results.

If I were researching a topic such as “light bulbs,” I’d get over 13 million hits with many web sites designed for selling light bulbs. However, if I were to filter the results, I could get more relevant web sites. To do this, I use the advanced search and filtering options of various search engines.

Let’s use Google as an example. Right next to the Google Search Bar, you’ll see three lines of linked text. Enter your search terms as normal and then click on Advanced Search. In this case, I have entered “light bulbs.” Depending on what type of information you want, you can specify exact phrases to search for, exclude pages containing certain words, limit the type of file format searched, or search a specific category of domain. You can even restrict the search results on the age of the web page.

I like to restrict my searches to .org or .gov domains. This way, I can be sure that the information I discover will come from non-profits or government agencies. For example, by restricting my light bulb search to domains that end in .org, I’ve filtered the search results from over 13 million down to just 327,000. Still a lot but, these are already far more relevant for my purposes. Let’s say that I’m interested in the safe disposal of light bulbs. I’ve just added the word “disposal” in the Advanced Search filter (and have kept the .org restriction). Now, my results are down to 90,000.

Using those two restrictions, the first page of results is perfect! The various websites listed feature tips on recycling light bulbs, benefits of recycling compact florescent lights, low-energy bulb disposal warnings, and more - all from legitimate non-profit organizations.

In addition to the different search options, Google also has topic-specific searches including Microsoft, Macintosh, Linux, Google Scholar, news archives, universities, and government agencies. Need to learn about configuring DNS Server? No problem, use the Microsoft filter and get detailed, relevant results directly from Microsoft or other technical websites. Searching for studies related to obesity? Use Google Scholar and enter “obesity” in the Search Box. You’ll get hundreds of links to articles on the topic by medical experts.

Am I excited about filtering search engines? You bet! The ability to drill down to relevant information is invaluable to me. Why wade through thousands of websites with mixed results when so much credible information is readily available. No matter what you’re researching, using the advanced filters of the various search engines is sure to provide you with amazing results in an instant!