Outreach of the web

     Today there will not be a product pick due to time constraints.  That out of the way, today I'm shocked by the far reaching affect the web has on humanity, in both good ways and bad.  I'm surprised by the level of information freely available here on the internet.  I just logged into my Google Ananlytics account, and found out that people from as far away as Kanab, Utah have viewed this site. (Admittedly, I do know who this was, but I did not expect it, so thank you to them.)  Also, people from Orting, Seattle, and Puyallup Washington have all viewed this blog.  This kind of information in the hands of a small business give it real power, and greatly improve it's ability to connect with its customer base and viewership.  And this is why we love the web.
     But I'm also shocked, and dismayed, by the level of education that is centered around all this information.  That level is almost zero.  So many people out in the world, using the internet, are constantly placing their whole lives on display, for anyone to see.  A great example I have is one that worked out well, but shows a possibility for disaster.  I once did some work for a co-work on some video cassettes she wanted converted to DVD.  I completed the work, and went to contact her.  By privacy policy, our mutual employer could not even give her phone number to me, as a safety precaution.  This is wonderful, because it means weirdos can't just call your work and find out your number.  But all I had to do to actually get her number was to go onto a site like www.YellowPages.com and enter a few small bits of personal information about her that I knew from working with her, and I was not only able to get her phone number, but her address as well.  This kind of power is scary.  And worse, at times, we are completely unable to keep it from happening.  So please, use the web responsibly, it can be dangerous.
     On this note, I'm setting up a section of the future Digital Fruit website that will be devoted to helping customers and consumers in general to educate and fight back against people misusing the information placed out on the web.  We will be posting a list of known fraudulent companies, telemarketing phone numbers, and product scams that we have found out on the net.  We will also be posting articles about how to keep yourself safe, and also linking to content on the subject of information safety for you to do further research yourself.  As I have always believed, information is the best defense.