Recently Facebook introduced a new “feature” called Instant Personalization that automatically opts you in to sharing your personal information (and your friend’s personal information) with various websites automatically when you visit them. Of course Facebook sells this as a feature to improve your online experience, but personally I think it is a gross invasion of your privacy (especially since Instant Personalization is automatically turned on – it would be different if you could decide that you wanted to share your information and it didn’t automatically share your friends information too). Fortunately you can opt-out of instant personalization, but Facebook does not make it easy (yesterday the Electronic Frontier Foundation published a great video showing you how to correctly opt-out, but this morning Facebook changed their site to make it even harder to opt-out completely).

Currently, to completely opt-out of Instant Personalization you need to take the following steps:

1. If you are not already logged in to Facebook, do so.
   
2. In the upper right hand corner of the screen click “Account”.
3. In the menu that opens, click “Privacy Settings”.
4. Click the “Applications and Websites” link.
5. Click the “Edit Settings” button in the “Instant Personalization” section of the page (near the bottom of the page).
6. Uncheck the checkbox labeled “Allow select partners to instantly personalize their features with my public information when I first arrive on their websites.”
7. In the confirmation pop-up that opens right-click (or control-click on a Mac) the “Learn More” link and choose to “Open Link In New Tab”.
   • “Open Link In New Tab” is the menu item label in Mozilla Firefox, if you are not using Firefox there should be a similar menu item in the menu that opens when you right-click the link in your browser.
8. Switch back to the original tab (if clicking “Open Link In New Tab” switched you to the new tab).
9. Click the “Confirm” button.
10. Switch to the new tab
11. Click the “How do I opt-out of instant personalization?” link (near the bottom of the page).
12. In the answer section that opens when you click the “How do I opt-out of instant personalization?” link, there will be a list of all the applications (websites) that currently use the Instant Personalization service. Open each link in a new tab (using the same method from step 7).
13. For each tab that you opened, click the “Block Application” link (near the upper left of the page).
14. Periodically visit the Facebook “Help Center – Social Plugins and Instant Personalization” page (currently http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=1068) and repeat step 11-13 to check for any new websites/applications to block.

Unfortunately, protecting yourself from Instant Personalization will be an ongoing process unless Facebook chooses to allow users to completely opt-out (including information shared through friends that have not opted-out of the “service”) or you decide to completely delete your Facebook profile.

I will do my best to try and keep this article as accurate as possible, but please let me know if Facebook changes the opt-out procedure again and I miss it (or I made a mistake or logical error in the guide).

I know this post is a little bit different from the normal day-to-day here at Meets The Weird, but I strongly feel that personal privacy is a basic right and that you are the only person that should be allowed to make a decision about what level of privacy is right for you. I think this is especially important in fields like ufology, cryptozology and other paranormal topics where unfortunately then can be a certain social stigma attached to people with those interests. Deciding to be public about your interests and hobbies is (and should always be) your own choice, not the choice of a faceless entity looking to sell your personal information.

Related posts:

1. OnStar Continues Tracking Customers Even After Cancellation
2. Credible Person + Incredible Event = Completely Unreliable Nut-Job Witness

This design by Make Magazine’s Collin Cunningham uses a LED bar graph to display the meter’s reading, but as with all Arduino based projects, there are endless possibilities for modifications. This project replaces the LED bar with a LCD readout. Other possibilities include combining the EMF meter with a camera trigger to create a camera trap or you could build in an audio recorder that starts recording when a spike is detected creating an automated EVP setup. The only limit is your imagination.

Making the Arduino EMF detector @ Make: Online

(These are just some examples I found with Google to illustrate the differences between a blurry and a sharp UFO photo – the second shot is almost certainly a hoax)

1. Hold The Camera Properly – The way that you hold the camera has an enormous impact on the quality of the pictures you take. Your right hand should firmly hold the camera so your index finger floats softly above the shutter release with the other three fingers wrapped around the front of the camera and your thumb gripping the back. (While you should hold the camera firmly, you do not want to grip it so hard that you shake the camera.) Your left hand should support the weight of the camera by either being positioned under the body of the camera or under/around the lens depending on the type of camera you have. Once you have a good grip on your camera, tuck your elbows into your sides and bring the camera up to your face so you are looking through the view-finder. If your camera does not have a view finder, bring it as close to your face as possible. The closer to your body, the more stable you will be. The more stable your are, the better your shots will be.

2. Stabilize Yourself – Aside from holding your camera properly, stabilizing yourself is the next thing you should do to help improve your shots. In a perfect world, you would have a tripod and your extraterrestrial subject would hover in front of it while you shoot away to your hearts content. Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in and you have to make due with what it around you. Since you will most likely be zooming in on your subject, even the smallest shakes can affect the quality of your image. To help reduce these shakes, lean up against something sturdy. Anything that is not prone to moving will due, a lamp post, the side of a building, a large tree, etc. In a pinch a car or even leaning back to back against a friend (as long as they can stand still) can help. The key reduce any unnecessary movement of the camera so you can take the clearest picture possible.

3. Use automatic mode – If you are using a digital camera, it is probably best to set the camera to automatic unless you are very good and very fast at picking your exposure settings. Today’s cameras are pretty good about picking settings that will give you the best shot possible, allowing you to concentrate on taking the picture (which in the case of a UFO sighting is probably best, considering how exciting it is liable to be). This is not to say that there is anything wrong with using manual or any other mode for taking a picture of a UFO (in fact in some conditions you will get a better shot by picking your own settings), I just think with the limited time of most UFO sightings is best spent taking steady, clear shots.

4. Turn Off Digital Zoom – You should have done this when you first got your camera, but if you didn’t know any better, it’s okay. Do it now. Digital zoom is not zoom at all, the camera is just using its built in processor to blow up the center of the picture you are taking (usually very poorly). The end result of digital zoom is usually blurry, grainy pictures that you can’t really do anything to enhance. Even if your camera has very little zoom, you are much better off trying to enlarge the image on your computer later. There are some very good computer programs for enlarging digital images (onOne’s Genuine Fractals Photoshop/Elements plugin comes to mind and from what I have heard is worth every penny), but even the enlargement features built in to your image editor are generally better than any in-camera enlargement (plus you keep your original file intact).

5. Practice – I know, you can’t just go out and shoot UFO’s, but you can go out and take pictures of planes (not near the airport though – people are a little jumpy nowadays), birds, cars, etc. to get used to taking pictures of fast moving objects. I personally recommend birds, because their flight patterns are somewhat erratic and they can be challenging to shoot. The more you practice the better your shots will be and the more second nature pulling out your camera and taking a good shot will become.

Now go out there and get some amazing UFO pictures. Just don’t forget to send them to your friends here at Where the Wired Meets The Weird.

Resources:
How to Hold a Digital Camera @ The Digital Photography School Blog

Related posts:

1. Swarm of UFOs Spotted Off California Coast [September 19, 2011]
2. You Can Own the World’s Smallest Digital Camera
3. UFO Spotted In Picture Taken From A Jetliner
4. Did a Scottish tourist capture video footage of a UFO?
5. 10 Items that every investigator should carry