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You’ve just taken a dozens of images you were planning to sell or add to your website when you suddenly realize that you don’t have your camera. Has it been lost or stolen? Then you’re thinking of all the pictures on your camera: what will the people that stole it or found your camera do with them? Will they simply delete them, or will the pictures end up on the web, possibly Photoshopped in some undesirable way? Then you’re thinking why the industry hasn’t introduced passwords on consumer cameras, or a function that will self-destruct the camera, or something like a Lo-Jack for cameras, or a camera finder of any kind…

So you can’t remotely delete the photos and you can’t destroy the camera. The next best thing is to use stolen camera finder. All you have to do is drag and drop one of the images you had taken with the camera previously onto the page and the site will show search results of other images that have been taken with the exact same camera. This service works by using Exif data embedded within your photo to search the web for photos taken with the same camera.

If you don’t have any photos handy that have been taken with the stolen camera, you can also type your camera’s ‘internal’ serial number if you have it (usually not the one on the box) into a search box to see who’s posting pictures with your camera. Exif is a standard used by digital cameras and other electronics and may also include your camera’s ‘internal’ serial number. This may be a long shot, and if your camera isn’t listed, this tool won’t work. It also won’t work searching on Facebook or MySpace because they scrape the Exif info from the photos according to the site.

(To see the actual data your current camera embeds within your photos, try Jeffrey’s Exif Viewer.)

See what can happen if you have an Eye-Fi card installed in your lost/stolen camera.

Surf the web anonymously without leaving a browsing history with PageWash. Use it to visit websites you don’t quite trust, like brand new websites, or use it to get around your firewall when testing or visiting sites.

Start surfing by entering any URL into their web address box and click the ‘begin browsing’ button. You have the choice to remove all cookies, scripts, ads and referrer information. The site you visit will not know who you are and won’t be able to place cookies recording your visit. Visiting a site through a proxy service like this one will protect your privacy and prevent the site from collecting information about your visit. You are only sharing your information with proxy service.

Facebook is making you believe that controlling your privacy settings is simple, but it can be quite complicated. MakeUseOf has put together a very useful guide on how to button up your page, so the settings are actually working in a way that you had intended them to work.

The guide has 52 pages, and it makes clear, that even if you do everything in your power to control your information on Facebook, it’s simply not possible: for example, someone else can post and tag images with you in them and in the process tell others about your whereabouts.

Excerpt from the guide: If you want to upload contacts, “Facebook doesn’t make you enter your password. It will find contacts from whichever account you’re logged into, regardless of which email address you enter in to Facebook. Sneaky, huh?”

At the Google Code University (GCU) does not require registration and materials are free to use. It includes tutorials and courses on advanced topics, video lectures and exercises. Find courses like Intro to Distributed System Design, and HTML, CSS and Javascript from the Ground Up and lots of info on web security.

Unlike other services offering redirects, Jambai’s comes without ads. You can sign up for a free sub-domain name and use it to access your website, no matter where it is hosted. Visitors to your site won’t see your URL in the address space of the browser, only the chosen sub-domain. The site claims to not tolerate any spamming used in conjunction with using their service. They will also delete any account that has been inactive for a year or more.

Tired of having your IP recorded by every single site you visit on the web? Anonymouse promises to hide your IP address and instead show their own. No installation of additional software is necessary; all you need is your browser to go directly to Anonymouse. The service is free, but you can also get an upgraded version without advertising. Anonymouse also has a toolbar available that offers even more privacy features. Of course, no service is ever absolutely secure…

Here’s an easy way to search for copies of your content anywhere on the web: take the URL of your content and plug it into Copyscape. It will display all the instances where a substantial amount of your content has been published. This is a very useful service for anyone who buys content or articles, or for anyone considering buying a website. Comprehensive services are available with their paid service.

The Spamhaus Project tracks the internet’s spam senders and spam services and makes available blocklists (free for low usage) to filter your e-mail. Before you set your e-mail servers to use Spamhouse’s blocklists, be sure to check their usage terms to see if you qualify for free use. If you think your IP might actually be on their blocked list, you can check your IP and get info on how to be removed. For a list of the 10 worst ISPs that knowingly cater to spammers, or do nothing to prevent spam, click here.

If you’re curious about an offer you see on the web, but aren’t so sure if it’s a legitimate website, sign up for a temporary e-mail address with GuerrillaMail and avoid potential future spam. GuerrillaMail provides you with disposable e-mail addresses which expire after 60 Minutes. You can read and reply to e-mails that are sent to the temporary e-mail address within that given time frame. After those 60 minutes – poof! – your disposable e-mail address simply disappears.

Most of us don’t mind giving up a part of our privacy for our personal protection (airport scanners), or a good deal (loyalty shopping programs). We even voluntarily sign up for social networking sites that track every move we make and then sell aggregate information to marketers. But what about all the times we’re on the web and are not really sure about what search and browsing activities our ISP, or other company or agency is tracking? (In repressed countries this becomes even more of an issue as one compromised e-mail can mean torture or death to the sender.)

Let’s be realistic: the only way to not be tracked in any way online is to not go on online at all. Actually, you’d better leave your computer turned off, because many applications and programs on your computer automatically check for software updates and also track and record meta data.

Tor is free software and an open network that claims to help you defend against a form of network surveillance that “threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships. It prevents your traffic from being analyzed by distributing your transactions over several places on the internet, so no single point can link you to your destination.” One of the ways Tor works is by sending your e-mails through several relays, so it’s impossible to find out where the e-mail originated and where it was meant to end up. Maybe not every ISP uses traffic monitoring services – do you know if yours does? Even if you think it doesn’t, it’s a good idea to never search for your social security number and name, or passwords with any personal info.

More free security privacy resources…