I was shocked, because there was no public connection between us.

Our “private” communications were limited to a half-dozen recent emails about my latest book project.

He had a LinkedIn account/profile, but hadn’t updated it for over a year.

When I told him about the LinkedIn email, ” he promptly deleted his account.

We concluded that LinkedIn might be using spyware to: 1) harvest my email contacts and/or 2) scanned my recent emails when I clicked a link in one of their emails.

And then it happened again.

LinkedIn sent me an email asking if I knew the tech support person at a company that hosts one of my websites.

I wrote and asked him how LinkedIn could possibly know about our recent “private” communications. Again, there is no public connection whatsoever.

He wrote back with a bombshell: “A few days ago I went on the LinkedIn webpage to start an account. The last step shows a list of people you may know based on the e-mail address that you have entered — which means that it must go through the e-mail history in order to see who else from those email addresses matches a LinkedIn account. I actually decided not to join Linkedin because of the fact that I didn’t like it was already making suggestions for me before I even signed up for an account.”

How could LinkedIn could suggest his name to me – and my name to him – us unless they scanned my email history and preserved the information in a database, or alternatively, could somehow scan his email contacts without even sending him an email.

I don’t have answers, only questions.  If you know more, please share it with our readers.

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How to Counter Cyber Threats and Identity Theft Attacks: Homeland Security Begins at Home

Rights Radio.com features “Homeland Security Begins at Home” with Cyberterrorism Expert David Gewirtz on November 5, 2008. Topic: Stop Cyber Threats & Identity Theft Attacks on Your Home or Office. Guest: Dr David Gewirtz (ZATZ.com), prolific author, Cyberterrorism Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals and a columnist for …

Warning: Is LinkedIn using spyware to harvest private email contacts? originally appeared on Rights Radio™ with Dr. Joyce Starr - An Independent Voice on December 16, 2011.

Novastor CTO Christopher Harvey was my guest on the Rights Radio Self Help Hour on January 22, 2009. Novastor (Novastor.com) is an award-winning global leader in data backup protection software.

Only 15 percent of computer users backup their data, and only 15 percent of this wise minority do so in way that can truly backup their data! If you want to avoid the shock and acute stress of sudden hard disk drive and/or external disk drive failures, listen to the replay of this show below.

I found my solution a week too late: AFTER my external drive expired to Drive Heaven. My subsequent search for drive backup software was exhausting, frustrating and confusing.  Relatively few backup software sites make it easy to reach LIVE customer support, offer free technical support to the new user or respond to emails.

Then  I found Novastor.com. With a single download and a brief conversation with an extremely “supportive” technical specialist, bricks of data despair were lifted from my shoulders. Here are just a few of the questions touched upon during my interview with Christopher Harvey:

• Why do I need to purchase backup software?  Doesn’t Windows already include a backup application?
• How often do I need to backup?
• My Accounting and CRM application are always running and cannot be shutdown to do a backup.  How can I protect this critical data?
• Why do I need image-backup when all that is important to me is my data?
• What is “Online” or “Remote” Backup and why do I need it?

During my backup software research, I learned that external drives begin to die the day they’re born and 40 percent of all data loss is due to hardware failure.  Recovering the information won’t work without your programs and operating system, while trying to rebuild a system from scratch is perilous – you never get back to where you were.

And here’s another insider “secret”:  Most backup solutions will not work when your computer takes over a drive letter.  If you don’t understand what that means, contact Novastor!

To your data protection!

Dr. Joyce Starr

Rights Radio Power Hour: Critical Software for Hard Drive Backups originally appeared on Rights Radio™ with Dr. Joyce Starr - An Independent Voice on January 26, 2009.