There’s No Good Excuse to Not Go Green

If you asked the average homeowner why their home isn’t solar powered or why they don’t drive a hybrid, the answer would be obvious. Money doesn’t grow on trees. Many make environmentally harmful choices and justify their actions by claiming they don’t have the budget to buy green. While this may be true for the aforementioned cases of hybrid cars and solar panels, there many environmentally friendly purchases which actually save money!

1. Weather stripping is the process of sealing off tiny air ways around a home in order to prevent cold air from entering. This can be done by professionals or even by yourself with the right materials.

2. Non-toxic cleaning agents can easily be made with common household items. Not only are these recipes effective and all-natural, they are also very affordable! It’s possible to make everything from all-purpose deodorizers to wooden floor cleaners with kitchen basics such as vinegar and lemon juice.

3. Save! Whether it’s turning the lights off when you leave a room or switching to a low-flow shower head, it’s easy to go green and save money without much of a burden.

If choosing the environmentally-friendly alternative is also saving you money, what are you waiting for? Click here to find more money saving green tips!

Picture Source: Energy.gov

Facebook: Ad-Supported Social Media or Creepy Information Trawler?

To the 1.01 billion active users of Facebook, the website is a place to keep in touch with friends, share photos, and play games. To advertisers and marketers, however, Facebook is a massive management information system – an opportunity to collect information, preferences, and opinions from millions of users. How much of this happens with user consent, though?

Facebook has changed (read loosened) its privacy policies many times over the past years. In fact, the website no longer uses a privacy policy but instead prefers to refer to their user agreement as a data-use policy. The scandals don’t end there, however. Just over two years ago, Facebook’s implementation of the “Places” feature sparked controversy when the application’s default setting tracked the mobile location of users.

One of Facebook’s data centers, where all user information is stored

Although users are beginning to be much more conscious about privacy on Facebook, they cannot stop the company from recording and storing almost everything they have ever shared, including private messages. This, coupled with very recent proof of the company selling personal information to third parties, will have users thinking twice before posting anything on Facebook.

Picture Source: Facebook