18 countries & counting / Calling all network admins / New version imminent!

Wow, it’s been a while since our last post, but we’ve been very busy!

SafeSearchLock, our smart but simple e-safety tool, is now being used in 18 countries no less! Our users include parents, carers, schools, churches, businesses and various organisations around the world. We can’t begin to describe how proud we are! Thank you to everyone who has installed SafeSearchLock, and to everyone who has been in touch with such positive comments! YOU are what makes it all worth while.


Calling all network administrators, it's not just a SafeSearch Lock!

SafeSearchLock also activates various “self defence” features designed to prevent older ‘tech savvy’ children (or indeed adults!) from disabling it. Consequently a lot of positive feedback we’ve been getting has been from academic and also business users who are pleased that our tool not only universally enforces safe searching, but that it also blocks access to features such as Windows Task Manager / Reg Edit etc… a valuable feature in itself for organisations who don’t want their end users ‘getting under the hood’. A perfect cost effective solution for business and academic network administrators! (Just get in touch for discounted academic / enterprise license pricing).


New developments!

Of course, stopping access to Windows Task Manager has not been ideal for everyone. For various reasons, some personal users have asked us to make SafeSearchLock’s self defence features a controllable option. With this in mind we’re currently working on an update (V1.2), which will, amongst other small improvements, give users the setting option to turn on and off its “self defence” features. As a result this will enable users to choose whether whilst running SafeSearchLock, they also want to disable Windows features such as Windows Task Manager / Reg Edit etc… (Obviously though we would only recommend turning off SafeSearchLock’s self defence features, if you have younger children who won’t have the intent or knowledge to disable it).

Problems locking Google SafeSearch recently? Try our universal SafeSearch enforcing tool for free!

Since the beginning of 2013 there’s been quite a lot of chatter from web surfers unable to lock Google’s SafeSearch feature using normal methods (not using our esafety tool, named SafeSearchLock we might hasten to add!). When they try they are receiving a Google error message “Oops. There was a problem locking SafeSearch".

We’ve also received various enquiries as to whether our e-safety tool (named SafeSearchLock), will overcome this problem? Blissfully the answer is YES!

If you are experiencing problems and frustrations using the normal methods of locking Google’s SafeSearch feature, then installing our little tool will indeed fix this. :-)

Not only that, but it will also lock on SafeSearch and Family Safe Filtering in ALL major search engines, including Google (+ Google Images), YouTube, Bing and many many more. (See our main site for the current list).

So if you are having problems with Google SafeSearch, try out our smart but simple universal SafeSearch enforcing tool now for free! www.safesearchlock.com

Help Us Help You to Help Your Kids

A brief history lesson: SafeSearchLock came about from our own needs. Locking the filtering modes of popular sites to their safest setting in a secure way was something we felt was important for our own children. Then we thought that perhaps this was something other people would be interested in for their children. Since then, SafeSearchLock has evolved way beyond our original ideas into the tool available now, not only being used when children go online but also protecting grown ups too.

What you may not realize is that this isn't just a journey we took on our own - there were lots of people helping us out. These alpha and beta testers came up with great ideas for improvements to make the tool friendlier, easier to use and more secure. It really was a team effort and there is no reason for this to stop. Since it was officially released, new users all over the world have been using SafeSearchLock, praising its simplicity and functionality but we know there is always more to do.

This is where YOU come in. If you have any suggestions for improvements to SafeSearchLock, let us know by using the enquiries form on the main site. We have already improved our neat little application countless times by listening and incorporating suggestions from everyday users. Only a few days ago we were asked if we could make it work with the Dogpile and Metacrawler search engines. Within a few hours of receiving the suggestion we had added support for their sites and automatically updated all of our users with the new features. Of course, there are some suggestions which we feel aren't appropriate for our beloved SafeSearchLock and some which cannot be implemented for technical reasons, but we keep all suggestions on file for possible inclusion in future versions of the software.

Remember, once you have purchased your license for SafeSearchLock, you get all automatic updates for FREE!

Protecting Your Personal Information

There has been a growing concern in the last few months about the amount of personal information people give away online. If you haven't thought about it, perhaps you should.

One such worry for the general public is the ability for sites to identify visitors and track their browsing and searching habits using cookies. For example, in the UK the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office) is introducing laws to try and give users the choice of allowing cookies to be set on a site by site basis and forcing sites to inform visitors what cookies are being set and the reason why. Cookies on their own are not a huge issue as they rarely contain personal information themselves. The problem comes when a cookie can be linked to an account held online and when that cookie can be read by any site. Some people don't mind their browsing being analysed so they can be shown targeted/personalised advertising for things they might actually be interested in, rather than random and inappropriate stuff. Personally I feel a little uneasy about anyone being able to track my browsing and know it is me. For example, I don't really want anyone knowing I have an online account with a particular bank - purely for security reasons. The same goes for the site I use to access my Webmail, do my shopping at or do freelance work for. Call me paranoid but I don't think that is anyone else's business but my own.

Do you know how many sites you have given your name, email address or other personal details to? This includes sites you have made purchases from, social networking sites, those running competitions that you have entered, those that have a contact form you have used to enquire about something etc. I'll bet most people have no idea. And when was the last time you checked their privacy policy (if they even have one) to see how the information will be stored and used?

The purpose of this post is just to remind people that the details you give to online services can be used for much more than you might expect. One of the side benefits of using SafeSearchLock means that you can lock on the safe searching and family filters for many websites without having to give them your personal details, create an account, or log in to them. That feature alone has to be worth £2! ;-)

Don't Just Think of the Children

SafeSearchLock isn't just for keeping the kids safe - it can help prevent identity theft and costly visits to your local PC technician to 'clean' your PC. Some 'adult' search results link to unscrupulous web sites that are merely a means to infect visitor’s computers with viruses, trojans, spyware or other nasty surprises. They often rely on the fact that visitors won't tell anyone which sites they have been to in order to get them shut down or prosecuted. There are several ways these infections can transpire, including:

• Social Engineering. This is where a site pretends that a potentially dangerous file (whether that is an executable, video, document or something else) is safe and legitimate and gets the visitor to click or download it. Even entire sites can pretend to be something they are not.
• Vulnerabilities. Bugs in web browsers, plugins or other programs that open up content from the web can sometimes allow bad things to run on your computer. This includes files which you wouldn't normally associate with having executable content such as Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files, ActiveX applets and videos. Vulnerabilities in the past have allowed these nasty bits of code to live inside innocent looking files which then get run automatically by the web browser. This is another good reason to always keep your browsers, plugins and operating system up to date with updates and patches issued only by their creators.
• Third Party Interference. Sometimes web sites get hacked and the contents get changed. If it is a subtle change to files made available to download it can be some time before anyone notices. It isn't always the sites themselves either which are the culprit, there have been several cases in the past where the companies who provide adult banner adverts have allowed nasty code to slip through with the adverts that get embedded into other peoples web sites.

The best way to prevent yourself being a victim of crooked adult web sites is to not visit them. SafeSearchLock can prevent them being found in search engines and therefore prevent them being visited - even accidentally by you or anyone using your computer.

The 7th to 11th November 2011 is the annual Get Safe Online week to raise awareness of internet safety issues. We are proud friends of the campaign so if you want to know more, please click the badge below.

MSI (or MS Why?)

SafeSearchLock is now available as an MSI for our corporate customers.

You may have previously received software which arrived as an MSI file (i.e. a file with the extension '.msi'). This is a Windows Installer file, previous known as a MicroSoft Installer file, hence MSI. There are many features of an MSI but one important one is that they can be pushed out to computers on an Active Directory network. This can be done pretty much silently requiring no user interaction, making it an ideal installation method for schools, other educational establishments and corporate networks. Our custom built MSI allows us to set a default password of the customers choice and also automatically set the 'Start with Windows' flag.

We still recommend the normal interactive installer for single computer users and especially home users. It has the benefit of providing some extra information during the install and the user has more control. However, if you are a corporate user of SafeSearchLock and would prefer a custom MSI installer for it (at no additional cost), please just get in touch.

Keep it Simple Stupid!

There's an acronym used in our industry called KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid!). Importantly for the customer, KISS is there to remind us that ultimately a busy human being will be using the product we are creating. This is the ethos at the very heart of the SafeSearchLock project...

There are so many parental control products out there aimed at parents, but all too often they can be overly involved, time demanding and even bafflingly complicated. Just installing or setting up some of them can be a real chore if you're not an expert.

Instead of this we wanted to create a product that was incredibly straightforward and truly effortless; something that could be easily installed and then essentially forgotten about! (whilst it quietly goes about its job in the background). This is exactly how SafeSearchLock works, here's why...

1. Anyone can install SafeSearchLock because our single installation file works with XP, Vista, Windows 7 and 64 bit versions. So no need to find the right installation to suit your computer.

2. Once installed SafeSearchLock just does what it says! Other than choosing a personal password and deciding whether you want it to start automatically, there’s no setting up! Job done!

3. There are no complicated controls, just a small friendly user interface with a couple of simple straightforward options.

4. No need to worry about web browser compatibility, like so many other products. SafeSearchLock works with all top modern web browsers (not just one of two). It will even work with several different web browsers running on one computer. Simple!

5. No need to worry about protecting multiple Windows user accounts. Just tick the "Start with Windows" option and SafeSearchLock will protect every user on your computer.

6. No need to worry about downloading updates to keep it working if a compatible service provider suddenly changes things their end (e.g. Google, YouTube, Bing etc). SafeSearchLock quietly takes care of this for you, as and when needed without bothering anyone.

Put simply, we've done all the hard work so you don’t have to!