July 2, 2009 An online look at Boston's washout June, and new privacy features for Facebook Play video

(NECN: Ted McEnroe) - So, you're a glutton for punishment? Really want to know how bad the weather has been? The National Weather Service has some easy ways to check recent climate history on its website for the Boston office, http://www.nws.noaa.gov/box.

Among the factoids? Today is the 12th straight day with at least a trace of rain in Boston. It's also the 24th day with at least a trace of rain since June 1. And we have now been a full month without a day in Boston with more than 50% sunshine.

Of course, that means more time spent online.

And if you're a big Facebook fan, you might have caught my report last week on some of the new privacy features on Facebook. The site had begun testing a feature that would let you target your updates to specific groups of your friends, or broadcast them to everyone. Well, the test has gone well. On the company's blog, Chris Kelly says the site will start rolling out a new privacy system in the coming days, giving Facebook users a new "transition tool" where you can choose your basic settings for updates, photos and other personal information. You'll be able to choose from settings ranging from "everyone" to "friends", or set up your own groups - and even target individual status updates to individual groups.

Meanwhile, online advertisers are getting into the privacy thing as well. Theresa Howard at USA Today reports that the industry will announce sweeping new guidelines changes that give people more options for protecting their privacy, including letting people choose whether their data are collected and used for ad purposes. The data let ad networks deliver ads that are more targeted to your preferences, but of course, that means you are giving up some of your privacy. More details of the new guidelines will be out this morning.

But in each of these cases - it is the most informed and active users that will reap the benefits. If you're concerned about privacy - take advantage of the features that are out there to help keep you safe, and it isn't a bad idea to assume that whatever information you are putting on the web always has a chance to be discovered.