Displaying items by tag: Privacy

The explosion of the smart phone tied to the sudden need for people to post where they are and what they are doing every minute of the day has led to some rather interesting consequences. We all have heard the numerous reports of applications that are taking your personal data right off of your phone and then either selling it or using it to push their own applications… which reminds us… what ever happened to all those congressional requests and demands? Anyway getting back to the point we have even heard how one application (now pulled from distribution) used public Facebook profiles combined with check-ins on the Facebook game Four Square to allow almost anyone to stalk nearby women.

There is an old saying; “ I cannot give you what I do not have and I cannot tell you what I do not know”. It is with this philosophy in mind that a new Internet Service Provider is seeking to hit the market. The man behind this new company also happens to be one of the only ISP owners to ever fight and win against an FBI request for subscriber information; Nicholas Merrill.

In mid-January the battle over SOPA and PIPA hit a peak with an unprecedented show of opposition. We saw Wikipedia go dark for the day while other large site put black censored bars over their logos. At the end of this the SOPA and PIPA backers in the Senate and the House of Representatives decided they needed to change their direction. Lamar Smith, the sponsor for SOPA made the official announcement that SOPA was being shelved. Many hailed this announcement as a victory, but it seems they did not see the finger crossed behind Smith’s back.

With all of the issues surrounding online privacy and internet snooping many are very concerned about having their personal information reviewed, logged, scanned and then stored away for sale by the companies that are tracking this. This issue is a very real one and as the companies we work for can (and do) put system in place to monitor, log and block certain types of traffic we are not surprised to see this become a very hot topic. The issue has become so large that there are multiple protests about privacy and personal data security happening in many countries. So what are you to do if all you really want is to check your Hotmail or maybe do some quick shopping without giving up all of your details?  A Canadian company by the name of SurfEasy has a possible answer for you. So sit back, relax and read along as we talk about the SurfEasy Plug-in Privacy device.

The online movement known as Anonymous had a fairly busy weekend and even managed to push their “fun” into Monday. According to several of the Anonymous twitter accounts they are now rather upset at PasteBin. It seems that the owner of PasteBin is unhappy about the uses that Anonymous has put his “code sharing” site to. He laments that it was never intended for the sharing of sensitive information and has even stated he is going to hire additional workers to help remove these types of posts. This had an interesting effect on the collective where tweets saying things like “Srsly Pastebin, f*** you - @Pastebin to hire staff to tackle hackers' 'sensitive' posts” .

When the smart phone first hit the market it was designed with the business person in mind. It was something like a combination between a PDA and a Phone; in fact the first smartphone that I owned was a PDA complete with the PalmOS. It was a horrible brick of a phone and was quickly replaced with a HTC PPC 2600. Phone manufacturers quickly caught on to the fact that people other than business people wanted to do more with their phones. The idea of the connected phone was born and we started to see even the cheapest handsets with mobile web browsers games and message sharing.

Privacy is the big watch word these days. We are hearing more and more about how this app or that one gathers personal data or how Social media uses (or abuses) our personal information. We are even hearing the rumblings of congressional hearings on the subject with the US Congress demanding answers from a multitude of app providers on how they are addressing personal data privacy. It is a good thing that Congress is there to protect us… Oh wait, is this the same Congress that wants to enable internet monitoring and allow ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and corporations the power to collect and read all traffic that passes over their networks?

Facebook has not always been on the side of user privacy. In fact they have gotten into hot water about many of the features that they want to, and indeed have implemented. These are features like auto-tagging and facial recognition, the use of user pictures for their targeted ads. Storing user information after the user deletes it and even keeping deleted profiles after the user leaves Facebook. Now in what could be a PR move (and probably is) or could really be their concern over a new issue Facebook is telling users not to disclose their Facebook account passwords to employers, potential employers or during interviews.

Well we knew it was just a matter of time before this happened, but it looks like Facebook was intent on forcing the Timeline view on everyone. We opened up the DecryptedTech page this morning and were greeted with a new message telling us that Facebook was moving to a new page type on March 30th and that we could preview it now.

The internet is not a safe and secure place (I know this is a HUGE surprise to everyone), but many do not know just how insecure the system is and how continued legislation to “make it more secure” is actually hurting. Although we could write a small novel about the dangers of allowing corporate interests and government officials who have no working knowledge of how the internet works to change things, we will concentrate on one issue here and one that many people do not even know is broken.