Facebook has managed to get in the news three times in a row this week. They may have accidentally made some user's private messages public, they are also asking users to snitch on their friends, if their friends are using an alias on Facebook, and teamed with a consumer data collection company to link your Facebook profile with your spending habits in the stores.
Do you have a Cisco brand router, like LinkSys, that you bought from WalMart or Target? Did you just recently install a software update to it or opted for automatic updates? If yes, then you and many others are using their new cloud service now for setting up and maintaining that router. And Cisco maybe watching you and selling your data.
The big story yesterday and will most likely be for another 24 hours or so, is Facebook's announced, yet unannounced changing of everyone of their users email address on their profile to an @facebook.com email address. Once this was noticed by media and the people, "stuff" started to hit the fan.
It hasn't been long since Hollywood took a backhanded bitch slap with the SPOA and PIPA legislation defeat thanks to the Internet at large . Now there's new legislation making its way through Congress called CSIPA aims to give the government and let Internet companies share more of your information about cyber security threats and could endanger privacy. Hollywood is happy it's not them in the cross hairs again.
If you use any of Google’s many products (the ubiquitous search engine, Gmail, Google Plus, YouTube, etc.) you’ve probably seen all the notices about upcoming changes to the company’s privacy policy. So what does it mean to you, and how can you put up a few necessary roadblocks?
A few days ago, it was revealed that Google was by passing privacy policies in Apple's Safari web browser. Some privacy advocates and members of Congress are calling for Google to answer why they were doing it. Now, it has been revealed that Google is doing the same with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. So is Google starting to turn to the "Dark Side"? What happened to their motto of "Don't Be Evil"?
Any new technology can be abused and misused out side of it's intended use. I can give you a billion examples of this, but I am focusing on a new one. Give some one a new toy and they'll figure it out all on their own. That's what seems to be going on with the TSA. They are having women step through the body scanners multiple times, to see their "naughty bits" on a computer screen.
If you're a Verizon customer, you may have noticed or maybe not, the change in Verizon's privacy policy for using their service. They have been sending out emails, but it is possible that you thought it was just another ad. Well, it's not. Verizon will be selling your Web browsing history, cell phone location and app usage, for third-party marketing purposes. The bright side is, you can opt-out!
Facebook seems to be, once again, wading into another privacy issue with it's users. According to security firm Sophos, Facebook has turned on their new facial recognition technology, that they announced last year, on some users accounts, without letting those users opt-in.
A recent discovery of a data base stored on the iPhone, that shows the phone tracks your whereabouts, not very precisely though, has some chilling effects when it comes to privacy.
January 25, 2011 