Is Facebook Messenger Worth the Download?

If you use Facebook, you started getting messages telling you that a new app, Messenger, was about to be launched.  For weeks these messages would appear and for weeks I would ignore them.  Why would I need another app?  I get my private messages from Facebook, so what’s the big deal?  Well, the “big deal” came when Messenger was the only way I could access my private messages on my phone.  I clicked on the “download app” box and saw all the information it wanted and I decided that there was no way I would be downloading this.  That lasted about three weeks.  It turned out that it wasn’t as easy to just get to a computer every time I needed to read a message, so, I put on my big girl panties and hit “download”.

When I really gave it some thought, I realized that the only reason I didn’t want the Messenger app was because I felt it was asking for too much information.  Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who felt this way.  Seeing that Messenger wants to access your phone, your phone’s camera and see your geo-location, it all seemed a bit much….at first.  But, I had to face facts:  Messenger wasn’t asking for any more information than other apps that I have.  And, giving it even more thought, I understand why it needs the information it’s asking for.  Of course it wants to access your phone because that is how you are going to be getting your message.  It needs access to your camera because that is how you will be sending pictures through the app.  Geo-location?  Of course!  Without it, how will it know which of your friends is near you and available for messaging?

I then realized that I was just making excuses not to download Messenger and it was becoming an inconvenience to me.  Besides, I have quite a few apps already that need the same information that Messenger needs.  GasBuddy uses geo-location to tell me which gas stations are close to where I am and needs access to the phone’s camera so that users can post pictures of the gas stations and the price boards.  The Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks apps use my geo-location so that I can get a current list of nearby stores where I could get my caffeine fix.  They also need access to my phone to keep track of my purchases and send me coupons whenever I reach my “bonus point” goal.  Then, there’s Swarm (which used to be FourSquare).  I can check in anywhere I visit and with geo-location, it will tell me if any of my friends are at the same mall I’m at.  It will also give me a list of my “favorite” spots so check-ins are a breeze.  Candy Crush, Words with Friends, Scramble with Friends, and any other games you have on your phone all need access to your phone and geo-location.  So, if I don’t mind giving these apps access, why do I mind giving access to Messenger when this would actually be the app I would use the most?

Facebook already knows all about me, and since Messenger is a Facebook app, what would be the difference if I allowed this to have my information?  After all, it’s not asking for my Social Security number or banking information.  It started to make less sense to NOT download Messenger, so, I caved.

How Else Will Your Privacy Be Taken?

In the article Looking for a Job?  Beware of this Privacy Risk, you learned how looking for work could lead to a breach in your privacy.  This is a risk for only those who are currently looking for a job.  There is another privacy risk that should be a concern to everyone, regardless of age or state of employment.  Employers and schools are demanding to know your social media information.

Many companies do not want their names mentioned in social media unless they have control over what is being said.  The only way these companies have to keep control over this is by checking each employee’s social media accounts to make sure nothing derogatory is being said about the company.  Because anyone can set privacy controls, the only way to know everything that an employee says on social media is to have full access to the accounts.  That is why employers are asking for the log-in names and passwords of all employees. 

 

Employers are not only looking for what is said about the company, or if the employee has the company name listed as their place of employment, they are also looking for anything inappropriate that may be posted.  Pictures of wild parties or visits to a nude beach may just get you fired.  True, these parties and beach pictures were taken on your leisure time, but now, unless you have a contract, you are considered an “at will” employee.  This means that your employer can terminate your employment for any reason.  Even if you have a contract, most of them have a morals clause, so any inappropriate postings could void the contract.

Losing Privacy While Seeking Employment

As we all know, the rate of unemployment all over the US is staggering.  Many of these unemployed people are without jobs through no fault of their own.  Many companies are closing their doors, and with so many people out of work and looking for jobs, this gives employers a chance to try new methods of weeding out “undesirable” candidates.  One of the methods now being used is to ask each candidate to agree to a credit check at the time an application is submitted. 

 

What does a credit check have to do with one’s ability to work?  Well, according to employers, if someone has bad credit, they are considered a high risk for corporate theft.  So, if you have bad credit, you will not be getting an interview.  By using this theory, instead of creating a time frame for 20 interviews, that number can be lowered to 5 or less with the click of a button.

True, prospective employees aren’t forced to submit to this credit check, however, if you don’t agree, your application will not be considered.  The employers hold all the cards on this. 

 

There are a few flaws with this method of choosing potential employees:

1.  Each time a credit check is run, it lowers your credit score.  Credit reporting services don’t see this as an employment check; they just see it as you looking to get approval to raise your credit limit or to add yet another credit account.

2.  If you file applications with several companies, all of which are receiving your credit report.  This means that an unknown number of strangers are privy to not only your credit score, but also know each bank and amount you have credit with.

 

3.  You will not be given a chance to explain your low credit score.  Employers don’t care WHY the credit score is low; they just care that it IS low.

4.  Employers don’t take into consideration that you haven’t paid your bills because you’ve been unemployed.  They see the low credit score and automatically assume that you will steal from the company.  It doesn’t seem to cross anyone’s mind that you want a job not to steal, but to earn money to pay your bills in order to raise your credit score.

Is Social Media Stressing Your Kids?

It’s part of my job to search the Internet for subjects that have to do with Internet privacy.  In the past couple of months, I’ve seen a lot of questions on answer sites that have to do with kids and social media.  Most of these questions involve getting “Likes” on their social media pages.

Kids today are under enough pressure in their real lives when it comes to school and grades.  Now, it seems that these kids are adding pressure on themselves all because of social media.  Instead of worrying about having an active social life with real friends, these kids are stressing over the fact that their Facebook profile picture isn’t getting enough likes.  If they don’t have enough followers or “Likes” on Instagram and Twitter, it’s like the end of the world.

I have seen 13 year olds begging for likes because it’s “embarrassing” that their profile picture only got 10 “Likes” on Facebook.  Others are depressed that they only have 15 followers on Instagram.  Others yet are blogging on Tumblr about personal things and asking strangers to read their blogs and follow them. 

 

They are actually going on answer sites to beg for “Likes” and followers.  Not only that, it has become so important to them that they are actually going to sites to buy “Likes” and followers.  It’s scary to think that these kids are our future, yet they find nothing wrong with the practice of buying “Likes”.  When did it become acceptable to buy rewards instead of earning them?  I’d like to know how many parents are keeping track of their kids’ social media pages to see that they are actually cheating and if they approve of this cheating.  In other words:  What are we teaching our kids?

The cost isn’t a lot, but in order to pay the $1 to $3 charge, a credit card or PayPal account is needed.   This brings up a whole other issue:  privacy.  Do you know who your kids are giving your credit card number to in order to buy these “Likes” and followers?  What about the actual followers?  They need to be able to see everything posted in order to “Like” things on your children’s pages.  Strangers will know where your children live, what they look like, what schools they go to.  These strangers will see posts saying that the family will be away on vacation or pictures of your kids at the beach.  They will be able to see those slumber party videos posted to Facebook, which include other parents’ kids.  How will those other parents feel knowing that strangers are watching what should be private videos? 

 

Parents need to teach their kids that social media isn’t something to get stressed out about, or depressed over.  It wasn’t intended to stress over; it was intended as a way to express our thoughts and keep in touch with friends and family.  I doubt very much the intention was to make teenagers feel bad about themselves because only 3 people “Liked” their profile picture. 

 

The minimum age for social media is 13 years old.  Some kids are mature enough at 13 to realize that what happens on social media really isn’t what’s important.  For others, it’s a place that means everything.  Parents need to teach their kids that while it’s good to be creative on Tumblr and Instagram and share views on Facebook and Twitter, it should not be the defining factor in a teenager’s life.  Each parent knows their own child best to determine whether or not social media is right for that child. 

 

In order to keep your privacy safe, parents must teach their kids not to give out personal information over the Internet.  Another way to stay safe is to surf the Internet anonymously with a proxy server.  Please take advantage of our FREE trial offer and see how changing your IP Address and encrypting every connection will make you feel safer knowing that you can’t be found.

Personal Information Sold at Goodwill

Have you ever donated old clothes, books, furniture or other items to a Salvation Army or Goodwill store?  Well, one donator to Goodwill in central Indiana donated a bit more than he intended.  If his donations were checked before being put up for sale, this may not be an issue.  Unfortunately, a box containing 39 pounds of one family’s personal information was sold to a woman for $27.69.

Emily Watson opened a box that she bought from a Goodwill outlet store in the Indianapolis area and found someone else’s sensitive records.  If items can’t be sold at the retail stores for any reason, they are put in bins and sent to Goodwill outlet stores.  These are closed boxes sold by the pound to anyone who wants to take a chance that there is something valuable inside.  Ms. Watson bought one such box and when she opened it found personal information all belonging to one family.  The box contained Social Security cards, tax returns, pay stubs, banking information, dental and other medical records, divorce papers and insurance documents.  There were also family photos and addresses of family members.

This had happened to Ms. Watson before.  At another time, she purchased a box containing personal information, so she opened the box in the store before buying it.  When she saw what it contained, she pulled out all the items to show a store employee, who referred her to the manager.  When the manager looked through the paperwork, she said, “It doesn’t look harmful to me.  It’s OK.”  Ms. Watson then made the purchase because she was afraid that it would get into the hands of someone not as honest as she.  She was afraid for the people the information belonged to. 

After purchasing the box, Ms. Watson tipped off WTHR Channel 13 as to her find.  WTHR 13 Investigates then opened an investigation as to the allegations made of Goodwill selling personal information.  The station sent undercover “shoppers” to three Indianapolis area Goodwill outlets and found that at every outlet location they visited, they were able to purchase someone’s personal information.  This didn’t just happen once; out of 28 visits in 2 months, personal information was purchased 24 times.   WTHR employees were able to purchase valid debit and credit cards, leases, automobile titles, medical histories, immigration papers, bills, employee drug test results, college transcripts, IRA and 401K statements and all other kinds of legal documents containing personal information. 

 

The personal information donated to Goodwill, then sold by them, contained thousands of pages, filling three boxes.  Some Social Security numbers found belonged to police officers stationed at the Indianapolis Metro Police Department.  When WTHR spoke with Sgt. Eric Eads, who is an identity theft expert in the department, he said, “Let me put it to you this way:  this is a police nightmare here.  If someone got ahold of this stuff.  It’s just shocking the amount of Social Security numbers and tax records you found.”

Another person whose tax records were found by WTHR employees is Elesabeth Leclercq.   She is quoted as saying, “It’s terrible.  I don’t even know what to say.  I’m still stunned and in a state of shock.”  Julie and Brett Snyder also found out that their information had been sold along with information on their children.  Mrs. Snyder said, “This isn’t anything we would throw away.  I mean, we wouldn’t have just handed this over to Goodwill.  It’s shocking.  We are completely shocked.”

The person whose information started it all when Emily Watson purchased it is named Rose.  She refused to give her last name, but she did give a statement.  “It’s pretty devastating and I’ve had nightmares about it” she said. 

Grocery Shelves Will Now be Spying on Us

As if we don’t have enough to worry about, now we need to start thinking about being spied on while we do our grocery shopping.  Food giant Mondelez International, parent company of Nabisco, Kraft and Cadbury, is said to be planning on introducing “smart shelves” to grocery stores by the year 2015. 

Working with Microsoft Kinect, Mondelez International is said to be working on a system to identify shoppers walking down the food aisle.  Using facial recognition, these “smart shelves” will be able to identify shoppers by age and gender.  Once identified, a coupon will appear near a food or snack targeted to that particular shopper.  For example:  If a woman in her early 30s walks by, there’s a good chance she may be thinking about chocolate.  As she approaches the shelf for Cadbury chocolates, a coupon will pop up.

Along with facial recognition, the smart shelves will also have weight sensors installed.  This way, if a shopper over the age of 18 picks a box up from the shelf, a coupon could be sent to “persuade” the shopper into buying that product.  The coupon will come by way of either a dispenser or a display screen.  Tech writer Brian Fung of the Washington Post says of this technology, “it’s not quite Minority Report levels of creepiness, but it’s getting there.”, while Neal Ungerleider of Fastcompany.com said it’s “the ultimate in creepy, yet inevitable marketing tech.”  Personally, I have to agree with Neal about it being the ultimate in creepy.

According to Mondelez’s CIO Mark Dajani, no videos or photos of specific shoppers will be saved.  The information will only be used to collect information about the types of shoppers looking at the products or walking down the grocery store aisles.  It could help food companies with product placement so as to maximize sales.

Is Your Smart TV Spying on You?

New York State Senator Chuck Schumer recently issued a warning to all smart TV owners:  If your TV is equipped with a camera and can connect to the Internet, it could be used to spy on you.  Yes, your smart TV is capable of allowing a hacker to steal your credit card information, or worse, your identity.  Not only that, but a hacker can remote-access your TV’s camera and watch everything you do in the room that the smart TV is in.  To make matters worse, these TVs don’t have much in the way of security settings. 

Researchers Aaron Grattafiori and Josh Yavor were at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, Nevada recently and showed how a smart TV can be hacked.  During the demonstration, they were able to control social media and any other application installed on the TV, they accessed files and even turned on the camera.  If they were able to do this, anyone else can do it too.  It’s like giving up your remote control to a hacker.

Mr. Grattafiori spoke with Mashable regarding this issue (Your Smart TV Can Be Hacked to Spy on You).  He said, “Because the TV only has a single user, any type of compromise into an application or into Smart Hub, which is the operating system – the smarts of the TV – has the same permission as every user, which is, you can do everything and anything.”

Grattafiori and Yavor, who work for iSEC Partners, a security firm, began looking into the issues with smart TVs in December of 2012.  They notified Samsung about this security breach in January 2013.  Samsung issued a statement to CNN shortly after claiming that “patches” have been issued to plug up the holes in security (Your TV Might be Watching You), which now makes it difficult for hackers to break into your smart TV.

Who is Following You When You Shop?

By now, we all know that when we shop over the Internet, we’re being tracked.  But, did you know that when you shop in the stores, you’re also being tracked?  Each time we enter a store, whether it’s a department store or a grocery store, we see security cameras positioned in just about every aisle.  These cameras, however, are not doing the tracking.  Customers are being tracked through their cell phones. 

According to the New York Times, last fall, Nordstrom began using Wi-Fi signals from customers’ cell phones to track their movements (Attention Shoppers:  Stores are Tracking Your Cell).  A sign was posted advising customers of the tracking and many shoppers were not happy about it.  Tara Darrow, a Nordstrom spokesperson said, “We did hear some complaints” and because of this, the tracking was stopped in May 2013.  Other stores testing this type of tracking include Family Dollar, Cabela’s and Mothercare. 

 

This tracking can tell a lot about a customer.  The cell phone signals used with the security cameras will tell the retailer exactly who is shopping.  They know how long each shopper spends in any aisle, how long they look at something before they actually purchase it and even the gender of the shopper.  Somehow, many shoppers find this tracking much more invasive than being tracked on-line with cookies.  They consider this more of an invasion of privacy because with on-line tracking, you are still fairly anonymous in the sense that cookies can’t see you.

Gun Owners have the Right to Privacy, Too

Using the Freedom of Information Act, the Journal News, the leading newspaper in Westchester County, NY, requested the records for pistol permits issued in the state.  The information they received showed that there were about 44,000 registered gun owners in Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties.  Once the information was obtained, the newspaper published the names and addresses of every one of them.  As if this weren’t enough of an invasion of privacy, along with the list was an image using Google Maps, that had each gun owner’s address pinpointed.  

New York State Senator Greg Ball was extremely frustrated and angry over this publication.  He stated, “It’s just absolutely ridiculous that the Journal News would do that and they’ve done a lot of boneheaded things in the past.”   He went on to say that he thought the act of publishing this list would give criminals a “map” to go door to door trying to get those weapons. 

Senator Ball is planning on reintroducing legislation that would make the publication of this kind of information illegal.  He said, “This isn’t only about the second amendment, this is about privacy and it’s actually boneheaded for this editorial board to take law abiding firearm owners and treat them no less than a level 3 sexual predator.”

A television news crew was sent to one of the neighborhoods that had a large amount of “red dots”.  When they knocked on doors, many people either did not answer or refused to speak, but some did express surprise and concern that there were so many guns in their neighborhood.

Your Old E-Mail Can be Read Without a Warrant

What do you do with your old e-mails?  Do you just let them sit in the “Read Mail” folder, or do you permanently delete them?  If you let them sit until they automatically disappear from the “Read Mail” folder, you may have a problem. 

If you have e-mail that is over 180 days old stored in a cloud server, it is considered “legally abandoned” and can be read by any government agency without obtaining a warrant.  This means that if you use Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, AOL Mail, G-Mail, etc, your privacy could be at risk.  If you store your e-mail on your hard drive, however, a search warrant is needed no matter how old the mail is.

The law that permits the release of e-mail without a warrant is the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), which is from 1986.  In 1986, most people who used e-mail would delete it immediately after reading it to save on computer storage space.  There was very little chance that your average citizen would have an e-mail in storage that was 180 days old. Today, however, with the use of cloud servers, storage space is just about unlimited.  E-mails are read, then left forgotten in the “Read Mail” files.  Unfortunately, the laws haven’t been updated to keep up with the rapidly growing technology.

Recently, the ACLU requested information from the IRS under the Freedom of Information Act.  In response, the IRS indicated that their criminal investigation department does read citizens’ e-mails without obtaining search warrants.  This is one of the reasons why an update of the ECPA is needed in order to protect the privacy of all US citizens when it involves any digital communications.

The ACLU also sent a request under the Freedom of Information Act to the FBI.  The response indicated warrants aren’t generally gotten, but the FBI wouldn’t come out and say for sure.  As a way of explanation, the FBI provided the ACLU with excerpts from two of its Domestic Investigations and Operations Guides; one from 2008 and one from 2012.  Both state that “FBI agents only need a warrant for emails or other electronic communication that are unopened and less than 180 days old.”  

Obviously, the time for modification of the ECPA is well over-due.  Since 1877, any government agency was required to obtain a warrant to read any personal mail sent via the US Postal Service.  Now is the time for this policy to be expanded to include e-mail and any other electronic communications.  In the meantime, if you want to keep your privacy, make sure you use the “Delete Permanently” button provided each time you read your e-mail.  For most of us, this isn’t a matter of covering up criminal activity; it’s to protect our privacy.

 Please go to the top of this page and download the free Internet Privacy Guide.  There are many other tips and suggestions on how your privacy can remain safe both on-line and off.

Are Our Privacy Rules Changing?

Do you realize how much information is gathered from your smartphone?  This is something most people use every day, but not just to make calls.  It is also used to surf the Internet, send e-mails and update social networking.  Many people even use their smartphones as a GPS.  Because of its many functions, your smartphone holds information on your location, your e-mail contacts and your favorite Internet sites.   In other words, your smartphone is yet another way you can be tracked on-line. 

It seems like every month new apps are being developed for smartphones and tablets.  In fact, the smartphone is probably used less to make calls than to surf the Internet.  You can use Google Maps to find any location in the world, you can keep up with your office e-mail and you can even use GasBuddy to find the least expensive gas in the area.  When you’re ready for a break, you can play your favorite on-line games!  All this can be done with one device.  You can be traveling, yet you’ll never be far from your office or home.  You can even access sites that can help you out with a solution if you don’t know how to handle your two-year-old’s tantrums or medical sites that can tell you what that strange rash on your leg is.

Yes, these apps are a fantastic convenience, but they also leave us open for tracking.  Many people find that the convenience far out-weighs the risk of being tracked.  After all, isn’t it better to have access to all of these great sites if it means all you have to do is enter your zip code and your birth date?  There are thousands of people in that zip code with the same birth date, so what could be the harm?  Well, thousands of people aren’t using YOUR smartphone!

With this information, you are opening yourself up to being tracked by advertisers.  This can happen because many sites share the gathered information with others. They know your location from your GPS, so with your zip code, birth date and the knowledge of what sites you visit on-line added in with your e-mail address, you are going to get a whole lot of targeted advertisements in your inbox.  You could also be given suggestions for even more apps to either purchase or download for free.

These app developers claim that in order to get the full benefits, some personal information is needed.  Congress has discussed the issue of these apps as a privacy risk.  It has also been discussed that consumers should be allowed to opt out of being tracked, but so far, not much has been done to remedy this.

Parents: Do You Know Who Your Children are Chatting With?

I spend a lot of time on the Internet researching popular sites and I notice a very disturbing trend:  parents have given their children free reign over the Internet.  It has been said that in the 60s and 70s, the television was used by busy parents as a babysitter.  Well, now in the 21^st century, the Internet has taken over that function.  The difference between the television and the Internet is that the television didn’t have the capability to try to lure children away from home.  Sure, there were interactive shows like Winky Dink, where a child could put a clear vinyl sheet over the television screen and connect the dots to draw the item that Winky needed to save the day, but Winky Dink never talked one on one to any child.  Not so with the Internet.  This leads to the question, “Parents: Do you know who your children are chatting with on-line?”  

With children getting their own computers and laptops at younger and younger ages, there should be rules set and followed for the use of this equipment.  The main rule should be that no child under the age of 16 should have a web-cam/Internet equipped computer in his or her room.  I find it unbelievable that parents who will not allow their young children to walk to school alone will allow them to wander freely around the Internet.  One of the sites that tweens and young teens seem to be latching on to is Omegle.  Parents, beware!

Omegle is an unmonitored site that was started on March 25, 2009 by then 18 year old Leif K-Brooks.  Within a month of the start date, Omegle had in excess of 150,000 users each month.  The site was set up to be an anonymous chat site where strangers who would never otherwise have an opportunity to meet, could chat on-line.  The site is open to anyone without the need to register and there is no cost for its use.   Sure, there is a disclaimer that a user must be 18 years old to chat, but, as we all know, anyone can be any age they want to be on the Internet. 

In the beginning, the site was text chat only.  Now, it offers both text and video chat.  Kids and chatting with strangers via text is a nightmare in itself, but when you add video to the mix, results can be disastrous.  A very public instance of the dangers of video chatting with strangers is the story of Amanda Todd, a Canadian teenager who committed suicide in October 2012.  When Amanda was 13 years old, she discovered video chat and loved that males of all ages would comment about her beauty.  During one of her chats, a male told her that she was gorgeous and wanted to see more of her.  He convinced her to show her breasts on camera.  This person took a screenshot of the video and spread it all over the Internet.