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migmeister_98

Social media privacy being taught at high school - Technology & Science - CBC News - 0 views

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    Think you're privacy settings in your social network accounts work? Think again. hundreds of third party applications may have gained access to your Facebook account, some of them are ones you never knew you installed.. This is what Leslie Canteris was shocked about when Sisler high school in Winnipeg had an exercise about online privacy. These third party apps can take anything from your Facebook account. Many Canadian students don't understand how to protect their privacy. They don't want to be tracked, but have no clue to avoid it. in fact, kids spend more time changing their privacy settings on their social networks more than adults. People should not use their real names when playing online games, and come up with tough passwords that are hard for outsiders to crack. I applaud Sisler high school for teaching their students about social media privacy. I think that more high schools should talk to its students about this issue since social media is a huge part of many peoples daily lives.
Olivia Marcello

Google's Consolidated Privacy Policy Draws Fresh Fire In Europe | TechCrunch - 0 views

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    Google is facing a privacy policy problem in Europe. Just last year Google was on 60 separate occasions about privacy notices. This brought the attention from the European privacy regulators. They told Google to give users "more control over their data." The European authorities found that Google had ignored their recommendations and requests. The European Commission stated that in order to strengthen national data, the authorities wanted to be able to give companies a fine up o 1 million euros, or  2% of their annual turnover.  Right now Google Now which is a mobile product in Android 4.1 which can access data on the phone through data points and it allows the phones physical location to be known. Google is having complete access to everyone's personal data which can be extremely unsafe
Nicole Trezzi

FreedomPop's 'Snowden phone' encrypts your calls and data | Security & Privacy - CNET News - 0 views

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    FreedomPop has come out with a new phone that will protect your phone calls and data from hackers. The phone is nicknamed the "Snowden phone" but is actually a Samsung Galaxy S2 that FreedomPop remodeled. The phone is selling now for $189 and comes with unlimited voice and texting. They also throw in 50MB of monthly data access for the first three months and then charges the users $10 a month. FreedomPop's Chief Operating Officer Steven Sesar says: "In light of recent violations in consumer's privacy across social networks and mobile devices, privacy is becoming increasingly important to many Americans and we all have a right to communicate anonymously. Large carriers don't have the flexibility, desire, or creativity to invest in privacy." I think this is a great idea because today, so many people don't know if their information is safe. This will help people feel more secure and safe with their information and not have to worry about who could have their phone calls or text messages.
saintmichaeld

As Facial Regulation Technology is Poised to Enter Everyday Life, Regulators Express Co... - 0 views

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    Computers are starting to recognize our faces. what does this mean? Let's find out. New and upcoming facial recognition technology like google glass will heavily integrate the face. it will be able to link someone's face out in the public, to an image of them on the web. In the future we would need to reformat exisiting legislation on privacy. Right now, by law, this potential action is not prohibited. This topic is already being discussed by people in positions of power who see the negative consequences to come. While people focus on the negatives, the positives don't get any real limelight! most of these include much quicker operating procedures for business, who can recognize potential customers. Security also becomes more efficient, which is a good thing when talking about the protection of people and business. It also seriously inflicts on an individuals right to privacy, though... for security in protecting people I believe this should be a mandatory, though. This might be something people will have to endure, whether they like it or not. But, it is better to embrace the future rather than reject it, so here's to computer tracking devices! One thing to point out is the younger generation will not be influenced by this at all. If we don't start to connect with newer technologies early, we'll end up like our grandparents!
robford-jlm

Adblock Plus Now Blocks 8,600 Tracking Filters As Ad Tech Explodes | TechCrunch - 0 views

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    AdBlock is tool that many of us know of, and would totally never use because it can take revenue from content creators *shifty eyes*. All of us hate annoying ads, whether they be prerolls on videos or pop ups, or less than appropriate advertisements on streaming and torrenting websites. Adblock is a wonderful creation that hides most of those, and is thusly loved by many. Recently Adblock has done another thing which will undoubtedly make its user base happy, the web application now also blocks trackers, malicious cookies and scripts. This can be extremely important to people who value their privacy as it helps to ensure that as little of your private data is being sold as possible. The issue of online privacy has been gaining traction over the past few years and especially sine the Snowden revelations. I personally commend Adblock for their goal to protect their users, I and many others care about privacy and make active decisions to stay anonymous (I, for instance, use encrypted search engines and web browsers that encrypt data). This decision by Adblock isn't a huge step forward in online protection and privacy, but it is a step, and that's important.
James Zabbal

FreedomPop Announces The Privacy Phone, A Fully-Encrypted Smartphone For $10 A Month | ... - 0 views

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    This article is about a new phone being released by a company called FreedomPop. FreedomPop is an internet service provider that provides mobile service in the US. The phone is known as the Privacy Phone. It is the only phone currently on the market that allows for encrypted communications. It supposedly has 128 bit encryption for voice calls and text messages. Data from the internet is sent through a virtual private network, which is very secure and encrypted. Also the privacy phone allows you to change your phone number whenever you like.I think this is a great idea because many people can be hacked easily these days and finally there is a private way for people make calls, texts and access the internet. With that being said, who knows how long it will be before someone successfully hacks and bypasses the security on this phone.
Nicole Trezzi

Heartbleed: Why the Internet's Gaping Security Hole Is So Scary - 0 views

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    For the longest time we have all felt very safe while on the internet. Even with feeling this security, we should be more cautious with what we put out on the internet because there has been a bug lurking around in the most important security measures for years. Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) has been keeping your browing page secure and safe for numerous years and is a huge part of the internet and thankfully it is still working as it should. The problem that we have been experiencing is a software library called OpenSSL has a hole in it that has been there for years called "HeartBleed". OpenSSL allows people to get the protection from TLS/SSL easy and fast and has worked fine just like TLS/SSL but because there has been a minor coding error, malicious people can abuse different versions of OpenSSL and grab information that should originally be secured by TLS/SSL. The main problem that everyone can understand is that all of your personal information is being opened up and placed into the hands of someone who should not have the information. The other problem that this "HeartBleed" has is that the attackers will also get to see how the site that is taking your data indentifies. Not only can they see recent transactions but they can look back at old transactions that have already happened. The worst part about all of this is that none of the attackers leave a trace.Since they leave no trace, it is hard to tell how many websites and people have already been effected by the "HeartBleed". While sites try to fix up the problems it is recommended to change all of your passwords and to keep a close eye on your credit card statement. This bug is a huge problem for our society because absolutely no one is safe because there is no way to know if you've been attacked. The article says that Google, Amazon, and Microsoft hasn't been infected yet so that is at least good. I think that everyone should always be careful with their personal information
robford-jlm

Privacy report finds NSA spying illegal | MSNBC - 0 views

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    By now, everyone who is the slightest bit technologically inclined - or just interested in the news - has heard of the 'questionable' activities of the NSA. The National Security Agency, for the uninitiated, is a United States government agency that deals with national security and recently became the object of scrutiny after leaked information showed the massive data collection effort of the agency. This included: recording phone calls, ingoing and outgoing call identities, computer browsing, emails, key-logging and much much more. Needless to say, this was perceived as a tad scandalous and independent panels were brought in to assess the agencies spying program. Recently, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board concluded that the metadata collected by the NSA was obtained through illegal means. Before you cheer, however, this sort of conclusion has been reached before and has only resulted in a promise to limit spying. This is bad because its merely a promise; a promise from a government who lied repeatedly, committed perjury, knowingly covered its tracks, and chased a citizen away with the threat of life in prison. Unfortunately, many people have since stopped caring because its no longer new news, but we need to stand up for our right to privacy and demand legal action to prevent such breaches of trust in the future.
grajnam0540

Black Hornet: The $195,000 Spy Plane That Fits in the Palm of Your Hand - 0 views

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    This article is about a new spy plane that costs $195,000 and fits in the palm of your hand. Now the British soldiers will be a bit safer thanks to this little plane and it flies nearly silently. Prox Dynamics of Norway designed this little plane and it is only 4 inches long and 1 inch tall. This plane can provide videos to the soldiers hand from up to 1000 meters away. It has been used in Afghanistan since August of 2012 and has impressed so far. It is also very hard so see or hear. This article relates to the selected tag because it impacts the lives of both the locals and the military. It affects the locals because they do not have much privacy and security anymore due to this new spy plane. This is unethical and illegal because people want their privacy and if people are spying on them daily they are not secure. Even though it is unethical to do this I think that it would be much safer for most people to use this new plane. The only thing I do not understand is why the plane costs so much and if they will be able to reduce the price.  
Anthony Mirabile

Universal Video Chat? Polycom Is Getting Close - 0 views

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    For a service that had such an artificially high demand, the tech industry has not really capitalized on Video Chat. When Apple unveiled their video chat service 'FaceTime' in June of 2010, many thought that this would become the primary standardized service used by all. In practice, FaceTime is a clunky system that is evidently less productive and convenient than just vocal or text communication. So why hasn't video conferencing taken off as the industry had hoped? The answer is most likely because there is no standardized system and the market is too saturated; Polycom Inc. hopes to adress this issue by introducing a Universal Video Chat in early 2013. The product (called RealPresence CloudAxis) monetizes all of your contacts from Skype, Facebook, Google Talk and other apps into one place - all hosted on a web browser. This is a very ambitious task and if it delivers on what Polycom says (with the "same security and reliability as enterprise systems"), then there may be some validity to the video conference service. This relates to Privacy and Security because when monetizing a group of services, there is a chance for data leak and possible identity theft; Polycom promises to adress all security issues in order to make a safe and immersive experience for its users. This relates to eLifestyle because companies and their consumers have been trying for the past years to create a universal video chat service that actually worked in order to establish a multi-faceted social network: it might be too early to tell if Polycom has something that will fulfill the needs of consumers. This relates to ICS20 because as a class, we are no stranger to multiple accounts that often times serve the same purpose. As consumers, we hope for a streamlined service that can connect all of our multiple accounts into one place, preferably on a browser. It will be hard for Polycom, both legally and economically, to convince all of these pre-existing video chat developers to allow Polycom to
James Harris

iPhone App Contains Secret Game Boy Advance Emulator, Get It Before It's Gone [Update: ... - 0 views

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    Early in the afternoon today, a clever developer managed to sneak a Game Boy Advance emulator into an innocent looking app named "Awesome Baby Names". The secret emulator is activated by a series of taps on the touchscreen inside of the app. Once it is activated you can play your classic gba games just like you did in 2005. Apple was quick to catch this security breach as it was only in the App Store for twenty something minutes, but in that time many people including myself managed to download the app. This kind of sneaky activity from developers happens very seldom, but when something is smuggled into the App Store, it is usually very important. As stated in the article, it is a very easy process to unlock the emulator from the app, but getting the games and the BIOS onto the iPhone is the hard part. You must first download a program that lets you access the phone's file directory, then you must find the app's directory and drop the relevant BIOS and game files there. I chose the portable computing tag for this article because it deals with mobile technology and exploiting it to run handheld gaming software. This idea is not knew and has been around for a long time, but the idea of hiding the identity of apps and smuggling them into the App Store is a new idea. Apple is updating their security daily, but clearly couldn't spot this "child naming app" and make it out for the emulator that it was. I chose the privacy and security tag because Apple has a high priority for the security of their ecosystem and operating system, but clever people can still find ways to bypass this and get unidentified files into the operating system. I believe that Apple must keep a close eye on how they approve future apps into the app store because one day we may see cydia disguised as a senseless app make its way into the app store. If this happens, Apple with really have some explaining to do!    
ecaterina smirnov

South Carolina - State Computer System Is Hacked - NYTimes.com - 0 views

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    This article is about South Carolina which had a hacker break into the state's computer system. It was said that a hacker from another country staged several attacks on the State Department of Revenue since August. This exposed 3.6 million social security numbers and 387,000 credit and debit card numbers and all but 16,000 of the credit card numbers are protected by encryption, but hackers can decrypt them. People that filed tax returns since 1998 are to contact state law enforcement officials to prevent identity theft. They still haven't found the hacker. This article relates to Privacy and Security as well as legal issues because it deals with hacking important information profiles of people such as their credit card numbers and social security numbers. As well as creating a possibility for identity theft.  This could create lots of problems for people and the government because of a hacker. It is times like these where we think how we can tighten security for these things stored on the computer? We also think is it just best to stay away from technology for these matters, because of moments like these where mass information that was stored is now exposed.
Joshua Soosaithasan

Facebook's Never Had A Big User Data Breach, But May Never Recover When It Does | TechC... - 0 views

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    This article talks about the problems Facebook could have if it were to be breached by a hacker. Facebook is one of the biggest social networking websites to date and is the biggest holder of personal information, and yet they have been able to keep this information safe from hackers. Comparing to Twitter who had 250,000 accounts accessed by hackers, Facebook has done a remarkable job to keep our information safe, and although they have been able to do so for now, eventually they will have to face the problems of hackers. When you look at Facebook over other social networking sites like Twitter and Tumblr, there is a big difference when it comes to privacy and security. Twitter, for instance, is a more public social networking site with the odd soul that locks their account from the public. Facebook has privacy by default, which means Facebook has a lot more to lose if they were to get hacked. The physical damage that would pertain to us would include some of our photos and messages might be stolen, and the worst that could happen would pertain to credit card information, but Facebook would jump on and respond to these problems with password changes and other stuff. The real damage that would hit Facebook hard would be the psychological damage, and it would nearly destroy them. When something big happens in our society, the media jumps on this and will twist the truth in the story to give us, the viewers, the best story that will manipulate us into thinking an entire wrong. Facebook would be all over the media, whether it be on the radio, on the internet, on the news or in newsprint. The world would know about what happened, and fear would sweep across the globe.  People would start asking questions about what is safe on Facebook and if it is safe at all. Facebook already has a problem with people not being sure if everything is safe on Facebook, and this would just ruin everything for Facebook. No matter how much Facebook tries to keep its network safe, i
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Holly Di Bart

Your Privacy Kind of Sucks, Fix it Up This Weekend - 0 views

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    This article is about how you can protect your personal information that is on your computer/phone. There are a few ways that you can increase your security and privacy settings so that no one else can see your information. For instance you can manage which apps can access your data on that service. Or you could turn off your location tracking on your phone so that no one knows where you are. This is a very useful article because many of us forget how important it is to keep our information to ourselves. Whenever you put something online, you never know who can see it. 
ecaterina smirnov

A Facebook App That Aims to Keep Private Photos Private - NYTimes.com - 0 views

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    This post is about a new app made by McAfee which is meant to be an extra security for people's photos on Facebook. We know that even if we put our privacy settings on "only friends" there are ways through comments, likes and mutual friends that people you do not know can come across your pictures and download, print or upload them on a different site. This app helps protect by asking users to list who will get to view their photos. Only those people on the list will get to see the photo no matter who is friends with who, or who likes or comments on it. People not on the exact list will only see the photo blurry and barely visible. In addition to that nobody will be able to grab, print or download the photos even if they are on the list of people who can see the photos. This app is only in its development or "beta" phase, but it is already free to download and use on Internet Explorer and Firefox. The company is still working on versions for Chrome and mobile devices. Before concluding they did mention that there are still ways to photograph the photo with your phone, if you have a clear picture. I believe this app is a big step to having online security. This app can help stop the spread of your photos before it starts. People may not think about their internet security very often but it is important to know that once it's on the internet it's on there forever. With internet popularity growing and growing we must also know the dangers of posting photos and protect ourselves. Facebook allows so much public information to be revealed this app can ensure you have a more private account. In my opinion this is a great app and considering that it is free while it is being developed I think people should try it out. Although it's only available on Firefox and Internet Explorer it is already a leap in the right direction. However, as it was mentioned earlier you can still have people take photos from their phones. Nevertheless, if you chose the correct people on your list
Boris Smirnov

Evernote Hack Exposes User Data, Forces Extensive Password Resets | Threat Level | Wire... - 0 views

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    Previously, Twitter, Apple, and Facebook have been on the list of tech companies hacked within the last couple of weeks. As of March 2nd, 2013, Evernote also joins this list when their network is breached by an attempt to access secure areas of the Evernote Service. Evernote has notified users via  e-mail, blogs, and social media to change passwords so that users personal information can remain safe on the Evernote network. The hackers had successfully accessed usernames, e-mail adresses and encrypted passwords, however, they were stopped before any damage could be done. This relates to the "Privacy & Security" category because users data and personal information is being accessed without authorization. Obviously, this can cause many problems for users especially because their work and information can be stolen or deleted. Evernote encourages creating a strong password to ensure that an account remains secure, however, this is a questionable matter because the website should also consider upgrading their system in order to keep users safe. As part of the eLifestyle, many users rely on cloud storage to store information, especially on Evernote. The recent hacking just proves how reliable cloud storage really is. When saving data, it is important to consider the possibility of it being stolen or deleted. With this in mind, one shouldn't depend on cloud storage for saving all of their work or important material as it hasn't proven to be very reliable. And if you are using cloud storage, it would be smart to backup important files on a USB or Computer.
Daniel Dmitrievich Prilipko

The "Nuclear" Option for Total Facebook App Privacy - 0 views

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    Facebook is now offering the option to disallow all applications from sharing and/or accessing your information. Currently, there is a lot of talk about privacy on the internet and how a lot of people don't like having advertisements and notifications shoved into their face every time they use social networking sites or play games.  Nowadays a lot of games have 'share' options built into them that allows you to share useless achievements such as how many cows you bought or how much wheat you need to feed them. This annoys many people who use social networking sites to just talk with friends and get up-to-date information from pages they liked.  The 'nuclear' option will allow people who do not want to be bothered by friends' status updates on games and also people who don't want applications to share what they are doing to others without them knowing or without their consent. This may cause many game developers to change tactics on how they want to attract users from sites such as Facebook because they don't want to risk getting blocked by everyone. 
Matthew Fantauzzi

Creepy Side of Search Emerges on Facebook | Wired Business | Wired.com - 0 views

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    Facebook heads have launched a new 'search engine' for those using Facebook. Entitled 'Graph Search', this engine allows users to type in specific tags to find users that fall under a specific group. The tags include things such as age, location, relationship status, and other similar traits. The Facebook developers should have seen this as an issue from the very start of the project. Many executives and onlookers anticipated that this engine will cause issues, especially with youth. The main concern being privacy. Facebook claims that only users who opt into this feature will show up on the results, but for mindless teenagers who click accept on anything simply out of haste, this could cause an issue. Although there has been no recorded cases yet, this engine opens the door for sexual predators on Facebook, allowing them to easily search for 'Women under 18 in my area' and similar search options. CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself claimed that they are heightening privacy settings for this engine, but there are still concerns to be had. This new feature is obviously a ploy to send more information to advertising companies and other Facebook partners. Facebook is renown for sending information and demographics of it's users to paying companies, but with Graph Search, anyone can do it themselves, including said companies. Facebook is finding new ways to sell out their user base, while still looking like the 'good guy'. Although it has it's benefits for the honest users that want to use it for social purposes, Graph Search is a very bad decision. If it wasn't apparent to you before, now is the time to get off Facebook.
Nikita Varabei

Internet providers to begin warning customers who pirate content - CNN.com - 0 views

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    Many of use know about pirating, and some even do it. So far we thought that it was an easy way to get things with little ways of getting caught; this however is going to change. A knew security system is in development and bound to be out within the next 2 months that will catch those who pirate, and if numerous warnings are ignored; they will be prosecuted. This program watches popular sites such as bittorent and tracks the ip address of those who download illegal content. Then it sends warnings and if those are ignored, you will be tracked and investigated. Overall I believe this software will help stop pirating, but it will be met with huge opposition because most people wont be willing to give up their access to free movies, music, software, etc. Also this raises a privacy issue, but as this security system only tracks your IP, its not much of a problem compared to other tracking systems out there. To conclude, I believe the future of this system is filled with huge debates and maybe even battles.
Daniel Carriere

Silent Circle: Mike Janke's iPhone app makes encryption easy, governments nervous. - Sl... - 0 views

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    New "surveillance--proof" app, Silent Circle has been released providing an easy way for people to text and call people without anyone else ever knowing what has been said, including ISPs and governments. This app makes sure no one can eave drop on your personal business by using what's called encryption. Encryption is the process of changing data into a secret code, the secret code can then only be read by the device you are trying to communicate with. The encryption codes are randomly generated each time the app is used so it is almost impossible to crack the code. This app is can be used on iOS and is currently in development for other devices and platforms as well. Some feel that free communication should be a right, but governments must be feeling a little bit nervous about this app. I chose the tag "privacy and security" because this article is about how Silent Circle has given people an easy way to speak in a secure and private environment without any intervention from anyone else other than the communicators. In my opinion I feel that free communication is important, but people will abuse this through using this app to possibly deal drugs, plan terrorist attacks, or other illegal activities. Who knows, maybe even the government controls this network to monitor people who use it, but that is just a theory.
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