Group items tagged

In the 2002 film Minority Report, video billboards scanned the irises of passing consumers and advertised to them by name. That was science fiction back then, but today's marketers are creating digital signs that can display targeted ads based on information they extract from examining the contours of individual human faces. These smart signs are proliferating in commercial establishments and public places from New York's Times Square to St. Louis area shopping malls. They are a powerful innovation in advertising, but one that raises compelling privacy issues - issues that should be addressed now, before digital signs that monitor our behavior become the new normal. The most common name for this medium is digital signage. Most digital signs are flat-screen TVs that run commercials on a continuous loop in airports, gas stations, and anywhere else marketers think they can get your attention. However, marketers have had difficulty determining exactly who sees the display units, which makes it harder to measure viewership and target ads at specific audiences. The industry's solution? Hidden facial recognition cameras. The tiny cameras can estimate the age, ethnicity and gender of people passing by and can track how long a given person watches the display. The digital sign can then play an advertisement specifically targeted to whomever happens to be watching. Tens of millions of people have already been picked up by digital signage cameras. While camera-driven systems are the most common, the industry is also utilizing mobile phones and radio frequency identification (RFID) for similar purposes. Some companies, for example, embed RFID chips in shopper loyalty cards. Digital kiosks located in stores can read the information on the cards at a distance and then display ads or print coupons based on cardholders' shopping histories. Facial recognition, RFID and mobile phone tracking are powerful tools that should be matched by business practices that protect consu

In the 2002 film Minority Report, video billboards scanned the irises of passing consumers and advertised to them by name. That was science fiction back then, but today's marketers are creating digital signs that can display targeted ads based on information they extract from examining the contours of individual human faces. These smart signs are proliferating in commercial establishments and public places from New York's Times Square to St. Louis area shopping malls. They are a powerful innovation in advertising, but one that raises compelling privacy issues - issues that should be addressed now, before digital signs that monitor our behavior become the new normal. The most common name for this medium is digital signage. Most digital signs are flat-screen TVs that run commercials on a continuous loop in airports, gas stations, and anywhere else marketers think they can get your attention. However, marketers have had difficulty determining exactly who sees the display units, which makes it harder to measure viewership and target ads at specific audiences. The industry's solution? Hidden facial recognition cameras. The tiny cameras can estimate the age, ethnicity and gender of people passing by and can track how long a given person watches the display. The digital sign can then play an advertisement specifically targeted to whomever happens to be watching. Tens of millions of people have already been picked up by digital signage cameras. While camera-driven systems are the most common, the industry is also utilizing mobile phones and radio frequency identification (RFID) for similar purposes. Some companies, for example, embed RFID chips in shopper loyalty cards. Digital kiosks located in stores can read the information on the cards at a distance and then display ads or print coupons based on cardholders' shopping histories. Facial recognition, RFID and mobile phone tracking are powerful tools that should be matched by business practices that protect consu

"Sherry Natoli is followed everywhere she goes while shopping online, but she doesn't mind at all. Natoli, who owns a seashell business in Tampa, does all but her grocery shopping on the Internet and even opts in whenever she's asked whether she's willing to have her online movements tracked by websites." Companies have been monitoring our online behavior for almost as long as there's been an Internet, often using our online footsteps (cookies) whenever we search, browse or buy online. Tracking technology has advanced so much that everything from how long we linger over a product description to whether we are searching for sexual-dysfunction drugs can be collected and stored on individual profiles. Our profiles are numeric descriptions, not our real names, but in some cases, it's not hard to determine personal information behind the numbers. Privacy concerns abound, and several privacy and consumer groups are urging Congress to enact laws on what can and can't be collected and for how long.

Financial fraud last year caused 7.5 percent of all adults in the United States to lose money, largely because of data breaches. That's the finding of a survey conducted by Stamford, Conn. research firm Gartner. The survey polled 5,000 U.S. adults and also found that when compared with average consumers, nearly twice as many people who lost money to fraud changed their shopping, payment, and e-commerce behavior. In particular, victims of electronic checking and/or savings account transfer fraud were nearly five times more likely to change banks because of security concerns. "Fraud victims are also more cautious about which brick-and-mortar stores they shop at and how they pay for goods when they get there, demonstrating more awareness of the risk of data breaches," said Avivah Litan, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, in a news release. High-tech crimes, such as data breaches (which typically involve hacking into enterprise systems) and phishing attacks against consumers, are the most prevalent causes of payment card fraud. Gartner found that financial losses were highest with new-account, credit card and brokerage fraud, with average losses per incident totaling $1,097, $929 and $900, respectively. However, victims of brokerage, credit card and debit/ATM card fraud find it easiest to recover their losses, receiving an average of 100 percent, 86 percent, and 77 percent of the funds stolen, respectively.

A New Zealand man has found confidential United States military files on an MP3 player he bought at an op shop in the US. Chris Ogle, 29, from Whangarei, bought the player from an Oklahoma thrift shop for $NZ18 ($A14.50), and found the files when he hooked it up to his computer, TV One News reported on Monday night. The 60 files on the player contained the names and personal details of American soldiers, including ones who served in Afghanistan and Iraq. There was also information about equipment deployed to bases and a mission briefing. "The more I look at it, the more I see and the less I think I should be," Ogle said. Victoria University strategic studies director Peter Cozens said one of the first rules of military endeavour was to not give the opposition information that could compromise your position. "This is just slack administrative procedures which are indeed a cause of embarrassment. It's the sort of thing which ought not really be in the public domain, he said. Ogle said the player never worked as a music player and he would hand it over to the US Defence Department if asked.

Consumers trust friends' opinions and access them on the go while shopping. 40% accessed social media via mobile phones. 37% of US social media users trust what friends and family say about brands or products on social media, compared to only 10% trust in strangers.

"Yahoo released a beta of a tool, Ad Interest Manager, designed to be a transparent user dashboard for privacy. It works. Yahoo has everything from your surfing habits to your operating system to your screen resolution. The tool gives users a one-stop shop to opt out of ad categories (statement). As Yahoo notes on its overview: To make our ads more relevant and useful for you, we make educated guesses about your interests based on your activity on Yahoo!'s sites and services. Some of the ads we show you reflect these interests. You can opt out of interest-based advertising altogether using the tools on this page. Here's what it looks like:"

With the nation's strictest data security law set to take effect Jan. 1 in Massachusetts, mobile phone merchant Dennis Kelly plans to parlay the regulations into a competitive advantage. Kelly will display signs at each point-of-sale device inside 28 Wireless City shops, of which he is co-owner, stating that the company complies with the state's new mandate and that protecting customers' personal information is a company-wide priority. He says that as his business has grown in a few short years, adhering to the new requirements - namely, establishing an official information security policy and deploying more stringent access control solutions - was necessary, regardless of the impending legal obligation. And now he wants to show that investment off. "We can set ourselves apart from competitors by communicating that we take this stuff seriously," he says. "I think we will be somewhat unique in that regard." Kelly's take on the regulations - the first time any state has issued such a comprehensive and prescriptive list of measures that must be taken to protect data - appears to be in direct contrast to most other business owners across the Bay State.

www.killdo.de.gg Most quality online stores. Know whether you are a trusted online retailer in the world. Whatever we can buy very good quality. and do not hesitate. Everything is very high quality. Including clothes, accessories, bags, cups. Highly recommended. This is one of the trusted online store in the world. View now www.retrostyler.com

Chris Nolter Department store proprietor John Wanamaker is famously said to have quipped, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half." The founder of Wanamaker's department store is known as the "father of modern advertising." His innovations, in late 19th-century and early 20th-century Philadelphia and New York, included publishing reliable prices in advertisements, copyrighting pitches, offering money-back guarantees and hiring a full-time writer to produce ad copy. A century later, advertising professionals have gotten more sophisticated and adapted to radio, television, outdoor and digital media. Wanamaker's observation about the value and effectiveness remains profound for merchants and manufacturers, as well as for media outlets that have seen broadcasting or print-advertising dollars reduced to digital pennies. The Internet has made the amount of space that can be filled with advertising virtually infinite, while the recession has all but emptied the advertising coffers of automakers, financial services firms and real estate companies. While digital media has disrupted the traditional ad business, it also presents the tantalizing promise to answer Wanamaker's question. Prior generations of digital advertising gave us spam and banner ads that tempted us with animated mortgage holders wildly dancing on the roof of their home or prizes for whacking a mole. The new proposition is that digital ads will allow advertisers to target audiences and track their returns on investment, and provide users with advertising and content that is more relevant. More than 400 advertising networks have come into existence to sell ad space on the expanding inventory of Web sites and pages. These networks connect advertisers with online publishers, often shopping ad space that a Web site's own sales staff cannot fill. Many of the networks cater to niches, such as food, wine, cars or sports. Increasingly, they are selling access to a

Like this http://www.hdfilmsaati.net Film,dvd,download,free download,product... ppc,adword,adsense,amazon,clickbank,osell,bookmark,dofollow,edu,gov,ads,linkwell,traffic,scor,serp,goggle,bing,yahoo.ads,ads network,ads goggle,bing,quality links,link best,ptr,cpa,bpa. www.killdo.de.gg

Amazon has opted out of Phorm's controversial targeted advertising technology, delivering a serious blow to the UK-listed company which has already prompted a European commission legal action against the British government. Phorm's technology, which is yet to be launched in the UK, allows ISPs to track their customers' activity on the internet in order to target adverts on pages they subsequently visit. Amazon's absence from Phorm's Webwise system deprives the company of the second most visited destination, after eBay.co.uk, among shopping and classified websites in the UK, according to data from Hitwise. It means Phorm will not have access to crucial information about what Amazon users are interested in. Last month the Open Rights Group, privacy campaigners, sent a letter to nine of the internet's biggest names, including Amazon, Google, Bebo, Facebook and Yahoo, asking them to opt out of Phorm's technology "to protect your users' privacy". Google and Bebo are actively considering whether to opt out and a spokesman for Amazon said the company has now removed all its domain names - including Amazon.com - from Webwise. A spokesman for Phorm said the company does not comment on individual cases but the it is understood to be planning a meeting with Amazon's management to explain the benefits of the Webwise system.

Like this http://www.hdfilmsaati.net Film,dvd,download,free download,product... ppc,adword,adsense,amazon,clickbank,osell,bookmark,dofollow,edu,gov,ads,linkwell,traffic,scor,serp,goggle,bing,yahoo.ads,ads network,ads goggle,bing,quality links,link best,ptr,cpa,bpa. www.killdo.de.gg

"Identity theft can happen to anyone," is the frequent refrain of government and advocacy groups warning consumers about bank fraud. What they don't add: The crime is far more likely when that "anyone" is a woman. A study released Monday by the fraud-tracking firm Javelin Research showed that women are 26% more likely than men to be the victims of identity theft. While 3.8% of men had their banking details stolen and used for fraud in the last year, 4.8% of women were victimized. And women took far longer on average to discover their financial identities had been compromised, leading to far greater risk of repeat fraud: Women took 83 days to detect they'd been targeted, compared with 45 days for men. The growing reason behind this disparity, argues Javelin President James Van Dyke, is an often-misunderstood trend: Digital commerce is making identity theft harder, rather than easier. Because men are statistically more likely than women to adopt newer technologies such as online banking and shopping, they more often have the benefit of high-tech safeguards, Van Dyke says. Women, because of their lesser use of Web banking and sales, suffer from more old-fashioned fraud caused by stolen credit cards or retail employees, he says. Fifty-eight percent of women, for instance, have never banked online, compared with 55% of men, according to Javelin's study. That means women are less likely to sign up for fraud protection programs like text message or e-mail alerts that warn of abnormal transactions. Twenty-three percent of men use e-mail alerts, compared with 15% of women; 8% of men receive text message warnings, compared with just 3% of women.

Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep records about users for two years to aid police investigations. The legislation, which echoes a measure proposed by one of their Democratic colleagues three years ago, would impose unprecedented data retention requirements on a broad swath of Internet access providers and is certain to draw fire from businesses and privacy advocates. "While the Internet has generated many positive changes in the way we communicate and do business, its limitless nature offers anonymity that has opened the door to criminals looking to harm innocent children," U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said at a press conference on Thursday. "Keeping our children safe requires cooperation on the local, state, federal, and family level." Joining Cornyn was Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, the senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who said such a measure would let "law enforcement stay ahead of the criminals."

A federal judge said he will decide in the next few days whether supermarket giant Hannaford Bros. is potentially liable for damages because of a data breach that exposed more than 4 million credit and debit card numbers to computer hackers. Judge D. Brock Hornby heard arguments on Wednesday at U.S. District Court. Attorneys for Hannaford asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed against the Scarborough-based company last year. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said Hornby should certify the case as a class-action suit and let it proceed toward trial. The upcoming ruling will determine whether parts or all of the suit will go forward. The case boils down to a couple of central questions: To what extent are merchants responsible for securing the electronic data that gets processed with every noncash purchase, and what should the consequences be when that data is stolen? "These are fascinating and difficult issues," Hornby said after hearing the arguments Wednesday. "I'll get a written decision out to you as soon as I can." Between Dec. 7, 2007, and March 10, 2008, hackers stole credit and debit card numbers, expiration dates and PIN numbers from people shopping at Hannaford supermarkets. The grocery chain operates more than 200 stores under various names in New England, New York and Florida. More than 4 million card numbers were exposed, and by the time Hannaford publicly announced the breach, on March 17, 2008, about 1,800 fraudulent charges had been made.

As online shopping becomes a greater force each year, the behavior of online shoppers becomes more and more scrutinized. Ad net AudienceScience, a key scrutinizer, announced today the findings of a commissioned study conducted on its behalf by JupiterResearch designed to measure the receptiveness of online shoppers to behavioral targeting. And the survey says: They like it -- at least that they are more responsive to ads that are behaviorally targeted than those that are contextually targeted. And they were pretty clear about it, with 65 % responding that they are more receptive to BT, and only 35% saying they paid more attention to contextual ads. "Since its inception, behavioral targeting has been an evolution of contextual advertising, and these findings are testament to its power to more effectively engage with consumers on their own level," said Marla R. Schimke, VP of Marketing, AudienceScience. "If we conduct the same study in a year, five years, ten years, I believe we'll see this already substantial gap between the two continue to widen as more and more brands and marketers realize that they can use behavioral targeting to specifically target their ideal customer."

When it comes to online privacy, we all appreciate the risk of publicizing juicy factoids such as incriminating photos or credit card numbers. But few of us realize a subtler threat: In abundance, innocuous, everyday data can divulge sensitive information as well. Some questions shouldn't be asked. Employers, for instance, generally are not allowed to discriminate based on marital status, sexual orientation and so on. But our growing digital footprint is threatening our ability to dodge inappropriate inquiries. Through data mining, employers, insurers, advertisers and others can infer the answers to private questions without even asking. They need two things: a heap of personal data, and the techniques to crunch it. Both are readily available. People generate and share more information than ever before. Besides consciously generated Web content such as blogs, Facebook profiles and YouTube videos, a steady stream of data is exchanged in the background. Companies track our searches, browsing and shopping behavior. Personal electronic devices can silently disclose our location while we post status updates and photos to the Web. All this seems innocent enough - and the more others do it, the safer we all feel. After all, what's one more Twitter update among millions?

A very heated reaction has followed the interview I conducted yesterday with Robert Carr, CEO of Heartland Payment Systems. One reader even said the resulting Q&A made his "blood boil." Why the outrage? Because Carr did something a lot of people find unacceptable. He threw someone else under the proverbial bus for his company's failure to keep customer credit and debit card numbers out of evil hands. Specifically, he thrust an angry finger at the QSAs who came in to inspect the security controls Heartland had in place to meet the requirements of PCI security. In the article, [Heartland CEO on Data Breach: QSAs Let Us Down] Carr said, "The audits done by our QSAs (Qualified Security Assessors) were of no value whatsoever. To the extent that they were telling us we were secure beforehand, that we were PCI compliant, was a major problem. The QSAs in our shop didn't even know this was a common attack vector being used against other companies. We learned that 300 other companies had been attacked by the same malware. I thought, 'You've got to be kidding me.' That people would know the exact attack vector and not tell major players in the industry is unthinkable to me. I still can't reconcile that." That one comment brought down the house, and not in a favorable way. "I just read Bill Brenner's interview with Heartland Payment Systems' CEO Bob Carr and truthfully, my blood is boiling," Mike Rothman, SVP of strategy at eIQnetworks and chief blogger at Security Incite wrote in a counterpoint piece CSOonline ran today. "Basically, he's throwing his QSA under the bus for the massive data breach that happened under his watch. Basically, because the QSA didn't find anything, therefore he should be off the hook. I say that's a load of crap."

Internet scams, phishing, identity theft and other attacks that exploit your personal data are always a threat when you shop online, set up an email account, use a credit card, manage an online bank account or carry your Social Security card. There is hope, however, for fighting these threats, and you can start by taking back control of all of your personal data. The 50 tips and tools in this list will help you understand how these scams originate, how to protect yourself online and offline, and how to track down your personal data on the Internet. Web Privacy Protect yourself and your data online by choosing a secure Web browser, understanding the dos and don'ts of wireless security, and correctly managing passwords.

Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke was among hundreds of victims of an identity fraud ring that stole more than $2.1 million from consumers and financial institutions across the United States, Newsweek magazine reported on its website. The head of the U.S. central bank and his wife were swept up in a case against the ring after her purse, with personal checks inside, was snatched at a coffee shop in August 2008, Newsweek reported, citing recently filed court documents. Someone soon began cashing checks on the Bernanke family bank account, a crime that became part of a wide-ranging federal identity theft investigation that was already underway.

"Temporary workers brought in to help during the busy holiday shopping season can sometimes pose a data security risk for companies. Retailers that hire temporary help need to keep a watchful eye on them to reduce the risk of data compromises, said Bob Russo, general manager of the PCI Security Standards Council. The council oversees the implementation of mandatory security standards for protecting credit and debit card data across the payment industry. With many retailers hiring temporary workers to handle extra business, vigilance is key, Russo said. "Management needs to hover at this time of the year, especially with temps," he said. Temporary workers who handle credit card data or are involved in any form of payment processing need to follow appropriate security procedures. Proper access controls also need to be in place to prevent temporary workers from gaining access to other systems, he said."

Recent hacking attacks on Sony Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. grabbed headlines. What happened at City Newsstand Inc. last year did not. Unbeknownst to owner Joe Angelastri, cyber thieves planted a software program on the cash registers at his two Chicago-area magazine shops that sent customer credit-card numbers to Russia. MasterCard Inc. demanded an investigation, at Mr. Angelastri's expense, and the whole ordeal left him out about $22,000.