Greg's Corner

Updates from December, 2018 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Geebo 10:13 am on December 31, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Facebook ( 178 ), privacy ( 46 ), Privacy International   

  Popular apps sharing data with Facebook without users’ permission 

  

  It only seems fitting that we close out 2018 with another story about Facebook’s questionable data handling practices. 2018 was a tumultuous year, to say the least. It all started with the Cambridge Analytica scandal and just went downhill from there. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was called to testify before Congress which ended up not leading to much after giving his robotic-like testimony. Then more data breaches became public knowledge which resulted in the potential exposure of millions of users’ data to third parties. Then that all was followed up with Facebook allegedly authorizing a smear campaign of its biggest detractors. Now a report has surfaced that only seems to compound Facebook’s privacy problems.

  A privacy watchdog group called Privacy International studied many of the most popular apps on Android devices. Their findings concluded that a majority of the apps they studied send user data to Facebook. While that’s not really surprising the surprising part is that not only are these apps sending data to Facebook the moment you open the app but you also don’t have to have a Facebook account for the apps to send data about you. Some of the apps in the study included travel apps Kayak and Trip Advisor but also fitness app MyFitnessPal. While Facebook may not have instructed these apps to send the data, they’re not exactly discouraging it either.

  If you’re concerned about Facebook using your personal information, The Detroit News has a great article about what you can do to limit Facebook’s access to your data. Some of these steps include reviewing the privacy permissions you grant your most frequently used apps and minimizing your Facebook presence. While it’s difficult in today’s digital world of keeping all your data out of the hands of companies like Facebook, it’s not impossible to limit that amount of information just by taking the time to stop and read what permissions you’re granting these services.

   

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  Geebo 10:00 am on December 28, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Alexa ( 4 ), Amazon ( 108 ), Apple ( 29 ), apps ( 15 ), Echo ( 3 ), Scams ( 1,362 )   

  Fake Alexa app invades Apple app store 

  

  If you were one of the scores of people who received the Amazon Echo for Christmas, you may want to make sure it was set up correctly. When you first set up your Echo device you need to use a smartphone or tablet app that is directly from Amazon itself. If you used a third-party app that wasn’t from Amazon you may have divulged a little more information that you should have and not to Amazon.

  It was reported yesterday that an app called “Setup for Amazon Alexa” rushed to the top of the Apple App Store’s popular apps after Christmas. The problem with this app is that not only was it not from Amazon but the app asked for much more information that should be given to a random app from the App Store, but you had to give it permission to collect all sorts of data from your iPhone or iPad in order to get your Echo to ‘work’. Of course, the app didn’t actually activate an Echo and received many complaints from Apple users.

  This is unusual for Apple as they have a very stringent process for allowing apps into their App Store. The app has since been pulled from the store but more than likely the damage has already been done to iOS users who already installed the malicious app to their Apple devices. If you are setting up any kind of device in your home that requires a mobile app to activate the device, always use the app from the manufacturer. If you’re having trouble finding it in the app store, go to the manufacturer’s website and they should have a link to the app you need. Below is a video showing you the proper way to activate your Amazon Echo.

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  Geebo 10:00 am on December 27, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Christmas ( 15 ), gift cards ( 101 ), Scams ( 1,362 )   

  Gift cards may not be the greatest gift idea anymore 

  

  We’ve talked about gift card scams many times before, but usually, they were about how you should never pay for any online classifieds transaction using gift cards. The reason for that is once you give the fake seller your gift card numbers the scammers then empty the balance of the gift card and never ship the item. Now, with the Christmas holiday behind us and many of us giving or receiving gift cards, there’s a newer scam that consumers should be concerned about.

  If you received a gift card as a present this year, you may want to use it as quick as you can. With this newer scam thieves are getting the numbers off of the gift cards before they’re even purchased. The scammers then monitor the card numbers waiting for the cards to be activated. Once the card is activated the scammers are able to easily and quickly deplete the card of funds. In most cases, there’s little the card vendors or the store that sold them can do.

  While no tip is foolproof, there are ways to better protect yourself when purchasing gift cards. First, you should inspect the sticker or strip that covers the card number and make sure it hasn’t been tampered with and make sure the strips match those of the other gift cards on the rack. You can also try selecting a card from the middle or back of the rack as it’s more difficult for scammers to replace those cards. However, if you really want to give a last-minute gift that you don’t have to worry about, you can always give cash.

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  Geebo 10:00 am on December 26, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Backpage ( 69 ), Carl Ferrer ( 15 ), Human trafficking ( 97 ), Jim Larkin ( 11 ), Michael Lacey ( 10 )   

  Former Backpage CEO has sentencing pushed back 

  

  Former Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer

  If you’ll recall, earlier this year, the Federal Government seized Backpage.com for knowingly taking an active role in the alleged human trafficking of the girls and women posted to their adult ads section and money laundering. The company was also accused of changing the wording in ads submitted to them to make the prostitution ads seem less criminal. Backpage founders Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin were indicted on over 90 charges after former Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer pleaded guilty to prostitution and money laundering charges. Ferrer received a plea deal after agreeing to testify against Larkin and Lacey. Ferrer was supposed to be sentenced next month, but his sentencing date has now been pushed back.

  Carl Ferrer was set to be sentenced on January 17th, but he seems to have received a Christmas present from federal prosecutors as the date has been pushed back to July. It’s unclear why the change of date was made, however, a US District Court judge agreed to the request. Lacey and Larkin are not set to go to trial until 2020 so the federal prosecutors are definitely not waiting until after their trials before Ferrer’s sentencing. This sounds more like there’s been some new development in the case, whether this affects Ferrer or Lacey and Larkin remains to be seen, but it does seem like we’ll be waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop.

  Ferrer is looking at a possible sentence of five years in prison or a $250,000 fine. Even though he’s agreed to work with the government both of those sentences seem paltry in comparison to the lives he, Lacey, and Larkin have destroyed. While a five-year stretch in prison might be a modicum of justice, Ferrer could probably raise the fine money in a matter of moments. However, some seem to think that Ferrer was set up to be the fall guy which if that is the case has severely backfired on Larkin and Lacey so far. If there will be any consolation in this process, hopefully, it will be at least Larkin and Lacey going away for decades-long sentences.

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    Albert 12:36 am on January 20, 2019 Permalink

    “the majority of girls and women were being trafficked against their will” … majority means over 50%. Can you please provide an unbiased, reliable reference for this?

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    Geebo 10:15 am on January 24, 2019 Permalink

    First off, please allow us to apologize for not responding to your comment in a timely enough manner.

    However, having said that, since underage girls can not legally consent to prostitution we believe the statistic is more than accurate.

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  Geebo 10:00 am on December 24, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: FCC ( 29 ), smart phones ( 13 ), text messaging ( 36 )   

  Is the FCC cracking down on text spam or are they opening the door to censorship? 

  

  Text messaging may just be one of the greatest inventions of mankind. It allows us to send quick messages to our friends and family without having to involve ourselves in lengthy and often times inconvenient phone calls. That’s not even taking into account how many services we can use just through text messaging alone. By some estimates, SMS and MMS messaging is used by roughly 4 billion people worldwide. In today’s world of splintered technical ecosystems, it’s rare for a communication technology to be almost universally used. However, that universal acceptance may start to waver depending on how the FCC’s latest ruling is taken.

  Last Friday, the FCC ruled that cellular carriers can block unwanted texts. The FCC and the telecoms say that this is necessary in order to fight spam texts. Opponents of the ruling say that, much like the repeal of net neutrality, gives too much power to the telecoms. Tech blog Gizmodo has even gone as far as to say that we should stop using SMS and MMS texts as the telecoms may start reading and censoring text messages. The problem with using an encrypted messaging system as Gizmodo recommends is that there is no universal app that everyone will switch to since there are competing encrypted messaging services out there.

  Gizmodo seems to be missing a major point in their argument. If you look at the FCC’s rulings since the current administration took over, their moves seem to have been motivated by one factor, money. The blog post’s author seems to have taken a fringe case of allegedly blocked messages by Verizon and turned it into a national conspiracy. If anything, we’re more likely to see a return to limited text messaging. It wasn’t even a decade ago when many cell phone plans were limited to a certain amount of text messaging. If you went over your allotment of texts for the month you’d be charged for each text that exceeded your plan’s monthly amount.

  While we’ve been very critical of the FCC in the past we don’t believe that the FCC is allowing the telecoms to block text to subvert free speech but to further line their already massive pockets.

   
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  Geebo 9:58 am on December 21, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Apple ( 29 ), phishing ( 75 ), Scams ( 1,362 )   

  New phishing scam hitting Apple users 

  

  It’s no secret that Apple has one of the most dedicated consumer bases among the global tech companies. Then it should come as no surprise that scammers and con artists will try to use Apple’s massive brand loyalty to their advantage. Since Apple devices and their accessories usually demand a high price, the scammers believe that their victims will have a reasonable amount of money, making Apple users lucrative targets. If you are currently invested in Apple’s ecosystem you could be a target of this latest scam.

  Many tech news outlets are reporting that this latest phishing scam goes further than the usual phishing scam. In most online phishing scams you’ll get an email posing as a service you may use asking you to update or change your user information. You’ll be directed to a link which takes you to a phony website that asks for your login or financial information. In this Apple scam, the scammers send you an official looking receipt from the Apple App store with phony charges. The receipt also contains shortened links to a fake website that looks a lot like Apple’s and it will ask you for your Apple ID information. It will then tell you that you’ve been locked out of your Apple account and will ask you for identifying information including your Social Security number to unlock your account. After you give them all of the requested information you’ll be directed to the legitimate Apple website.

  Again, the best ways to avoid phishing scams are not to open any attachments that are in emails from people you don’t know, and not to click on any links contained in these emails. If you think there is a legitimate issue with your account for any of these services, type the website’s address directly into your browser and enter your account through there. That way you can keep your information out of the hands of cybercriminals.

  iPhone users receiving spoofed calls from Apple in latest phishing attack | Greg's Corner is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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  Geebo 10:00 am on December 20, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Informed Delivery, mail theft ( 11 ), porch pirates ( 4 ), USPS ( 13 )   

  Help prevent porch pirates with this free service 

  

  Mail theft is an ongoing problem that has been on the rise over the past decade with the increase in online purchasing. These thieves have been dubbed ‘porch pirates’ for the way they pilfer packages that have been left on your porch or doorstep by your mail carrier. Even if you have the latest security or doorbell cameras, that might not be enough as in some locales police might not have the time and manpower to pursue any purloined packages. However, you don’t have to go as far as building your own NASA-engineered glitter bomb to help prevent package theft, but you can sign up for a free prevention service provided by the US Postal Service.

  USPS provides a service known as Informed Delivery service. All you need to do is to go to the USPS website and sign up for the service. It only takes a few minutes to register your address. Once registered, the USPS will start providing you with emails that contained scanned copies of the mail you’ll be receiving that day. That way you can be on the lookout for important and valuable mail and have a record of it in case it turns up missing.

  However, as shown by the video above, porch pirates can use this service to their advantage as well. If they’ve signed up for the service in your name, the emails from the USPS could be sent to thief’s email instead of yours. As has been mentioned, this service provided by the Post Office is free and could save you from a potentially disastrous situation. Isn’t that worth the price of just a few extra emails a week? It’s not just good for the holiday season but for all year-long.

   
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  Geebo 10:20 am on December 19, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ethnic cleansing ( 8 ), Facebook ( 178 ), Myanmar ( 10 ), Rohingya ( 9 )   

  Is Facebook finally making progress in Myanmar? 

  

  Yes, Facebook is currently under fire in the Western World for its latest security gaffe. You can read about that at the New York Times which has a great write-up about just who Facebook allowed to have user data. However, news that may get lost in the shuffle is that Facebook recently made a pretty significant step in trying to curb the ethnic violence in Myanmar.

  As you may know, Facebook has largely been used by the Buddhist majority Government in Myanmar in order to spread disinformation and hate speech against the Muslim Rohingya minority. Initially, Facebook was slow in enacting measures to try to curb the use of their platform for ethnic cleansing and genocide. Facebook increased their Burmese speaking team and deleted a number of accounts on both Facebook and Instagram that were encouraging violence against the Rohingya. Facebook even deleted the account of a high-ranking Myanmar military official. These were accounts that were very blatant in their hatred for the Rohingya people. Now, Facebook has started going after accounts that are trying to be more subtle.

  Yesterday, Facebook announced that it had deleted the accounts of 135 Facebook users in Myanmar, 425 Pages, 17 Groups, and 15 Instagram accounts. This may not seem like a lot, but these accounts in total had over 2.5 million followers which is 10% of the total internet users in Myanmar. These accounts were trying to be clever by posing as news, entertainment, and beauty and lifestyle accounts but Facebook says that they took action because of “the behavior of these actors rather than on the type of content they were posting.” This is a definite change in Facebook’s Myanmar strategy as previously, they waited for someone else to take action before Facebook did anything.

  This is a step in the right direction for Facebook which has largely stumbled over the past year, not just in Myanmar but worldwide. It remains to be seen if this will be a continuing trend for Facebook’s social responsibility, we just hope it isn’t too little too late.

   
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  Geebo 9:58 am on December 18, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Chrome ( 2 ), craigslist ( 129 ), Edge, Google ( 30 ), Netflix ( 15 ), phishing ( 75 ), Scams ( 1,362 ), shipping ( 5 ), used car ( 33 )   

  Netflix phishing scam returns, Google becomes Microsoft, and watch out for phony shipping companies 

  

  Today we bring you a few consumer protection stories that we think you should be aware of.

  First up is the return of the Netflix phishing scam. This is not a new scam but it seems to be making the rounds again. Reports from all over the country are stating that people are receiving emails that appear to be from Netflix asking customers to update their payment information. If you receive one of these emails do not click any of the links contained in the email. Doing this will take you to either a malware infested site or will try to obtain your credit or debit card information. Anytime some service requests any kind of information change, go directly to the site in your web browser instead of clicking any links.

  A former Microsoft intern is claiming that today’s Google is acting more like yesterday’s Microsoft. The intern used to work on Microsoft’s Edge Browser and claims that Google purposely tries to slow down other browsers than Chrome on some of their services such as YouTube. This is reminiscent of the browser wars of the early internet when Microsoft’s Internet Explorer gained the majority of the browser market by being included by default in Windows. The only difference this time is that Microsoft blinked and they are changing Edge to be a Chromium-based browser. Chromium is the engine that powers the Chrome browser and many of its offshoots like Opera and Vivaldi.

  Lastly, the state of South Dakota is warning consumers to be wary of phony shipping companies that are claiming they reside in the state. The state’s Attorney General is saying that people are being tricked into sending money to phony shipping companies when buying cars off of craigslist. If you’re going to buy a car online we hope that you would purchase the vehicle through Geebo.com, however, we always recommend shopping local when looking for a vehicle and using a safe place to conduct the transaction. However, if you do need to deal with a shipping company for whatever reason, a quick Google Maps search using the company’s supposed address should be able to tell you if the company actually exists or not.

   
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  Geebo 10:12 am on December 17, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: data breach ( 32 ), Facebook ( 178 ), privacy ( 46 ), security ( 46 )   

  Here we go again: Facebook bug exposes millions of accounts 

  

  In what is starting to become an almost weekly event, Facebook announced this past Friday that yet another bug exposed close to 7 million accounts to third-party app developers. The bug was first discovered in September and was active for a few weeks before being corrected. The bug is said to have exposed pictures that users had posted to Facebook but did not give permission for the pictures to be seen by third-parties.

  In the grand scheme of things, this bug is not that big of a security risk as other Facebook data leaks have been in the past year. The pictures that were exposed were only those that were started to be uploaded but for some reason were never posted to the user’s timeline. Or they were photos that were posted to Facebook Marketplace. However, it further shows Facebook’s long-standing disregard not just for user privacy but for Facebook’s own security.

  This was a bug that was discovered back in September after being active for weeks. Why did it take Facebook upwards of three months before informing the public? According to the New York Times, Facebook didn’t notify government officials about the bug until November because they needed to “create a notification page” first. Again, this shows that Facebook is really more concerned about covering their own tails from regulators rather than protecting user privacy.