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  • Geebo 12:07 pm on March 13, 2017 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , sxsw,   

    Did Austin miss Uber and Lyft during SXSW? 

    Did Austin miss Uber and Lyft during SXSW?

    This past weekend the infamous tech and entertainment festival known as South by Southwest (SXSW) took place in the Southwest’s capital of cool, Austin, Texas. During the festival on Saturday night, the skies opened up, and rain descended upon ATX. Many of the revelers wanted to get a ride back to their hotels, but their requests for ride shares went unheeded.

    In a lot of hip cities like Austin, you can get a ride from ride sharing apps Uber or Lyft. Last May, both of those services left Austin due to new regulations the city imposed on ride sharing services. The city wanted Uber and Lyft to do fingerprint background checks on their drivers much to the protests of the two leading ride sharing companies. Rather than fingerprint their drivers, Uber and Lyft preferred to leave town leaving Austin with no ride sharing services.

    Much like nature, commerce abhors a vacuum, and it didn’t take long for new services to take the place of Uber and Lyft that were willing to play ball with the city. Those services are Ride Austin and Fasten. The problem with these new services is they didn’t seem to have the capabilities of scale that their predecessors had when the rains started to fall.

    Due to the massive traffic to the respective apps, the apps crashed hard and left both riders and drivers stranded. Both companies were said to have server issues and claim that the issues were resolved by Sunday.

    Both tourists and locals lamented the absence of both Lyft and Uber, but will that situation ever be resolved? Is the city being too protective of the city’s taxi services, or are Uber and Lyft being unreasonable by not fingerprinting their drivers?

     

  • Geebo 10:56 am on March 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,   

    Uber to stop using Greyball, sort of 

    Uber to stop using Greyball, sort of

    After it was revealed that ride sharing app Uber was using a program called Greyball, to fluster anti-Uber investigators, Uber now claims that they will stop using Greyball, to an extent.

    Uber says that they will stop using Greyball to deceive authorities but will keep the program in effect to test new features, use in marketing promotions, prevent fraud, and to protect their drivers.

    Can Uber actually be trusted to keep their word though? Uber has been embroiled in scandal after scandal after scandal, from something innocuous as defying a taxi protest in New York to unsettling claims of sexual harassment among executives. Uber has not really made a good faith gesture toward its users or employees to try to garner any positive PR. Uber has not appeared to acted genuine in any way, shape or form, since these controversies have started and have even admitted that their drivers are working in areas where they’ve been banned by law. Yet there has yet to be any major consumer backlash against this company that appears to be engaging in bad business practices.

    What will it take for Uber to either ingratiate themselves back in the good graces of the tech world or for them to fall from atop their industry dominance?

     

  • Geebo 10:58 am on March 9, 2017 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: filters, International Women's Day,   

    Snapchat sparks controversy with International Women’s Day filters 

    Snapchat sparks controversy with International Women's Day filters

    After its successful IPO, photo sharing app Snapchat finds itself in the news again, but not for the same reasons. Since yesterday was International Women’s Day, Snapchat decided to release new filters in honor of the day. With the filters you could make yourself look like either scientist Marie Curie, artist Frida Kahlo, or civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

    A controversy started when some things were noticed about two of the filters. With the Marie Curie filter, not only did it thin out your face but it also gave you full eye make up for some reason. Many considered this to be wildly historically inaccurate. With the Frida Kahlo filter, it seemed to lighten the skin tone while trying to make the user look like the Mexican artist. A number of Snapchat users took to social media to decry this as an instance of ‘whitewashing’.

    Surprisingly, the filter that didn’t cause too much of a kerfuffle was the Rosa Parks filter. With the Rosa Parks filter, it didn’t change the skin tone of the user even though Ms. Parks was African-American. This could be that Snapchat learned from a previous controversy when they released a filter for reggae artist Bob Marley’s birthday which many users said was nothing more than applying ‘blackface’ to the user.

    Even with Snapchat’s faux pas there is something good that can be taken from their attempt to highlight these historical women with their whimsical filters. Snapchats userbase tends to skew young and some of these young people may not have yet learned about these three iconic women from history, and these filters may have sparked an interest into researching them. And nothing is wrong with a little bit more knowledge.

     

  • Geebo 11:47 am on March 8, 2017 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Vault 7, wikileaks   

    Wikileaks shares massive CIA hacking tricks. Does it affect you? 

    WIkileaks shares massive CIA hacking tricks. Does it affect you?

    Yesterday, whistle blowing website Wikileaks released a treasure trove of supposedly leaked information from the CIA dubbed Vault 7. Within the information are alleged plans the CIA uses to hack into virtually any internet connected device and use it as a monitoring device. Purportedly, the CIA can use malware to circumvent any operating system from Windows to MacOS to Linux and mobile OSes Android and iOS. iOs seems to be a favorite target of the CIA due to the number of high-ranking and powerful people who use iPhones.

    The good news is, if any good news can be taken from this, is that the CIA’s actions do not appear to be targeting every device held by everyday citizens. Instead, the CIA appears to be using their malware to target specific individuals rather than entire swaths of the population. So the average American citizen probably has nothing to worry about. However, with this supposed CIA code now in the open it potentially could be used by black hat hackers to compromise just about any device they may see fit.

    That’s not to say that there isn’t any protection against this malware. Usual defense tactics can go a long way in keeping you protected such as keeping your devices operating system up to date and patched, and not clicking on unknown attachments or downloading shady programs and apps.

     

  • Geebo 10:57 am on March 7, 2017 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Marines United,   

    Marine scandal highlights Facebook’s hypocrisy about moderating objectionable content 

    Marine scandal highlights Facebook's hypocrisy about moderating objectionable content

    Facebook has been criticized in the past when it has removed pictures of mother’s breast feeding or breast cancer survivors showing their mastectomy scars as objectionable content. Yet Facebook let a closed Facebook group where Marines and Marine veterans traded explicit pictures of female Marines taken without their consent remain active for months.

    The group called ‘Marines United’ not only posted these pictures on Facebook, but they often included personal information of the women portrayed in these pictures. The group was first exposed by a website called War Horse which is a nonprofit news organization run by a Marine veteran. War Horse requested that the images be removed but the group wasn’t shut down until Facebook received a request from the Marine Corps itself and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Both the Corps and the NCIS are conducting investigations into the matter.

    To further show Facebook’s lack of consistency in these matters the BBC conducted their own investigation into Facebook when it was claimed in England that there were private pedophile groups on Facebook sharing questionable material. In their investigation the BBC posted several questionable but not illegal images to Facebook. According to the BBC the photos were in direct violation of Facebook’s terms of service in regards to the posting pictures of children, however, the pictures were not removed. When the BBC sent the pictures to Facebook’s office in the UK rather than discussing the matter with the BBC, Facebook reported the BBC to the UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).

    How can Facebook not only portray itself as family friendly, let alone advertiser friendly, when it continues to host objectionable, and possibly dangerous, content like this. Just because Facebook may consider itself the only game in town doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be held to certain standards of decency let alone its own terms of service barring such material.

     

  • Geebo 11:32 am on March 6, 2017 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,   

    Uber embroiled in another scandal for allegedly using cop blocking app 

    Uber embroiled in another scandal for allegedly using cop blocking app

    Rode sharing app Uber has found itself in the headlines again, and once again it’s not for any good reason. Previously, Uber has been in the news for picking up fares at New York City airports during protests against President Trump’s proposed immigration ban. Then they found themselves dealing with allegations of a culture that allegedly promoted sexual harassment among corporate executives. This isn’t even mentioning Uber’s CEO getting into a shouting match with one of Uber’s drivers over working conditions. Now, Uber is being accused of using a program called Greyball that they would use to track investigators who were looking into Uber’s business practices.

    Greyball is said to not only help identify potential investigators and those acting on behalf of these investigators but would also put fake cars called ‘ghost cars’ on their app in order to fool investigators on where local Uber cars are.

    Instead of issuing a mea culpa, Uber is actually defending the use of Greyball by claiming that they’re protecting their drivers from physical harm and protecting Uber itself from its competitors. They even admit that they’re trying to disrupt users who are in collusion with investigators.

    When a company is admittedly active trying to obfuscate its business practices from investigators, it tends to mean that there’s something behind investigator’s allegations. Backpage is a perfect example of this kind of behavior. The question is will Uber’s userbase delete the app over questionable acts, or will they continue to use Uber over a matter of simple convenience?

     

  • Geebo 10:49 am on March 3, 2017 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,   

    Snapchat IPO sees successful first day 

    Snapchat IPO sees successful first day

    Yesterday, Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. had their IPO with the stock finishing at a 44% price increase by the end of trading. This should come as no surprise as the photo sharing app has been a massive success with the much coveted 18 to 34 market.

    Snapchat started out as somewhat of an Instagram clone except with a twist. It first started out as the app where the pictures disappear after a short time. Even though there have been ways to save pictures that were not intended to be saved Snapchat became even more popular with the release of its quirky filters that allow you to do fun manipulations to your photos such as face swapping.

    Then came the limited of release of Snapchat’s video recording glasses known as Snapchat Spectacles. Their viral marketing and pop up vending machines saw the glasses sell out at every location they surprised users at.

    Snapchat’s biggest feature seems to be that it’s the social platform that your parents aren’t on. Basically, they’re the anti-Facebook as it’s specifically designed to appeal to the millennial crowd. That niche focus has made Snapchat a wild success and their IPO’s achievement reflects that.

     

  • Geebo 11:31 am on March 2, 2017 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , ,   

    Yahoo CEO takes massive financial hit over breaches 

    Yahoo CEO takes massive financial hit over breaches

    Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been penalized financially for the massive security breaches that have taken place on her watch. You can read bout some of those breaches from our blog’s archive. In an SEC filing Yahoo said that Mayer did not receive her annual bonus for 2016 because certain senior executives failed to act properly when the breaches were discovered. Mayer’s bonus is said to be around the $2 million mark. Mayer also said that she would forgo any bonus for 2017 as well.

    Mayer has asked that her bonus be distributed to Yahoo employees saying that they were the ones who contributed to Yahoo’s success in 2016. All of this comes in the wake of Verizon’s proposed purchase of Yahoo. Due to the breaches Yahoo’s price has been discounted by $350 million. If Mayer were to be fired by the Yahoo board she would receive a golden parachute of $44 million.

    Yahoo general counsel Ronald Bell did not make out as well as Mayer. He resigned in wake of the breaches and received no financial payout from the struggling company.

     

  • Geebo 10:59 am on March 1, 2017 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , YouTube TV   

    YouTube offers new TV service. What’s the catch? 

    YouTube offers new TV service. What's the catch?

    YouTube recently announced that they would be getting into the broadcast TV game by revealing their new service called YouTube TV. Launching later this month, YouTube TV will be offering live streaming of the four major broadcast networks along with some other cable channels for $35 a month. A major component that separates YouTube TV from its competitors is that it will be offering unlimited cloud DVR storage to record your favorite shows. That’s not to say that YouTube TV doesn’t have some drawbacks.

    Among some of these drawbacks is the fact that it’s missing most of the popular cable networks. Channels like AMC and Comedy Central will not be available through YouTube TV. Another drawback is that YouTube TV will not be available on all devices at first. At launch the service will be available on mobile devices and Google’s Chromecast, but if you use a device like a Roku or Apple TV you’ll be waiting a while to get the service.

    The price also seems a little steep for cord cutters. While $35 is much cheaper than most cable plans it’s a lot more money than successful streaming services like Netflix and Hulu that most cord cutters already use.

    Lastly, it all comes down to your personal use. If you can live with the small amount of channels being offered by YouTube TV then it might be for you, plus it has the backbone of Google behind it since they own YouTube. That could provide a more reliable stream than most other streaming services.

     

  • Geebo 11:31 am on February 28, 2017 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: cloudpets, , ,   

    Cloud connected child’s toy leads to personal data breach 

    Cloud connected child's toy leads to personal data breach

    As seen on TV toy CloudPets is actually a pretty clever concept. By using a smart phone app a traveling parent or a relative that lives far away can leave a voice message to a child on one of the stuffed animals.

    Except there’s that one inherent problem that affects any device connected to the cloud, there’s a chance that personal data stored there could be compromised. CloudPets seems to be having that problem currently as reports say that an insecure database led to third-parties accessing the personal information of many of their users. This information includes names and dates of birth. This is made doubly disturbing considering that a lot of this information belongs to children, not to mention that their voice messages could possibly have been stolen as well. Some reports even state that it’s possible to send unauthorized messages to the devices if someone so desired.

    As with any device that’s connected to the cloud you have to assume a certain amount of risk that the data could be stolen, but when it comes to your children you should double that amount and take proper steps to try and keep that information secure such as using strong passcodes. Or you may want to consider not sharing your child’s personal information at all with a company that advertises on basic cable commercials.

     

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