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  Geebo 10:58 am on February 20, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Facebook ( 182 ), politics ( 16 )   

  Is a politics free Facebook worth it? 

  

  Ever since the start of 2016 presidential campaign, which feels like it started in 1988, it seems like Facebook has been a never-ending series of political memes and rants. Maybe you long for the days for when Facebook was nothing but pictures of cats, what people had for dinner, and baby pictures? Well, today is your lucky day.

  Fox News recently posted an article that shows you several different options on how you can sanitize your Facebook feed from politics.

  From following, but not unfriending, friends, to browser extensions, you have several different options to turn your Facebook back to the days before alternative facts and deleted emails. The question is though, should you?

  If you eliminate all the politics from your Facebook you could be just enforcing your own confirmation bias. While you may find political opinions different from your own distasteful, to turn off those opinions outright is akin to sticking your head in the proverbial sand. No matter how right or wrong some of the Facebook political rants are they do expose you to the lives of others whose experiences are different from your own. So maybe in the midst of those rants you can find a kernel of thought-provoking information.

   

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  Geebo 11:00 am on February 17, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: charging, smart phones ( 14 ), usb   

  Be wary of public charging stations 

  

  A lot of us have been there. In the midst of traveling we find ourselves with almost no charge on our phones but we’re nowhere near our destination. Maybe you have a layover or your waiting for a connecting train and you find a public USB charger. You plug your phone in, charge up, then you’re on way without a second thought about it. Well, according to security experts you may want to take that second thought.

  Since most USB cables were not only designed to transfer power but data as well there is a chance that the USB port you just plugged into in public may have just hijacked your phone. This kind of attack can range from stealing your information to seeing everything that you view on your phone.

  That’s not to say there aren’t defenses against these kind of attacks. For example many airports and train stations have battery packs you can rent to charge your phone. You can also buy a USB cable that only transfers power. However, most experts suggest buying a spare battery or battery pack for your phone in advance in order to not run out of juice in the first place.

  Or we could just not be on our devices for every minute of our travels. You’ll never know what you’re missing if we’re all nose down in our screens.
   
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  Geebo 10:57 am on February 16, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: hacking ( 32 ), security ( 46 ), Verizon ( 11 ), yahoo ( 13 )   

  Yahoo reveals that hack was worse than previously thought 

  

  It seems that getting any kind of vital information out of tech dinosaur Yahoo is like pulling teeth, from a rabid badger. It was made public recently that Yahoo’s infamous hack that compromised 500 million accounts was worse than just stolen passwords. Now Yahoo is revealing that some of the accounts were compromised using a forged cookie.

  A cookie is a piece of code that allows your browser to remember such information as your username for certain sites and in some cases your password. This means that someone with a forged cookie doesn’t even need your password to access your account. Yahoo claims that the hack was carried out by a state actor which means a government sponsored attack.

  This comes at a time where Verizon is still trying to negotiate a price to purchase Yahoo. Verizon just recently requested a $300 million price cut on the pending acquisition. Then again, if it wasn’t for this acquisition we may have never heard about these hacks at all.

  If anyone is still using any Yahoo services that deal with any kind of personal information you may want to think of deleting your account. While any online service can fall victim to a large-scale hack of this nature, Yahoo seems to be inordinately porous when it comes to user security.
   
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  Geebo 10:59 am on February 15, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: autoplay, Facebook ( 182 ), videos ( 2 )   

  Facebook becomes more annoying with the sound on for autoplay videos 

  

  Autoplay videos are bad enough when you go to a website and the video starts up blasting at full volume. Now imagine going to a site that has a stream of videos, one after the other, that play the sound of the video as you scroll down the page. That’s what Facebook is about to become.

  Facebook will soon be making all autoplay videos automatically play with sound. Facebook claims that this is a feature that many users wanted and has received positive feedback on the proposed feature. Once that feature becomes permanent one could see that feedback becoming negative very quick. While most think that this is a harmless feature, many could see it being abused especially by advertisers disguised as user made videos.

  Thankfully, the videos can’t override your volume settings on your device. If your device is muted the sound won’t play so you don’t have to worry about everyone in your office knowing that you’re watching a screaming goat video. Also, you can turn off the sound on Facebook in your device settings.

   
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  Geebo 10:59 am on February 14, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: electricity, heating, phone scam ( 51 )   

  Be careful of heating and power scams this winter 

  

  With the amount of winter storms that have hit the country this winter, reports are coming in stating that there have been an uptick in scams involving heating and electricity. According to Marketwatch, the scam works in one of two ways.

  The first is that the scammers cold call their victims offering a discount on their heating or electricity bill by way of some sort of bogus federal program. Once they receive your personal information the scam artists will steal your identity for various other illegal purposes. The second way is that the scammers will call you stating that you have an outstanding and overdue balance with one of your utility companies. They’ll then ask you to make payment either through wiring the money or a prepaid debit card, both of which are untraceable one the money has been taken.

  These are old-school style scams that resemble the modern phishing scams, but instead of using emails or social media it uses the age-old phone call. Much like the phishing scams don’t ever trust any kind of unsolicited phone call. Scammers like this ignore the Do Not Call registry since they’re not legitimate companies. If someone claims to be from your utility company hang up and call the number that appears on your bill, and ask them if there is an issue with your account.

   
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  Geebo 10:59 am on February 13, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: court fines, Detroit ( 4 ), IRS ( 31 ), phishing ( 92 ), Scams ( 1,656 )   

  Don’t pay your fines through Facebook 

  

  Recently in Detroit, a new twist on an old scam has reared its ugly head. People posing as city employees are sending messages to people on Facebook telling victims that they owe court costs to the city. Instead of mailing a check to city hall the victims are informed to wire the money in order to receive a discount on their alleged fine. As is usual with the wire scam, when you wire money to someone you don’t know they make off with your money and you have little to no recourse to get your money back, and you’ll still owe your fine if you own one. Unless it’s too a friend or relative that has approached you personally, never wire money for any kind of transaction. It’s too easy to be ripped off.

  This is reminiscent of the IRS scam where people posing as the IRS will call you demanding payment over the phone claiming that you owe back taxes. The IRS has repeatedly told the public that they do not contact taxpayers by phone.

  So please keep in mind that municipal or government agencies will not contact you through social media since social media accounts could actually belong to anybody and not necessarily the person they would try to reach. If you receive any kind of correspondence from a government agency that you believe may be a scam, look up the number for that agency and give them a call.

   
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  Geebo 10:37 am on February 10, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Amazon ( 114 ), Google ( 33 ), identity theft ( 132 ), scam ( 22 ), tech support scam ( 56 )   

  Google ad for Amazon was actually link to scam site 

  

  Many tech news sites are reporting that there was a false ad for Amazon this past week when you searched for the retail giant on Google. The ad, that would come first in the search results, did not take you to Amazon, but instead took to you to a site that tried to perpetrate a tech support scam.

  If you went to the site on a Windows computer the site would emulate the infamous blue screen of death and advise you to call a tech support number. If you were in an Apple computer you’d receive a warning that your machine had been infected by ransomware and again be given a number to call. As long as you didn’t call the number your machine would be relatively ok.

  This scam has been around for about as long as the internet has. Fictitious sites would inundate you with pop ups telling you that your computer had been infected with some kind of malware and if you call an ‘official’ tech support number your computer will be fixed. When you call the number usually a ‘technician’ would gain access to your computer remotely with your permission and would use that opportunity to root around your computer for any information worth stealing.

  The problem with this particular scam is that it was perpetrated through Google, possibly the most perceived legitimate site on the internet. Google says that the problem has fixed but still leaves users concerned since this fake ad made it through their screening purpose. In the future users may want to not click on ads on Google’s search page and instead click on the listings instead, at least for now.
   
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  Geebo 10:59 am on February 9, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: back ups, locked out, smart phones ( 14 )   

  What to do when locked out of your phone 

  

  Do you have a PIN code or pattern passcode on your smart phone? That’s great. That means you practice good phone security. But what happens if your forget your pin or passcode? Can you get back into your phone? The short answer is no, the long answer is noooooooooooooooooo.

  That doesn’t mean that there isn’t hope. According to Popular Mechanics there are a few things you can do to retrieve some of your data. For example, if you use an SD card on your phone, some of your info may be saved on the card, or if you back up to the cloud regularly you’ll still be ok. However, the bottom line is that more than likely you’ll have to wipe your phone and start over.

  One thing you can’t do is call your carrier to unlock your phone. Due to privacy concerns the only person who has your pin or passcode is you. Your phone carrier does not have a magic button at their offices that they can push to magically unlock your phone, not even if you talk to a manager.

  The best practice to avoid data loss after being locked out of your phone is to make regular backups of your data because once you’re locked out you’ll have to restore your phone to factory settings.
   
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  Geebo 10:59 am on February 8, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: austin ( 4 ), cars ( 13 ), texas ( 23 ), vending machine   

  Would you buy a car from a vending machine? 

  

  Are you the kind of person who hates to shop for a car? Do you hate having to deal with salespeople who you know are trying to rip you off just to make a big commission? Do you wish you could just press the buttons of E and 5 and have the car of your choice of produced magically in front of you? Well now you can.

  AN online car dealership has opened what they call a car vending machine in Austin, Texas. The structure is a five-story tall glass structure that houses 30 cars. However the term vending machine is a bit of a misnomer. You still have to finance and make your actual selection through the dealership’s website, however when you go to pick up your vehicle they give a giant novelty coin to put in the machine to get your car.

  Thankfully, it’s not like an actual vending machine. Could you imagine having to lug $30,000 or more in quarters only to find out that you’re a few dollars short. Then you take out the crumpled bills in your pocket and try to straighten them out against the change machine only to have your selection of vehicle get stuck in the machine that has a sign that says ‘no refunds’? That would actually be worse than dealing with a sales person.

   
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  Geebo 10:53 am on February 7, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: consumers ( 5 ), contracts, text messaging ( 40 )   

  Are text messages a binding contract? 

  

  A story is making the rounds about a man out of Colorado who was selling some car parts online who may be sued by someone he promised the parts to over text messaging. Instead the seller was offered more money for the parts by someone with cash in hand. The buyer who lost out is now threatening to sue the seller. This has caused some in the media to ask legal experts if these text messages are a binding contract.

  One legal expert weighed in saying that an online deal is like any other…

  “…and even though it’s through informal texts, it’s still an enforceable contract. This is really not very different than how business gets done at much higher levels.”

  You also have to remember that lawyers constantly deal in extremes like this, however in real life it’s highly suspect that most judges would rule in favor of the buyer who lost out on the items. So in reality if you’re selling something online and exchanging texts with a potential buyer, you’re not going to have to get your own legal representation to approve each text message.