Tag: Privacy

Ummm…Thanks, Twitter…I think…

Ummm…Thanks, Twitter…I think…

So this morning I went to check Twitter to verify something I read on FB, and I found this:

An update to your data-sharing settings The control you have over what information Twitter shares with its business partners has changed. Specifically, your ability to control mobile app advertising measurements has been removed, but you can control whether to share some non-public data to improve Twitter’s marketing activities on other sites and apps. These changes, which help Twitter to continue operating as a free service, are reflected now in your settings. Learn more.
Screencap from Twitter, Friday, April 23, 2020.
Continue reading “Ummm…Thanks, Twitter…I think…”

Connecting the Dots, Part 8…

Connecting the Dots, Part 8…

When you were a kid, did you ever read Dr. Seuss’ book The Sneetches and Other Stories? You know the one I’m talking about. Continue reading “Connecting the Dots, Part 8…”

Locking Down Facebook…

Locking Down Facebook…

The following four articles led to this note. Please read them in order (but watch out for the AUTO LAUNCH VIDEO in the first link):

1. CBS News: Facebook knew of illicit user profile harvesting for 2 years, never acted

2. Reuters: Republican lawmakers concerned by Facebook data leak

3. The Guardian: How to protect your Facebook privacy – or delete yourself completely: If you found the Cambridge Analytica data breach revelations deeply unsettling, read our guide to the maze of your privacy settings

4. BBC News: Is leaving Facebook the only way to protect your data?

Upshot: Panic in the streets. Momentary threats to leave Facebook. And in a week, when something new distracts us, another privacy violation or some other horrible thing that happens in government or in your local community pushes the panic out of the way and we resume our daily lives. Continue reading “Locking Down Facebook…”

Slippery slope…

Slippery slope…

“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”
Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Clearly I’ve struck some nerves recently and folks are beginning to ask for my opinion. That makes me feel less like I’m shouting into the wilderness. Which is good, except that this might be a very short term opportunity to get the point across if the government gets its way with Net Neutrality…But I digress.

Now don’t get me wrong. I think government is great for a lot of things, most notably caring for its citizens and ensuring that we’re treated fairly and safely. Except, well, when we’re not, because we’re not something we should be.

See, here’s the thing: This inconvenient clause in the Constitution that protects us from self-incrimination, the Fifth Amendment (part of the Bill of Rights) is supposed to keep us safe from harm. Combined with the Fourteenth Amendment, which covers equal protection under the law, and we ought to have ways to ensure that we are covered in case another citizen within the reach of government decides we’ve done something wrong.

Some of us have come to expect the safety of due process, and the value of privacy. Unfortunately, others view these same things as hindrances to Truth, Justice and The American Way TM.

We are seeing the argument play out right now, in the public eye, as the FBI exerts pressure on Apple to crack its iPhone privacy code, so that the former can investigate the contents of the iPhone discarded by the San Bernardino shooter whose name remains undisclosed here.

Well, okay, so maybe they have a point. After all, it’s possible the contents of that phone could hold valuable data. Certainly it was used for a variety of things, which the FBI wants to see. Even Bill Gates has some concerns about the issue, though considering the sheer weight of snoop involved in Win10, I’m surprised he was willing to weigh in at all.

The question is, where does it stop?

The FBI says it’s focused on finding and following any leads it can.

“Maybe the phone holds the clue to finding more terrorists. Maybe it doesn’t,” FBI Director James Comey said in a statement released Sunday night.

89.3 KPCC: What the FBI might be looking for on San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone

See, if it was just this one phone, and just this one time, it might be okay, just this once. But, and I can’t say this clearly enough, it’s NOT this one phone, this one time.

No. In fact, as far as we know right now, there are over a dozen phones IN ADDITION TO this one phone, that they’d love to check if they can only figure out how to crack Apple’s security.

And that, friends, is what has me worried.

Have you read the USA PATRIOT Act? The capitalization is not an accident. It’s an acronym that stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.

According to the Department of Justice’s archive, the Act was passed with bipartisan support by both the Senate (98-1), and the House (357-66). This legislation has damaged the right to privacy guaranteed by the above-listed amendments to the Constitution, and the Act’s provisions used repeatedly in controversial ways I’m certain the Founding Fathers would have rejected out of hand.

(Don’t like Wikipedia? Great. Follow the footnotes and go read WHY these items exist in the entries the way they do.)

Fast forward to December 3, 2015 and the guy who finally had enough of the racist remarks that he and his wife decided to make their Bonnie and Clyde-style exit, 2A-protected guns a-blazing, and now all of a sudden we see that we need yet another way to infringe on our rights to privacy because his phone might lead to other Lone Wolf shooters.

Not, you know, like this one, or this one, or even this one. Nope.

Tell me, because I’m really curious, just what unlocking one–or even a dozen–iPhones will do to protect your safety or mine? How much do YOU use YOUR cellphone every day, for all sorts of things, like figuring out how to get from Home to Work, or to the school, or the doctor’s office, or any of hundreds of different locations? How often do you search for things on your phone that might be questioned?

Imagine: I write these articles after I search for material. Sometimes Duck Duck Go won’t produce the results I want, and I don’t always (mostly never) remember to use Google’s Incognito function.

Am I a terrorist? Hardly. I don’t even own a gun, though I do know how to shoot and when I was younger I was fairly good at it.

Idealist? Yeah, but more pragmatic, really. Cynical, even, which is why I view this latest push the same way I view those innocuous cameras that watch us EVERYWHERE, on the road, at the ATM, at Walmart, buying dinner at McDonald’s. And why every time I pull out my ATM card, I worry that the next time I could make a mistake and discover that I can’t buy a thing because I no longer have access to my money.

It’s not that I’m fearing for my own life, really. I make a relatively small noise in a really REALLY HUGE pond, so I’m not that concerned I’m suddenly going to attract the sort of scrutiny that makes one fear jail time. Not at the moment, at any rate. But with the USA PATRIOT Act still in place, all this time, and knowing what we do know about the effects of extremism at home and abroad, it does make one wonder just what the authorities would do if they could peek into the dark corners. It certainly makes me think that curtains on the windows aren’t just for blocking sunlight.

If you think these issues of privacy are overblown, I invite you to (re)read George Orwell’s book 1984 and see if you still hold that opinion afterward. You could simply read this letter written by Orwell to Noel Willmett in May, 1944, three years prior to writing the book.

How did Orwell know?

If this is the primary focus for the coming year, we’re doomed…

If this is the primary focus for the coming year, we’re doomed…

I’m watching the Democratic Debate tonight on ABC. It’s not just me, I hope. Who’s wondering why the focus is so sharp on Daesh. No matter what the candidates have to say, they’re dragged back to talking about Assad and war.

Does this sound familiar to you? No??

Really.

I wonder why that is.

Isn’t it interesting that as much as Bernie Sanders wants to talk about income inequality, about endemic racism, about gun control, about infrastructure, about the things we MUST concentrate on to survive, we have to spend HALF of the debate on foreign policy, most notably endless war in the middle east. They’re FINALLY addressing the domestic issues in the second hour.

Maybe it’s just me, but I find this format immensely frustrating.

I see too many parallels in the extreme focus on threats that we created by our own actions, without accepting any sort of responsibility or admitting our role, that’s just crazy.

I want to know what we’re going to do here. I want to know why we haven’t been talking about these things that matter to us every day, like the cost of groceries.

Domestic policy should have been the first thing out of the gate. We need to focus our attention here, balancing education, infrastructure, making things better for everyone, not just the rich. And we need to ditch endemic racism, enforce equality, make sure that freedom isn’t compromised out of a misguided sense of fear and paranoia.

I want to hear that they’re going to ditch the Patriot Act and Citizens United, and close the tax loopholes and pipeline that ships our money out of the country.

As long as we keep the spotlight on war, as long as we continue to fight the war without dealing with the home issues, as long as we keep producing wounded warriors instead of jobs, this isn’t going to change.

No matter how loudly the media focuses on the issues off-continent, we need to look within. We can’t break the cycle if we don’t stop these wolves from forcing the focus elsewhere.

If we can’t fix our own home, the terrorists win.

Annoyed by FB Game/App Invites? Block them!

Annoyed by FB Game/App Invites? Block them!

So, yo. Handy FB tip for reducing irritation (yours and mine). Got folks who use Apps? See invites from said folks? Still like them but don’t like the invites? Do something about it, because those apps are designed to share themselves around, kind of like herpes, and the sharing isn’t necessarily something they can control.

In the top blue bar, look for the padlock and three bars (to the right of the globe). Click that icon, then click the link at the bottom that says [See More Settings].

On the left you’ll see a link called [Blocking] (red circle, white bar). Click that link and then scroll down to the third section (App Invites). Type in the name of the offender(s).

Et voila, no more app invites from said person(s).

I’m up to an even dozen. I can still see their other posts, when they bother to do something other than play games.

And note: I don’t play games because they’re generally designed to pry into your friends list and do precisely this: Grab your data and keep it for their nefarious use. Not just time wasters, these “social” apps are privacy busters.

Just say no.

Comments:

Me: GG – here’s the good one to share. 8)

DK: If you have a friend who’s always finding new apps to use, you can block app invites from that person. On that same “Blocking” page, look for “Block app invites”. Place your friend’s name in the “Block invites from” box. Now you’ll see all their status updates, and any Event invitations, but not when the use a new game.

EJ: While intended for something else, I found Adblock Plus to be a wonderful way to reduce faicebukk irritation:
https://adblockplus.org/

LS: Yep. Adblock Plus is the way to go. And it works on way more than just FB.

EJ: I guess I should mention that I installed ABP not so much because of the amount of junk posts, but because FB did this nasty thing of “pegging” my CPU usage near 100%. It was constantly “doing stuff” that kept my CPU busy, which slowed down “other stuff”, and made my CPU run hotter than normal. This was/is a “known problem” with FB, but FB doesn’t seem to have any interest in dealing with the problem, or perhaps, admitting that it’s a problem in the first place.

LS: It has no incentive to fix anything that doesn’t drive away users. And let’s face it, the average FB user is willing to put up with a sharp stick in the eye every few weeks when the interface changes to make it more useful and friendly to advertisers.

DK: Social Fixer is another great add-on for FB. It will stop FB from continuing in infinite loops.

Me: AbP will also not fix the problem I’m addressing specifically with this note. App invites aren’t ads. They’re specific actions connected to and generated by the apps themselves.

While it’s good stuff, along with Social Fixer, it might be more appropriate for a separate post. Thanks!

Facebook’s Latest and Greatest? Oh I don’t know about that…

Facebook’s Latest and Greatest? Oh I don’t know about that…

Wow, Facebook. Just snuck that right in there, while nobody was paying attention, huh?

Hello, Facebook Friend.

Guess what?

All that time you might have taken to indicate that you don’t want to see comments or likes, all the extra effort you took so that you could stop seeing photos, all that extra time it took you to figure out whether the post was something you wanted to see or not?

Gone.

Mouse over my name and you’ll see two options:

Following (with a check mark) or Follow (with a broadcast signal) and Friends (assuming your one of mine) or Add Friend (if you’re not – yet).

They’ve reduced the feed options to a binary set. Either you’re following someone or you’re not.

And you either “Get notifications” or you don’t.

There are still customized lists (for now) that allow you to filter people to various compartments of your life, including Acquaintances (folks you barely know or strangers) and Restricted, but most of the rest of the filters?

Gone.

I wonder if this is why they wanted Matt’s hands off their code when it came to Friend Tracking for Social Fixer.

I dunno about this, FB. If I suddenly see a bunch more ads, I might have to bite the bullet and pull out of here, for reals.

Connecting the Dots, Part 2

Connecting the Dots, Part 2

United States of ALEC from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

On October 11, 2012, I wrote the following post: Do you know ALEC? If not, you should. And you should be afraid. Continue reading “Connecting the Dots, Part 2”

Formal statements mean a lot more with names attached…

Formal statements mean a lot more with names attached…

In discussing several topics over the last couple of weeks, having to do with gun control, NDAA and privacy, it occurred to me today that I’ve finally got something worth doing on the White House petition site.

I’ve said repeatedly over the years since President Bush signed the USA Patriot Act into law that it was badly done, giving rise to all sorts of invasive policies and activities in the name of National Security. So today I put my money where my mouth is.

Repeal the USA Patriot Act [a dead Petition thanks to Trump] in its entirety.

Why?

DownsizeDC.org explains: 4 Reasons to Repeal the Patriot Act

For extra bonus points, reread the Bill of Rights, so you have a clear understanding of why I included the Amendments I did. These aren’t just a good idea. They’re the law. There are any number of ways in which the USA Patriot Act is unconstitutional. Do your part and spread the word. You tell two friends and they’ll tell two friends, and so on, and so on…

We need 150 signatures before the Petition will appear to the public, and that’s not as easy as it once was, with Facebook’s broken user interface.

And please share. The more people you tell about the petition, the faster the rest of the public will see it.

 

Meanwhile, I’m heading back to school at the end of this month, taking two classes: Two-Dimensional Design and Western Civilization to Modern Times. Seems to be the perfect time to make my research skills pay off.

Expect more from me on these subject as time goes on.

Annoying Facebook Ads? Keep yourself off your friends’ pages!

Annoying Facebook Ads? Keep yourself off your friends’ pages!

Hey! So all those Facebook ads that are suddenly popping into your feed because someone “liked” something from a commercial site? You don’t like being linked that way? Don’t want to annoy your friends the same way?

Fix it!

If you look at the top of your Facebook page, on the right in the blue bar, you’ll see your icon and name, “Home” and a downward triangle.

Click the triangle once to open up your settings. Look at the bottom of the left column and you’ll see a text link for “privacy settings.” Click that link and it will open up a page with lots of useful settings here.

Find “Ads, Apps and Websites” to keep sponsored ads from showing up with your name on other FB user pages. Click Edit Settings again.

You can adjust all sorts of things here, especially if you use Apps frequently, but the sponsored ad stuff is below. See Ads, and click Edit Settings again.

Now you have two major ad types and you have to set each one individually. “Ads shown by third parties” and “Ads and friends” each have their own settings. Click through each section’s Edit Settings. (Or, try using these links, which might work for your login (or not):

https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads

https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads&section=platform

https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads&section=social

The default is set to “Only My Friends” but you can change it to show “No One” your information. You have to choose the option in both places and save your settings.

FB advertised this change months and months ago, but finally got around to implementing the sponsor code about a month or so ago and it’s rolling out slowly. I just started seeing the ads on my page.

If you want me to tell you I’m seeing your name associated with restaurants and such, let me know. Happy to oblige.

Comments:

Me: Now in convenient shareable format.

LS: I don’t think this actually works. I’ve had both of those settings set to “No One” for a long time, and I still see both types of ads regularly in my feed. Until this changes, I consider it nothing but a digital pacifier.

Me: No. Your settings affect what you display on other people’s pages. FB defaults to displaying your likes for your friends unless you take the time to say otherwise. Your friends need to do the same. As you can see from the directions, these settings are very well hidden. The average user has no idea how to change these settings – something FB counts on for selling the ads in the first place.

Like I said, feel free to share.

LS: Ah, I misread. And yes, they are very well hidden, a true marvel of deliberately obfuscated GUI design. I must grudgingly admire the evil genius behind it.

Me: Remarkable how sneaky this is, huh?

LS: Almost as hard to find as the place where you can block specific apps.

“But look, you found the notice didn’t you?”

“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard’.”

Me: HHGTTG reference FTW!

JZS: Thanks for typing this up. I had already set my preferences thusly but it pays to check that they haven’t somehow changed mysteriously.

Theme: Elation by Kaira.
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