Gallows humor for the NSA privacy debate
It’s hard to believe sometimes, but I began writing my columns -- in print back then -- during the Reagan Administration. It was 1987 and the crisis du jour was called Iran-Contra, remember it? Colonel Oliver North got a radio career out of breaking federal law. The FBI director back then was William Sessions, generally called Judge Sessions because he had been a federal judge. I interviewed Sessions in 1990 about the possibility that American citizens might have their privacy rights violated by an upcoming electronic surveillance law. "What would keep an FBI agent from tapping his girlfriend’s telephone?" I asked, since it would shortly be possible to do so from the agent’s desk.
"It would never happen", Sessions said.
Tech giants' surveillance reform rally is disingenuous and self-serving
I'll be brief, because I'm seven days now with the flu and don't feel much like writing. But today's "open letter" for global government surveillance reform demands rebuke.
I'm all for curbing government snooping, but what about corporations collecting information? Tech Giant's -- AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter, and Yahoo -- reform rally is disingenuous and self-serving. These same companies collect mountains of personal information for profit. So, what? It's okay for them to snoop, but not governments?
Darik’s Boot and Nuke lets you securely wipe all your PC’s hard drives
When you sell or scrap a PC it’s important to consider your data security. The hard drive will almost certainly have contained confidential information at some point -- user names, passwords, financial details -- and even it seems empty now, it’s worth making sure that none of this can ever be recovered.
Darik’s Boot and Nuke is an open-source tool which offers one possible solution. Burn its ISO image to disc, use this to boot your PC, and it’ll securely wipe your hard drive with the minimum of hassle.
FTC charges Android flashlight developer with leaving users in the dark about data usage
The permissions screen that pops up during the installation of an Android app has become the new EULA. Very few people bother to read through what is on screen before clicking through and going ahead with the installation -- you could be signing your life away for all you know!
Apps will let you know if they make use of your location, have access to your contacts, could send messages on your behalf and numerous other things. But in the case of Brightest Flashlight Free it turned out that the app was not only sharing users' location and device ID information with third party advertisers, but it was doing so secretly.
TunnelBear offers an easier way to stay anonymous online
VPN software can be great for browsing anonymously, bypassing trackers, perhaps avoiding some web censorship. But it can also be awkward to set up, tricky to use, with all kinds of potential pitfalls and issues to consider.
TunnelBear is, fortunately, a little different. It’s a solid and reliable VPN service with all the functionality you need (and more, probably), but smart design means it also keeps any of the usual hassles to an absolute minimum.
F-Secure Key: a password manager for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac
Helsinki-based security company F-Secure has released Key, a password manager for iOS, Android, Windows and Mac.
The program has similar features to many competitors. You can enter your login details for multiple URLs; a secure password generator helps you generate new credentials, and your AES-encrypted database is protected by a single master password.
Symantec predicts we’ll start taking our privacy more seriously in 2014
About this time of year Symantec starts gazing into the company crystal ball and making predictions on what the future holds -- security wise -- for us all. The 2014 list is very short, just four items, but it’s an interesting selection nonetheless.
Given that 2013 put our lack of privacy front and center with stories of PRISM, NSA spying and numerous hacks, it’s no surprise that for the first prediction, Symantec thinks that people will finally begin taking active steps to keep their information private in 2014.
Q&A with secure communications service Perzo
The need for more secure communication services has certainly spiked in the wake of the NSA spying revelations, with providers placing a higher emphasis on keeping their users' personal and work information safe from unwanted access. After all, those users expect (and demand) them to do so. As a result, it is not out of the ordinary to see the word "secure" being used as one of the many buzzwords that describe such services nowadays. The question is whether the presentation matches the behind-the-scenes reality.
Among the slew of services that promise secure communications is Perzo, which launched as a beta in late-August 2013. Perzo was founded by David Gurle, who is best known for his former roles as head of the Windows Messenger development and general manager and vice president of Skype for Business in the early 2000s. The service piqued my attention, and I chatted with the man to find out what sort of features and security options Perzo can bring to the table as a newcomer in the "secure communications application" market.
LastPass gets a makeover, gains a cleaner, sleeker design
Online password manager LastPass has updated its range of browser-based extensions with the release of LastPass 3.0 for Windows, Mac and Linux. The manager, which supports all major web browsers, comes with a fresh new design and changes to the way users interact with web forms.
Also updated are the company’s premium-only mobile apps, LastPass 2.5.2 for Android, and LastPass for Windows 8, while LastPass 2.0.6 for iOS will be updated once it’s passed Apple’s store approval process.
Scanning emails to target ads is not cricket says UK public
From technology that watches you in the supermarket, to social networking’s attempts to make the ads we see more relevant, the advertising industry is becoming cleverer at getting its message in front of the right people.
But is scanning emails, as Gmail does, a step too far? A survey commissioned by Outlook.com in the UK has found that 84 percent of people disapprove of email service providers scanning messages in order to target online adverts.
In UK supermarket Tesco, the adverts are watching you
After the launch of its own brand tablet, the Hudl, UK supermarket Tesco is hitting the headlines for another reason. We are all used to the irksome familiarity of watching adverts on TV and online, they are hard to avoid. But the retailer is turning things on their head slightly by introducing advertisements that watch customers.
Well, that's not strictly true, but it's an interesting way of looking at what is happening. Just as the likes of Google tailor advertisements to web users, Tesco is looking to ensure that the ads its customers see are relevant. The fuel stations found at many branches of the supermarket are soon to be home to personalized ads courtesy of Amscreen.
Most people still not doing enough to safeguard their personal data
I know a couple of people who have been victims of identity theft, and while they didn’t lose anything financially, there was a lot of work required afterwards to clear up the mess and put safeguards in place to ensure it didn’t happen again. What was amazing to me was that the thieves were able to do things like open store cards with information that was not only false, but incorrect (an entirely fictitious date of birth, for example).
A new infographic from Experian looks at the dangers of identity theft both on and offline, and provides statistics that show while most of us are aware of the risks, few of us actually do enough to properly safeguard our personal information. The findings probably won’t surprise you.
Privacy is dead and here’s how
My friend Dave Taht, who battles bufferbloat for us all, pointed me today to a document from the Wireless Internet Service Provider Association. It’s the WISPA CALEA Compliance Guide, which details most of the rules that wireless ISPs are required to follow by CALEA -- the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994. These rules, variants of which apply to all telcos and to ISPs of all kinds (not just wireless), say what those companies are required to do to comply with the law. More directly, it specifies how they can be required to intercept customer communications and relay that content to law enforcement agencies.
Read it if you have a moment. The document, which is chilling, explains a lot both in what it says and what it doesn’t say.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware makes its Android debut
Malwarebytes products have been protecting PCs since 2008, but the company has now decided to broaden its horizons with the release of an Android app.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Mobile still has plenty in common with its PC cousin, of course. The app is effective, free, and very easy to use: just launch it, click Scan and watch as your apps are checked for malicious code (we found this generally takes less than two minutes).
At what age should children be allowed to use the internet?
The internet is an amazing tool, especially for children looking to learn. It is essentially the world's biggest library available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But the web also has a darker side, and parents have to ask themselves the question "when is the right time to let my child go online?" Or, as Director of Online Safety at Microsoft, Kim Sanchez puts it "How old is too young to go online?".
This is a far more complicated problem than it used to be. It is not all that long ago that the average household had no more than one computer, which may not have been connected to the internet. Now, however, we live in a time when households could have multiple computers. There might still be one shared "family" computer, but it is also very common for children to have their own computer or laptop. There are also phones and tablets to think of. Pester power is an incredible thing, and it’s a strong parent who is able to resist giving into demands for a tablets when "all my friends have one".
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