Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

If you happen to be rocking to the AVG Virus Scanner on a Windows Phone 7 smartphone, might you be a little bit more cautious as we bring you word that the AVG Virus Scanner for Microsoft’s mobile platform has been pulled. The reason behind that? Privacy invasion. It seems as though AVG decided that users aren’t that savvy enough at the moment, hence injecting some spyware into their software package which ironically, claims it protects users from spyware and other forms of malicious software. How did this devious it of programming come into the light? Read on after the jump to find out more.

Former Microsoft Employee @JustinAngel decided he had some spare time on his hands, and went ahead to tinker around with the AVG application only to stumble upon the can of digital worms . Simply put, JustinAngel realized that the AVG code contained instructions to collect user coordinates, e-email addresses, device information, mobile carrier, and OS version among others, sending all of this information back to AVG.

This kind of news is not going to do Windows Phone any good, as it certainly brings Microsoft’s certification process into question. Hopefully something like this does not occur in the future, or the proper preventive steps and measures can be taken.

Monday, September 12th, 2011

This is not a big surprise. As much as people have to search Google and find content, Facebook privacy settings much more. You can socialize with others of this important network for games, applications, sending private messages, and discuss various topics. A few months ago Facebook privacy settings introduced a feature that works like Yahoo Answers question. The question and no one is prepared in the Facebook privacy settings community, can answer this question without any kind of crime to be done. So Facebook privacy settings are at the forefront in terms of their facebook privacy settings and security policy?

A few months ago, said the CEO of Facebook privacy settings, Mark, Elliot, that the security policy requires substantial revision Facebook privacy settings. It was just a lot more options in mind that too much for many Facebook users. For example, the security policy of all the little things (such as date of birth, hobbies) had to change. Why can not simplify the options and Facebook privacy settings users to control facebook privacy settings around the world? Facebook privacy settings has some adjustments to cause the past various facebook privacy settings communities have made, but there are changes that are taken in order to be a safe online community Facebook privacy settings.

Facebook settings are also necessary to address the problem of corporate phone. Many operators use black hat methods of harvesting email addresses from facebook privacy settings. Unfortunately, many people forget Facebook privacy settings users change their phone number private groups, so that everyone can access to all those who were the number of positions in this particular group have. Just enter the phone number on Facebook alone, you’ll get hundreds of phone lists age group.

There is also a problem in terms of games and applications, some users believe that our applications have access profile information. facebook privacy settings application developers can use this profile information to your personal use. For example, there are applications of detection “Bully”, the information from many new energy-use profile to see who visits your profile (note that the nuisance activity, the number of messages, comments and photographs specific tags, etc. ) games like Texas Hold Me Poker is a lot about the user. When people play behind closed doors, without want his identity, then they should allow doing so. Many users do not want to do.

As you can see, there are many security issues related to privacy settings. Nothing can be perfect, but it could do more to make this community a better place

Facebook privacy settings are a social network of knowledge. However, further efforts are required to be a safe parking. Frontier vile games like Texas Hold I Poker are exciting, but sometimes boring.

Sunday, September 11th, 2011

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Our right to privacy is something that is protected by law. However, rapid advances in covert surveillance technology have meant it is becoming ever easier for other people to listen to our private conversations. Aside from those people who just like to snoop on others the price that eavesdroppers can achieve in selling personal and business information also acts as a tempting incentive for conducting this unscrupulous practice.

Unfortunately the majority of listening devices used in covert surveillance are very hard to detect. They generally only become apparent to the eavesdropper’s target once private personal or corporate information has been leaked.

Types of hidden listening devices

Most recently the biggest threat to privacy has come from mobile phone bugs. GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) devices use the mobile phone infrastructure and technology to relay sound to an eavesdropper based in a remote location. Due to the global nature of the mobile phone network it could allow a device being operated in London to be monitored from any location in the world.

Other bugging devices include radio bugging devices that tap into traditional telephone lines and record both sides of a conversation.

Fibre optic microphones are another form of intrusive listening device that the eavesdropper will set up in a room in order to collect very high quality audio. These are very hard to detect and require a highly trained bug sweeping team to find them out.

What to do if you discover a listening device

If you discover (or suspect) your privacy has been breached and information about you or your business has been leaked there are 6 steps to take towards securing your privacy and minimising the chance of further leaks.

Step 1. Do not discuss your discovery or suspicions in the area you believe is being bugged. If the spies think they might be found out they will cover their tracks and you will never know for certain.

Step 2. Do not use the device you think is being bugged. If you need to contact someone use a public phone somewhere else entirely. If your office is being bugged and there is one public phone box directly outside, assume this has been compromised too. Go a few streets away to find a public call box.

Step 3. Do not touch, remove or disturb any device you find. By tampering with the listening device you could alert the eavesdropper to your suspicions. This gives them ample opportunity to remove or reposition the bug (and other undiscovered bugs) before they can be found and dealt with by bug sweeping professionals.

Step 4. Do not discuss your discovery with anyone who you do not trust. Ideally you should only talk to the person(s) who would be directly involved in appointing bug sweeping experts to carry out an inspection.

Step 5. Secure the targeted area immediately. Do not use the area or item you believe is being bugged for important discussions. However, in certain circumstances it might be advisable to continue using the area for non-important discussions so as to prevent the eavesdroppers suspicions from becoming aroused.

Step 6. Contact a professional bug sweeping company to carry out a bug detection inspection. It is important that you do not try doing this yourselves as you may fail to successfully uncover all the devices that have been planted. Counter surveillance experts are well equipped and highly experienced in effectively discovering and dealing with bugging devices.

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

OTTAWA — Text messaging may help quiet the hum of public cellphone conversations — but it may be just as vulnerable to eavesdropping.

Canada’s privacy commissioner says Canadians aren’t doing enough to protect their mobile communication devices, such as cellphones and tablet computers.

A survey by the commissioner’s office suggests only four in 10 people password-protect their phones or adjust privacy settings on personal-information sharing via downloaded applications.

People who actually store personal information on their devices were more likely to use privacy measures.

“We encourage people to use passwords, encryption, privacy settings and every other available measure to safeguard their personal information because the meaningful protection of privacy has to start with the individual,” Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said.

Canadians are increasingly worried about their privacy in a digital environment.

The survey found levels of concern about a range of technologies and applications, including cellphones, online banking as well as credit- and debit-card transactions, all rose since 2009.

Canadians between the ages of 18 and 34 were found to be the most enthusiastic users of technology and the most likely to use available tools to protect their privacy online.

Stoddart called that finding gratifying.

“Young people are sometimes stereotyped as digital exhibitionists who are quite uninhibited in posting comments and personal images,” she said.

“And yet this new data shows that they not only care about privacy, they are actually leaders in protecting it.”

Two thousand people were surveyed for the commissioner’s poll.

It was conducted between Feb. 23 and March 6, just as outrage in Britain over a tabloid newspaper hacking into people’s cellphones began to grow.

In that case, reporters broke into people’s voice mail messages and investigations continue into whether reporters also had phone-tracking records.

– The Canadian Press

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

Most Americans have a cell phone on them or nearby at all times and are concerned with the legality of cell phone location tracking. The courts have wobbled back and forth on Fourth Amendment rulings that decide if the government needs a warrant in order to access records that reveal a user’s cell phone location. It has been argued that when users have their mobile phone turned on, they choose to waive their expectation of privacy by ‘voluntarily’ transmitting their location. On Monday, there was a big win for the Fourth Amendment when Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the Eastern District of New York stood up for the Constitution and ruled that law enforcement must establish probable cause to secure a warrant before cell phone providers can be made to hand over location history.

The federal government had asked the court to order Verizon Wireless to turn over 113 days of location data about a suspect’s phone. Judge Garaufis wrote that because we have our phones handy at all time, “our physical movements are being monitored and recorded, and once the Government can make a showing of less-than-probable-cause, it may obtain these records of our movements, study the map our lives, and learn the many things we reveal about ourselves through our physical presence.” In fact he called it ‘fiction’ ” the idea that most Americans consent to warrantless government tracking and access to their location history by ‘choosing’ to carry a phone.

Judge Garaufis wrote , “the collection of cell-site-location records effectively enables ‘mass’ or ‘wholesale’ electronic surveillance, and raises greater Fourth Amendment concerns than a single electronically surveilled car trip.” He added that this “level of Governmental intrusion” was “previously inconceivable,” so the Fourth Amendment doctrine needs “to evolve to meet these changes.”

And then Judge Garaufis even referenced George Orwell’s 1984 . In the conclusion, he wrote:

While the government’s monitoring of our thoughts may be the archetypical Orwellian intrusion, the government’s surveillance of our movements of a considerable time period through new technologies, such as the collection of cell-site-location records, without the protections of the Fourth Amendment, puts our country far closer to Oceania than our Constitution permits. It is time that the courts begin to address whether revolutionary changes in technology require change to existing Fourth Amendment doctrine.

Also on Monday, California unanimously passed a cell phone privacy bill that would require law enforcement to secure a warrant before searching the contents of a cell phone. The bill still needs to be approved by the senate before it goes before the governor to possibly be signed into law.

While the police opposed the bill because there are times when stopping to get a warrant is not ‘practical,’ there are exceptions when law enforcement can search a smartphone without a warrant. SFGate reported , “police will be able to search a phone without a warrant if they believe they need to do so to prevent injuries, stop the destruction of evidence or prevent a crime from occurring.”

Sen. Mark Leno, the bill’s author, said , “If you are caught with a laptop, they need a warrant. If they come to your home for some reason, they can’t walk into your bedroom, personal office or look at your computer without a warrant. Everything inside your phone requires a warrant wherever else it can be found, so why should the smart phone be different?”

The Supreme Court will soon decide about the constitutionality of warrantless GPS tracking , but in the clash of the Fourth Amendment, technology and law enforcement surveillance, there was another recent “win” for privacy. The police had a suspect’s mobile phone number but not his location. The Baltimore Sun reported that Maryland U.S. District Judge Susan Gauvey “refused to issue a warrant sought by federal authorities to find a suspect through his cellphone’s GPS data, saying the government was trying to use technology in a new way – ‘not to collect evidence of a crime, but solely to locate a charged defendant’.”

Friday, August 26th, 2011

We all know the challenges that we currently have with Facebook privacy issue is the privacy and the fight to try, they are correct. But minutes of waiting – and that is actually responsible for that not to transmit data over the Internet thanks to Facebook privacy issue?

should I believe with all my heart and Facebook privacy issue every effort to protect your data from prying eyes. Let’s face it, are everywhere. I’ve even seen messages from people warned me not to join a group to “How a father or mother to be was the best gift of my life,” which allegedly prompted, photos facebook privacy issue their infants. The group is run by pedophiles looking for pictures of their children. The poor are everywhere and will try to take advantage of you if possible. Facebook privacy issue should do everything possible to protect your information and seems to take precautions to protect everyone. Unfortunately, their efforts are too late for many people.

But is it really use Facebook privacy issue to ensure that facebook privacy issue privacy issuethey do not share sensitive? Earlier in the day, should not be responsible for the poster, to ensure they do not show that sensitive information could be compromised or stolen, or from a third party reactions?

Major goal about facebook privacy issue Want to go down the street and enter the phone numbers, addresses and photos facebook privacy issue their children, to random strangers who meet on the street? Of course not. Why publish information that do not want to be in a public social networking site.

Here is an example of something that does not have to share is that they should not be a birth year on your birthday, because predators could use your age in an attempt to identity theft. simple phone – not publish information that does not want to share. There must be a certain degree of personal responsibility to be here.For facebook privacy issue People should stop someone to blame when something went wrong and for them to see whether they could have been avoided. Your messages can come to be seen by the wrong person, if only to share with friends and family. Be careful when you verbally slam, badmouthing, and please do not publish embarrassing photos facebook privacy issue drunken Saturday night bar crazy. Remember to ask your friend who took the pictures do not display well. Employers, present and future, all she can see. It’s what you want on your “permanent record? Not share too, things that are not public know. You never know who can use and see on him. I, like many political career now in ruins, the Facebook privacy issue News wonders.

That is, Facebook privacy issue is a place for people to share things with friends and families, their lives and their photos facebook privacy issue their children. Nothing defeats certainly the same point. Therefore, any measures taken to their privacy issue are correct to ensure that facebook privacy issue privacy issueonly those who want to see in your life are put in the situation.

Here is a good tool, if your privacy issue are adequate, Check carefully to put your school, that where you provide, and that good people can see what I see, what you see. The current configuration can be confusing for some users. As I write this, Facebook privacy issue is about new controls, privacy promised to be “much easier” to start for the user. Let’s see how effective they are. Facebook privacy issue has recently admitted that irrelevant “when it comes to privacy. We hope that by that date.

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Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

The mobile phone in your pocket or purse knows a lot of secrets, including where you are right now.

The American Civil Liberties Union wants to know when and how often law enforcement is accessing that data. On Wednesday, the ACLU of Iowa announced it was asking Iowa’s five largest police departments to provide information on how they use cellphone location tracking data to monitor Iowans.

“Every Iowan with a cellphone is susceptible to tracking by the government,” said Randall Wilson, ACLU of Iowa legal director. “When people are being tracked, we want to know if there is probable cause and if a warrant has been obtained.”

Police can use cellphone software to locate and track cellphone movement, but law enforcement officers say their access to that data is both rare and restricted.

“I know of no cellphone company that will give us location data without a court order,” said Sioux City Police Detective Ken Welch. “If there is a belief out there that Big Brother is following everybody with a cellphone, they are mistaken at a minimum and maybe a little on the fringe.”

Telecommunications companies protect customer privacy but release information to law enforcement agencies by court order, said Michael Altschul, general counsel for CTIA – The Wireless Association, a Washington, D.C., cellphone company advocacy organization.

“We have a legal obligation to comply with those orders,” Altschul said.

ACLU of Iowa sent Freedom of Information requests for cellphone tracking information to police in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Sioux City, Iowa City and Davenport.

The requests are part of an effort by 34 ACLU state affiliates nationwide to determine how law enforcement uses cellphone tracking capabilities.

Since 2005, cellphones in use in the United States have had to be equipped with Enhanced 911, or E911, capabilities that allow emergency dispatchers to locate a telephone.

In the late 1990s, as cellphones became more common, law enforcement and emergency dispatchers raised concerns that they could not locate cellphone callers who were in distress. So the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the cellphone industry, required the technology.

As of September 2012, the FCC will require cellphone companies to be able to locate a phone within 327 yards of the closest cellphone broadcast signal tower.

However, newer cellphones come with Global Positioning System software. The tool allows users to publicly share their locations, using applications such as Foursquare, wherever they are.

ACLU leaders are concerned that law enforcement officers will access GPS and E911 information without obtaining a court order or the knowledge of the wireless customer.

Also, technology moves faster than lawmakers, which means privacy statutes haven’t kept up with the latest gadgets, said Wilson, the Iowa ACLU legal director.

“Twenty-five years ago, we were arguing about cordless telephones and how access to those signals should be used,” Wilson said. “The laws have barely evolved since then. We need to keep track of how government is monitoring us and what they’re doing with the information.”

The ACLU survey is a step toward better privacy laws and awareness in the digital age, said Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a research and advocacy organization in Washington.

“Newer technology allows us to exchange a lot of information on a casual basis, some of it we are not even aware we are exchanging,” Coney said.

“This has greatly enhanced the surveillance capabilities of not only law enforcement but also companies that mine our personal data for research. We need to develop clear public policy on this issue, which is a growing concern.”

Police, however, say access to cellphone location data is rare.

“There might be an exigent circumstance, like a kidnapping in progress, where we would ask a cellphone company for that information without a court order, but a life or lives have to be on the line,” said Sgt. Chris Scott, Des Moines police spokesman. “Otherwise, we don’t get it without a court order. It just does not happen.”

Wilson, of the ACLU, said he just wants to make sure that’s the case.

“It’s my hope that Iowa law enforcement are a cut above the rest of the nation,” he said, “but I don’t think that we can just trust that is the case.”

Phone privacy basics

- Cellphones use GPS software and E911 technology to tell others the location of the device, sometimes within a few hundred feet.

- Generally, only your wireless company and the people you choose to share this information with have access to this data, but ACLU officials are concerned that law enforcement is using the information for unregulated surveillance.

- Most cellphones allow users to control how much location information can be accessed.

- Privacy advocates recommend checking your device manual or asking your wireless provider for tips on how to regulate settings.

- Pay close attention to what applications you install on your phone and how they use your cellphone location data.