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Posts Tagged ‘privacy’

iPhone spyware debated as app library “phones home”

By Chris Davies on Monday, Aug 17th 2009 1 Comment

iphone mapAfter Palm’s Pre was heavily criticized last week over claims that the handset collected location data regarding the user and transmitted that back to the company, a developer has spotted that at least one third-party iPhone library, in use by several apps, does something similar.  The library is by Pinch Media and is used to track app owner data; it does this by recording not only location when you first start the app but your physical movements (among other things) while the app is open.

Pinch Media’s library is used by developers – such as those behind free iPhone titles Camera Zoom and Twitterfon – to collect analysis data on app usage and common problems.  However the library does not give the user any way of monitoring or shutting off the tracking; agree to it when you install the host software, and it will continue to gather data for as long as you use the app.  If you don’t have a network connection then the location data will be cached and sent when you’re next online.

Full list of collected personal information after the cut

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JanusPA plug & play TOR privacy adapter

By Chris Davies on Monday, Dec 22nd 2008 2 Comments

If IP anonymity is important to you, and you find yourself using different computers and internet connections on a regular basis, the Janus Team’s new TOR privacy adapter, the JanusPA, could be the solution.  Plugged in-line between either your computer and modem, computer and router, or modem and router, it automatically establishes either a TOR or OpenVPN connection to hide your true IP address.

janus tor privacy adapter

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Chrome hands-on: Teething pains & Terms of Service privacy concerns

By Chris Davies on Tuesday, Sep 2nd 2008 4 Comments

Google Chrome 1After several hours running Chrome and exploring its functionality, hands-on reports are coming in from all over the web.  As you might expect for the first release of beta software – even software Google claim has been in development for two years and tested thoroughly at the Googleplex – there are various bug sightings and issues.  Multiple SlashGear readers are finding that vertical scrolling, particularly on notebook touchpads, is presenting some problems, with the most common complaint being an inability to scroll back up the page.

Check out the video walk-though of the Google Chrome browser after the cut

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When it comes to GPS privacy, where exactly are we?

By Chris Davies on Friday, Aug 1st 2008 No Comments

iPhone Maps GPSMatters of privacy have been in the news recently, as Google’s Street View cars continue their initial mapping of the UK.  The search giant was criticised by campaigners concerned that their street-level photography constituted an intrusion of privacy and asked the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to look into the project.  However the ICO ruled it was “satisfied” that Google’s face and numberplate blurring, “opt-out” settings and other controls were sufficient.

One of the more interesting suggestions was that “web-savvy” burglars could use the Street View information to remotely “case the joint”.  Google’s answer is that the delay between photos being taken and them being uploaded minimizes any real risk; I’d personally think that users on social networking sites such as Facebook, together with those blogging their daily lives, probably open themselves up to more risk by discussing their holiday plans.  A still photo on Google Maps doesn’t say whether the family will be home (or the dog locked up at the nearby kennels!)

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The Hollywood studios put dogs to work, sniff out pirated DVD

By Daniel Lim on Tuesday, Mar 4th 2008 1 Comment

Paddy and Manny are two male Labradors and a well-trained DVD sniffing squad from the MPAA, whose members include Hollywood studios like Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and Universal.. Etc. At present, they are being loaned to Malaysia’s Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs to sniff out a certain chemical used in bootleg DVDs.

dog sniff DVD

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Do Not Track list for blocking certain cookies

By James Allan Brady on Thursday, Nov 1st 2007 No Comments

C is for Cookie that’s good enough for me! Alright, so here is what is going on, there are 9 separate consumer and privacy groups that have asked the FTC (Federal Trade Commision) to make a “do not track” list of servers that give off cookies that they can block.

2007 11 01t093449 450x340 us internet advertising

I have two issues with this, first off, you can already do this on your own, I know you can in FireFox, I just checked, you uncheck the box that says “accept cookies” and then you add exception for the sites like your bank and stuff where you need cookies, whammo, done. Second is, cookies are a necessary evil, they allow sites to target what adds you see, which causes you to click on those adds occasionally, which in the long run makes a lot of people various amounts of money.

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How much does it suck to be Michelle Madigan?

By James Allan Brady on Saturday, Aug 4th 2007 23 Comments

A lot, especially since being outed as the press’ mole in the hacker-only conference DefCon. Her measly goal was to sneak in as a programmer and catch hackers admitting to illegal activity.

madigan 2 2

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FBI is inside every recent cellphone

By Chris Davies on Saturday, Dec 30th 2006 77 Comments

NSA PhoneAfter the news that China has decided to force manufacturers to standardise phone charging ports to the mini-USB format, it turns out that there’s an even easier way to get the industry-wide feature you want implemented: just be the FBI.  What cellphone manufacturers are reluctant to include in-among all the blurb about Bluetooth and high-speed data connectivity is that apparently every recent phone sold in the US has a built-in tracking device that, once activated remotely, can be set to keep the microphone powered on even when the phone itself is switched off.

The FBI used the technology in collecting evidence for the recent Genovese crime family trial, and it should be made clear that they can only do so with the relevant court order.  Saying that, just how difficult is it to get a court order in our age of super-terror?  The only way to circumnavigate the tracker is removing the battery, which then makes the phone rather useless.  In fact, you’d be better off carrying a small child’s shoe, which could at least be used for storing your keys. 

I’d be very interested to find out whereabouts in the phone circuitry the tracking device is located, from a purely geeky point of view.  Anybody fancy hacking open their KRZR and going looking?

The Blotter [via Neatorama]

Keep your filthy computer habits secret: 3M’s Privacy Filter

By Chris Davies on Saturday, Dec 2nd 2006 No Comments

Is there anyone else amused by privacy filters for notebook displays?  Honestly, there’s all this fuss about viewable-angle of the LCD, and then you go and slap a piece of vision-impairing plastic over the front of it!  Seriously, though, there are always going to be some people who don’t want their desk neighbour to see what they’re doing (nothing dodgy, I’m sure, just Very Important Statistics), and so if you’re one of them then you’ll likely be interested in The Gadgeteer’s review of 3M’s Privacy Filter.

3M Privacy Filter

Shown here half-on, the filter comes with sticky pads to go on the screen’s bezel on both sides, and it then slots down into those guides.  Chris Inselman suffered the embarrassment of being questioned over staring at a seemingly-blank screen to come to the conclusion that, if privacy is your cup of mysterious tea, 3M have just the product for you.

3M Notebook Privacy Filter [The Gadgeteer]

ReputationDefender – do you know what traces you’ve left behind?

By Chris Davies on Tuesday, Nov 7th 2006 No Comments

Repuation Defender - Search & DestroyOccasionally, when I’m dining with dignitaries and minor members of royalty, someone peers across the table and asks “haven’t I seen you on Spandex Turkey Lovers Online?” and I’m forced to mutter some hastily conjured excuses that it certainly couldn’t be me, must be a doppelganger, have you had your eyes checked recently?  The things we did years ago on the internet leave traces in caches and far off servers all over the world, and with 26% of hiring managers running potential employees’ names through search engines (10% doing the same on social networking sites) that “hilarious” photo-journal you did on Geocities might all of a sudden become a major hurdle in your path to the boardroom.

Wired News write about a service called ReputationDefender, who for $10 to $16 a month will produce regular reports on your online identity and, for $30 a time, will purge any particular item you’d rather not be there.  They break down the service into three general categories – My Reputation, dealing with adults wanting to delete lapses of common-sense in their past; My Child, for parents wanting to delete details their children may have posted about themselves; and My Privacy, which deals more specifically with personally-identifiable data like phone numbers held by data-sharing sites.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to update my profile on the Wicked Burrito Ticklers message-board.

ReputationDefender [via Wired News]