jwalton98-blog

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In this article, Natasha Lomas talks about how Amnesty, EFF, and Privacy International is behind the release of a free, open-source anti-surveillance tool called Detekt. This product was designed for Windows PC users to scan their machines for “known surveillance spyware” that its makers warn is used to “target and monitor human rights defenders and journalists around the world”.

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In this article, Rachel Thompson talks about how Google has made its privacy policy clearer for people to understand. This is a part of Google’s first step in complying with the change to the law. 

I think that this is great on Google;’s part because some people don’t or have a hard time understanding policies and will end up agreeing to something that they shouldn’t.

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In this article, Jack Morse talks about how Apple is making it more difficult for law enforcement to get into locked iPhones. They intend to update iOS with a new feature that prevents devices such as the GrayKey from working any time over an hour after the moment the phone was last unlocked.The GrayKey is a $15,000 device that allows law enforcement officials to gain access to locked phones via the lightning port weeks after they were last unlocked.

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In this article, Laura Hautala talks about how surveillance cameras are vulnerable to hackers. A researcher from Argentina has found that anyone who has a short line of code can exploit to log in. 

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In this article, Kaitlin Benz talks about how the American Civil Liberties Union wants Amazon to stop offering their facial surveillance technology, Rekogniton, to governments and law enforcement. The organization’s Washington branch delivered a petition with over 150,000 signatures to Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. 

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In this article, Gia Liu talks about a new security system by Night Owl Security Products that allows you to monitor your home from anywhere. An app allows the users of this system to monitor their homes wherever they may be. This system consists of audio-enabled cameras, 100 feet of night vision, and 4K resolution help you stay tuned in. The Rapid Image Detection Technology that the system has allows it to distinguish non-threats such as weather and insects. The RID allows future technology updates to increase the camera’s intelligence and enhance its performance. 

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In this article, Jayce Wagner talks about how the U.S. Senate has approved the renewal of a warrantless surveillance program. In this program, the methods fall under two categories, about collection and backdoor search. With the backdoor search, intelligence agencies are able to monitor communications of any American that has been in touch with any foreigner the agency deems as a target. About collection allows intelligence agencies to monitor the electronic communications of any American that mentions information, like a phone number or email address, about a foreign target, even if they have never communicated with that foreigner.

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In this article, Yves LeRoux talks about the many concerns that people have about our privacy. She names 7 different types of privacy, privacy of the person, privacy of behavior and action, privacy of communication, privacy of data and image, privacy of thoughts and feelings, privacy of location and space, and privacy of association. She also gives a run down of what each type of privacy consists of. 

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This post is about how most of us are automatically accepting the new terms of service policies that appear on our screens without reading them first. This has made me regret accepting all of the new terms of services in the past. Also, learning that over 300 companies can access my data by default after just one click of the OK button. To me, that is a scary feeling.

P.S.: Excuse her language in the last section. 

Don’t just accept the new Terms of Service

Tumblr’s at it again, thanks to the new European Privacy Laws. There’s probably nobody who will read this, but it pissed me off so much that I decided to make a post about it. (Ignore the weird language mish-mash, depending on your country the language might differ.)

OK, so many of us get this screen when we try to access our dash:

Realise how the ‘OK’ button is a nice, attention-grabbing blue? If you’re like me, you’re not exactly into reading a 100 pages document and tend to just click it.

My tip? DONT. Instead click on ‘Manage Options’ right next to it:

Now you’ll see this page:

Still pretty harmless, right? That ‘Accept’ button is looking really attractive right now. Instead, click on Verwalten (Probably something like ‘Manage Options’ or something in english) and you’ll get to this page:

Now that’s not too bad, right? I just switched all the buttons to ‘off’, because I’m jealously guarding my personal information and don’t want Tumblr to go off and do who knows what with it. Looks like we’re done! But wait: There’s a SHOW option.

When we click on that one, what we will get is this:

A HUGE list with OVER 300 ENTRIES of companies that can use your data by default if you’d just clicked ‘OK’ on that very first page. Coincidence that this list is hidden that much? Me thinks not. They’re all switched on by default, but I am still a petty bitch that doesn’t want to give out her data, so I switched them all off. All 300+ of them. There is no option to switch them all off at once, and even if you disable all the options above, the companies are still switched on.

(If you wonder how i got that number, I copied the list into excel and looked at the cell number. No way am I actually counting all those entries)

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In this article by Niraj Chokshi, he talks about the Amazon Echo device Alexa, a virtual home assistant device. It has been reported that Alexa mistook a woman’s words for commands instructing it to record her conversation and send it to one of her employees. 

We talked about this in our Discussion Board on Facebook. I never once thought about purchasing and Alexa for my home. I don’t feel that it is something that I really need and will use on a daily. On the commercials, they make it seem so useful and handy, but as someone that normally does for herself, I would forget that I even have the device.

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In this article by Paulina Dedaj, she talks about how Facebook may be listening to our conversations via our smartphones to pin point our locations for targeted advertising. Facebook isn’t the only one trying to figure out the environment of their users, other smartphone apps are doing the same as well to improve the contextual value of the advertising.

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In this article by Bill Goodwin, he talks about plans to set up an independent body to oversee requests by police, local authorities, and other government agencies to have access to public telephone and internet records. The OCDA will be responsible for 200,000 requests per year from 600 public bodies. Though it was planned to happen sooner, it is being postponed until around April 2019. 

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In this article by Eric Limer, he talks about four pitches for tabs, BrainCo, Derive Systems, and Raven that are mainly for the surveillance of children by their parents. Some of the pitches were a hidden tracker or smart bracelet, brain-wave technology that tracks how much attention the child pays in class, programming your car by monitoring the speed, location, controlling the boundary limit, and even turning on a camera to see the inside of the car with a push of a button. All of these things would be great for parents who are very protective of their children.

I would consider getting all of these for my children. Its better to be safe than to be sorry and I would want to know where my kids are at all times. I actually wish that these things were available for my mom to have the ability of keeping me safe when on the road.

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In this article by Susan Scutti, she speaks about the CIA purportedly being able to hack Smart TVs, placing them in “fake mode”, which will allow them to record the owner’s private conversations and send them to a covert server. She also talks about a flaw in Samsung TV that allow hackers to remotely, without alerting the owner, switch on the cameras TV. Many people who now have surveillance over their homes have responded to having them in their homes by changing their behaviors. 

Personally, I am very cautious about the hacking of the Smart TVs. You’ll never know who’s watching you or listening in on your conversations. As far as the surveillance cameras in the homes, I would definitely like to have those in my home. I don’t feel that I would be one to change my behavior because of the cameras though. I would happier knowing that I have an extra set of eyes watching over my home and my family instead of worrying about the content of the camera footage. 

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In this article by Rick Rojas, he talks about the surveillance cameras that are placed in Newark. They have made the official camera feeds available to people online. These cameras are mainly for the law to watch over the city, but have been opened to the public to help assist them in watching over the city. 

I think that this is a good idea and a bad idea all wrapped into one. The good thing about it is that law enforcement is expanding their range of watch by installing these cameras. What I feel is the bad part about the whole thing is that it is open to the public, which means that anyone can watch over the city. Since the quality is so clear, someone could actually start stalking someone by finding out what kind of car that they drive or where they like to hang out. It could become a dangerous situation in the end.

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Repost Weekend: Info you may have missed.Safe at Home: Place a door stop/alarm under your door. It’s another layer of protection to keep strangers out. Especially useful for Dorm Rooms, Apartments and Hotel Rooms. Because you never know who may still have a key to the door!

🏙️🏡🏨🏣🔊

| Self Defense | Personal Defense | Personal Safety | Home Safety | Home Security | Door Stop Alarm | No Stranger Gets in Your Home | 

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Honestly, I really don’t post or use Facebook that much. I’m mainly only using it now for this class, but after the class ends I will probably go back to just the simple scrolling through my news feed. I also don’t use the Messenger app for Facebook either. I knew that it was possible for all of my past conversations or messages to be pulled up, but I didn’t know that Facebook could or would go in and access those. 

‪Facebook Keeps Violating Our Privacy So Why Not Break It Up‬