PRIVACYPETE.COM

Adding secret passages and hidden rooms to a house

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 13:21:27 -0500

Adding secret passages and hidden rooms to a house:

How cool would it be to have a secret passage or a secret room in your house? This video shows you several different options:

There are several ways for you to do something like this:

1) Design in the passageway or the room when building a new house

2) Find a void in your existing house and convert it (many existing homes have voids under staircases, next to fireplaces, etc.)

3) Create a room or passage by adding a new wall

4) Hide an existing room by replacing its existing door with a disguised door, like a bookcase. The following video shows you how (relatively) easy this conversion could be:

HowStuffWorks

Privacy nightmare: Geotagging in Twitter goes live

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:04:00 -0500

Privacy nightmare: Geotagging in Twitter goes live:

Initially available only to US users, geotagging is a new opt-in Twitter feature that lets you tag select tweets with your geographical location. Other folks see a user-friendly location name next to your tweet and can click it to reveal the location in Google Maps.

For privacy reasons, this feature needs to be turned on from your account settings in Twitter’s web interface. Once it’s on, you can tag tweets with your neighborhood, town, or exact point, on a per-tweet basis. It works pretty straightforward, just click the crosshair icon that appears below your update box when you tweet. If you’re using a location-aware browser like Firefox 3.6 or Chrome, it’ll ask you to confirm sharing your location with the web app.

Regardless of your chosen location granularity, your exact location is always saved in Twitter’s database. If you want to wipe out all location information from your past tweets, you can do so by clicking the “delete all location data” button on your settings page. In addition, clicking the X sign below a tweet hides location information until you re-enable it again by clicking the X symbol.

Twitter argued in a blog post that location sharing makes sense when you need to narrow down your search to just the tweets in your neighborhood:

Let’s say I’m at my office and I hear a loud boom. It sounded serious, so I search Twitter for “boom.” Among the first results could be someone who tweeted “Boom go the fireworks!” This could be anywhere in the world. However, if that person had activated the new tweet location feature then the neighborhood data under the tweet would read, “SoMa.”

Wireless Key Grabber

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:45:00 -0600

Wireless Key Grabber:

Hm2075 released the Wireless Key Grabber for the Backtrack 4 pre final on Remote-Exploit forums. The code for the tool with an explanation of how it works is available here.

This video is showing how to use Wireless Key Grabber. It requires lighttpd and it runs a fake wireless access point to grab wireless keys.whenever a user tries to connect to any website after connecting to this fake access point his browser is forwarded to a customised URL. Metasploit DLL injection is used to grab wireless key. This video was found on Cybexin’s Blog.

How To Hide From Google

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:18:26 -0600

How To Hide From Google:

Google offers Web users a simple trade-off: Let the search giant track a substantial portion of your comings and goings around the Web, and it will offer you a free, superior online experience.

Now an independent security researcher who goes by the name Moxie Marlinspike is making Web users a counter-offer: Take Google’s giveaways and keep your privacy too.

On Tuesday, Marlinspike launched a service he calls Googlesharing, a plug-in for Firefox designed to give users access to Google’s online offerings while cloaking their identity from the company’s data collection tools. By hosting a proxy server with a collection of Google “identities,” the privacy software, which can be accessed at Googlesharing.net, will allow users to temporarily route their traffic through another computer that masks their identity by mixing their online actions with those of other users.

“Each identity looks like a normal user, but everything is mixed up between identities so Google can’t track any individual,” says Marlinspike. That means users can exploit any of Google’s offerings that don’t require logins, such as search, maps or news, without allowing Google to assemble a profile of their activities that can be used for advertising targeting—or, as some users might fear, information that could be subpoenaed by government investigators.

“It’s very hard to stop using Google,” says Marlinspike. “So we need to think about ways that we can use these things and still preserve privacy.”

Googlesharing is hardly the only tool that can flummox Google’s behavioral tracking system. The proxy system Tor, for instance, provides anonymity for any sort of Web browsing by siphoning a user’s data requests through not one but three servers.

ut that three-hop system—designed to protect users from even determined trackers like government officials—makes Tor especially slow, Marlinspike says. Googlesharing uses just a single hop, enough to foil Google’s data collection without significantly slowing down the service.

Other sites, like Ixquick.com or Scroogle.com, offer to relay Google search queries without exposing a user’s identity. But they offer only search, not the wide variety of tools Googlesharing would allow, from Google Shopping to Google Translate.

Googlesharing also adds another layer of security to search. Marlinspike uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption to protect the system so that not even a piece of malicious software on the user’s network can intercept his or her activities.

Still, there’s one person from whom Googlesharing doesn’t necessarily hide users’ activities: Marlinspike himself. To solve that dilemma, Marlinspike is also offering up Googlesharing’s code to anyone who wishes to create his or her own proxy. “If you don’t trust us, you can find someone who you do trust,” he says.

Even so, Marlinspike says users shouldn’t fear using his proxy either. That’s despite the fact that he has a history of publicizing hacking techniques that could allow cybercriminals to impersonate Web sites, even those that are supposedly secure.

But like many hackers, Marlinspike argues that those revelations were meant to make browsing safer by exposing vulnerabilities so they can be fixed. And he points out that he has far less to gain than an advertiser from exploiting your online history.

A Google spokeswoman responded in a statement that Google believes “transparency and choice are the foundations of privacy, which is why we give users meaningful choices about what information they provide to Google and to others.”

She referred users to Google.com/privacy and particularly Google Dashboard, which allows users to see and control data that the company has collected and associated with their registered Google account. And she pointed out that for users who haven’t signed in to a Google account, the company tracks cookies and IP addresses that are eventually anonymized, and that those logs are used to improve search results and maintain the security of Google’s systems.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt reinforced some privacy advocates’ fears last month with a glib statement on the subject in a CNBC interview. “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place,” he told Maria Bartiromo. “The reality is that search engines—including Google—do retain this information for some time and it’s important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities.”

Marlinspike counts himself as a member of the Institute for Disruptive Studies, a Pittsburgh-based group of hackers he has described as “a radical think tank for hackers and co-conspirators who wish to operate outside of both the professional sphere as well as academia.”

Among the group’s priorities, Marlinspike says, are “security, privacy and technology that changes social relationships,” particularly technology that can reduce the influence of large corporations. Hence his efforts to help Web users avoid Google’s ever-widening gaze on our electronic activities for ad targeting.

“They’re offering more and more services that take control of the Internet itself, each one wrapped in these chirpy announcements about making the world a better place,” Marlinspike says. “It’s clear that’s not their only motive.”

Hundreds of Network Solutions Sites Hacked

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:49:00 -0600

Hundreds of Network Solutions Sites Hacked:

Web site domain registrar and hosting provider Network Solutions acknowledged Tuesday that hackers had broken into its servers and defaced hundreds of customer Web sites.

The hackers appear to have replaced each site’s home page with anti-Israeli sentiments and pictures of masked militants and armed with rocket launchers and rifles, along with the message “HaCKed by CWkomando.”

According to results for that search term entered into Microsoft’s Bing search engine, there may in fact be thousands of sites affected by this mass defacement.

One of the defaced pages belonged to Minnesota’s 8th District GOP, according to a story in The Minnesota Independent, which said the Arabic writing that accompanies the defaced pages contains the dedication “For Palestine,” and the repeated phrase “Allahu Akbar” [God is great].

Network Solutions said the hackers were able to get in by exploiting a “file-inclusion” weakness in the company’s Unix servers. So-called remote file inclusion attacks are quite common, and can let attackers insert code that gives them backdoor access to and control over the affected server. Network Solutions said it is in the process of helping customers restore their sites.

“These incidents are regrettable and we apologize for the inconvenience,” the company said in its statement. “Due to the nature of the web, the race between technology and the bad elements is a challenge that companies face continually.”

Network Solutions said there was no danger to customers’ “personally identifiable or secure information” as a result of the incident. Other recent break-ins at NetSol have not been so benign: Last summer, hackers broke into a number of Network Solutions Web servers and planted rogue code that resulted in the compromise of more than 573,000 debit and credit card accounts.

Let this be a helpful reminder to all of us who run a Web site that no matter how much you have done to lock down your Web site, a hiccup, server crash or break-in at your hosting provider can deep-six your site in a heartbeat. If you don’t already know how to do so, take some time before it is too late to learn how to backup and restore your site (look for a future blog post for a primer or two on this very topic).

via Krebs on Security

Pictured above is what’s known as a skimmer, or a device...

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:02:16 -0600

Pictured above is what’s known as a skimmer, or a device made to be affixed to the mouth of an ATM machine and secretly swipe credit and debit card information when bank customers slip their cards into the machines to pull out money.”

Would You Have Spotted the Fraud? — Krebs on Security

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg says privacy is dead. So why does he want to keeps this picture hidden?

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 06:00:20 -0600

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg says privacy is dead. So why does he want to keeps this picture hidden?:

It’s one law for the rich and another for the rest of us as our secrets are paraded online

Let’s pick a person pretty much at random: Dan Braden of Austin, Texas. I do not know Braden at all, but I can tell you that in the past few days he has spent $373.46 on Louis Vuitton goods, $162.47 at a local grocery store, $20 at a fitness centre and $3.23 on iTunes.

He is also a regular at Starbucks, went to a Maudie’s Tex-Mex restaurant last week and spent $717.10 on new tyres.

Is someone spying on Braden or hacking into his bank account? Nope. Instead, he has signed up to Blippy, a new website that puts online every purchase users make with a designated credit card. He is happy to publicise where he goes and what he buys. No privacy worries for him.

“If I buy some Britney Spears, I guess my friends would make fun of me,” said Braden, who works for the computer company Dell. “But I’m not too concerned about privacy. I don’t think I’m doing anything I would be embarrassed about.”

Call it openness or exhibitionism, it is spreading everywhere. On Twitter you can post your thoughts minute by minute. On Facebook and Flickr personal photographs abound. One website will even broadcast your weight to the world every time you step on the bathroom scales.

Do we no longer care about privacy? Not much, claims Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive of Facebook. Last week he declared: “People have gotten really comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people.” He described such lack of privacy as a “social norm”.

To those who grew up peeking at the neighbours from behind net curtains, it might seem crazy. To younger generations, born with the internet in their DNA, Zuckerberg may have a point.

As Daniel Masoliver, a 24-year-old postgraduate student in London, put it: “The only reason privacy ever existed is because Facebook didn’t. People have always liked talking about what they’re into and the more people share information with one another, the more comfortable others are joining in.”

Nevertheless, some online reaction to Zuckerberg’s claims was hostile. “He’s an idiot,” wrote one social networker; “Poppycock,” said another.

Experts in the social networking phenomenon are also concerned. The erosion of privacy, they say, brings dangers for both individuals and the wider body politic.

Sherry Turkle, professor of social studies of science at Massachussets Institute of Technology, said insensitivity to privacy “shows a disregard of history and the importance of privacy to democracy and, I might add, intimacy. Young people are not unconcerned about this matter. But they feel impotent”.

Even Zuckerberg, 25, is not truly comfortable letting it all hang out. When a change to Facebook’s privacy settings happened recently, it revealed pictures on his profile page of him larking around with friends. In some he looked a bit of a dork.

When news of the photographs spread, the images suddenly disappeared again.

Last week a Facebook spokeswoman was backpedalling vigorously, denying Zuckerberg had said privacy was dead. “His remarks were mischaracterised,” she said. “A core part of Facebook’s mission has always been to deliver the tools that empower people with control over their information.”

She added: “If the assertion is that anything Mark chooses to make private is inconsistent with his remarks last week, here are a few other hypocritical elements of his life: he hides his credit card numbers in his wallet, he does not post the passwords to his online accounts, and he closes the door behind him when he goes to the toilet.”

So is privacy no longer the social norm or not?

IN A YouGov poll for The Sunday Times this weekend, 30% of people said they agreed that privacy matters less than it did, and 63% disagreed. Just over 70% said they were worried about private information falling into the hands of others on the internet, while 28% said they were not worried.

The differences of opinion may partly be down to age. The pace of technological change is so fast that researchers believe even small age gaps produce significantly different attitudes and behaviour.

According to America’s Pew Research Centre, 68% of teenagers send instant messages on the internet compared with 59% of twentysomethings, and a far lower proportion of older age groups. In the UK a study of social networking by Ofcom, the communications watchdog, found that 54% of internet users aged 16-24 had set up a profile on a social networking site, with the numbers falling steadily with age.

The younger these “mini-generations” are, the more they appear to accept openness, if only through necessity. If everyone is revealing their lives online, they don’t want to be left out.

“I remember thinking there was something distinctly creepy about Facebook when I went on it for the first time,” said Jack Hancox, 24, of London. “Now it feels completely natural to put photos up and have various profiles on different sites. But still, I think people are quite wary about what they put online.”

By contrast, Bryony, a 15-year-old Facebooker in Hampshire, said: “I don’t think people are worried about it. When you are writing on Facebook, you are caught up in it and don’t think about privacy.”

One of her friends, Peter, said: “I’m not really concerned — except a little if my future boss finds out what it [his Facebook profile] was like. But it would also be cool looking back on it when I was 60.”

Or maybe not. The follies of youth are a necessary rite of passage, says Turkle, and used to be easily left to fade; now they may stick around for ever.

“Adolescents need to fall in and out of love with people and ideas,” said Turkle, whose forthcoming book Alone Together examines friendships in the digital age. “The internet is a rich ground for working through identity. But that does not easily mesh with a life that generates its own electronic shadow.”

In other words, your youthful mistakes may remain for ever on a computer server and come back to haunt you.

Like many social network users, Sophie, another friend in the Hampshire group, takes comfort from Facebook’s privacy settings.

“I’m not really worried,” she said. “I have it set up so only my friends can see stuff.”

Not everyone is convinced by such safeguards. For a start, Facebook has reduced the privacy level of its default setting. If you don’t actively impose privacy, lots of people will have access to your information. It can also become publicly available if a friend’s profile is not properly protected.

Even if you do try to restrict your profile, the data that remains public can still give away a lot about you. Facebook, for example, has no privacy restrictions on your name, photograph, list of friends and certain other material.

By analysing such data, “spider” programs can draw up social graphs that reveal your sexuality, political beliefs and other characteristics. According to Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge, it can be done even if you list as few as eight friends.

That might not matter so much in Britain, says Anderson, “but in a country like Iran, where they punish gays, this is serious stuff”.

Other concerns relate to how social networking sites use your data behind the scenes. Facebook’s privacy policy runs to more than eight pages of A4 and few users will read it. If you do, you will learn that Facebook “may collect information about you from other Facebook users”; keep details of any transactions you make; and allow third parties access to information about you. It also admits it “cannot ensure that information you share on Facebook will not become publicly available”.

EVER since George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Big Brother state has been most people’s first concern about diminishing privacy. Now private organisations and criminals are catching up fast.

The recent book Delete: the Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age cites the case of Stacy Snyder, a student teacher in Pennsylvania. After she posted a picture of herself apparently drunk on a social networking site she was denied a teaching certificate.

Burglars are already thought to use Facebook to try to find out when properties may be left empty. And Anderson warns that “phishing” is a growing threat. Using data gathered from social networking sites, criminals are sending people emails that appear to come from their friends. Research shows that people are far less wary of such emails than unsolicited spam, even though they can lead to identity theft.

While the rest of us find our privacy is up for grabs, the rich and famous are having theirs increasingly protected. Lawyers are using human rights legislation to bring cases in British courts, which are favourable to protestations of privacy.

The latest action has been launched by Kate Middleton, the girlfriend of Prince William, who claims her privacy was violated by a picture of her playing tennis on Christmas Day.

A greater danger than there being one privacy law for the rich and another for everyone else is that of a chronic malaise, at least in the view of Jaron Lanier, author of a new book called You Are Not A Gadget.

Lanier fears that the openness and “collectivity” of today’s internet is leading us towards mediocrity.

“We shouldn’t want the whole world to take on the quality of having been designed by committee,” he said. “When you have everyone collaborate on everything, you generate a dull average outcome in all things.” The best innovation relies on privacy, he says.

The shift towards openness, however, has momentum and attitudes may well be changing as Zuckerberg claimed. Young people are either unaware of the risks or feel that less privacy is the price they have to pay to participate in social networking.

Anderson is only half-joking when he says social networking has become a “survival necessity” for the young.

“At Cambridge all the party invitations go out on Facebook,” he said. “So if you don’t have Facebook, you won’t get invited to any parties, so you won’t have any sex, so you won’t have any children, so your genes die out. So it’s an evolutionary necessity to be on Facebook.”

Just remember, when you accept that Facebook invitation to a hot date, do not use a Blippy card to buy contraceptives on the way there. Unless you want the whole world to know what you are thinking.

Times Online

Your files held for ransom F-Secure alerts about the latest...

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:49:30 -0600

Your files held for ransom

F-Secure alerts about the latest scheme that tries to make you buy rogue software to “repair” your “corrupted” files.

It starts when you get infected by a Trojan that encrypts your files (text documents, images, video files…) and when you tried to open them, an error notice pops up and notifies you that the file in question is corrupted.

Then, it prompts you to download and install “recommended file repair software”, which is in fact Rogue:W32/DatDoc. Upon execution, it notifies you that with the unregistered version you can repair only one file.

To “repair” the rest of your files, you have to buy the full version. Or, you have to become suspicious and realize that this offer doesn’t sound quite right, remembering that you have those files backed up online, or on removable media, and that you can get them back for free. Of course, you must restore them AFTER you have cleaned up you computer of the malicious software that started this whole thing.

The 50 Best Privacy Blogs

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:22:00 -0600

The 50 Best Privacy Blogs:

In today’s world of Internet interconnectedness, guarding your privacy can become a full-time job. Whether you are worried about your personal privacy, government interference, national security, identity theft, or the laws and policies surrounding privacy, these blogs will help you stay vigilant against any breaches in your privacy rights.

Privacy, Communications, and Censorship Blogs

These blogs cover a wide range of privacy issues including censorship, surveillance, online privacy, communications, and more.

The Privacy Blog. Anonymity, online privacy, policies, surveillance, and censorship are among the topics featured on this blog.
Privacy Blog. Medical record disposal, social networking privacy, and the Supreme Court’s take on privacy are recent posts here.
Threat Level. This blog at Wired.com touches on privacy, security, and related topics.
Conspicuous Chatter. Get research and opinions on the latest topics from the fields of anonymous and covert communication, traffic analysis, and censorship resistance.
Inoperability Streams. These posts include news about telecommunications, communications, and security.
Privacy International. This watchdog group posts news pertaining to privacy from all around the world.
Privacy Diary. Identity theft, risk management, information security, and more find their place in this blog.
TRUSTe Blog. Cybercrime and self policing are among the topics on this blog.

Online Privacy and Security

Guarding your privacy online is not only a good idea, but actually a necessity. Read these blogs to find news and updates from the world of cybersecurity and privacy.

MetaSecurity. Topics on this blog often include intelligence, cybersecurity, and virtual worlds.
Matt Blaze’s Exhaustive Search. This professor from University of Pennsylvania blogs about security and privacy issues as they relate to science and technology.
Freedom to Tinker. Published by Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy, this blog examines privacy, Internet security, intellectual property, and much more.
SMBlog–Steve Bellovin’s Blog. This professor from Columbia University blogs about Internet Security, privacy, and related issues.
Avi Rubin’s Blog. Electronic voting security, computer and network security, and other security issues appear on this blog written by a professor from Johns Hopkins University.
CERIAS. The Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security is one of the leaders in research and education on information security. and their blog focuses on these issues.
Random Spaf Items. Professor Gene Spafford from Purdue, who also posts on CERIAS, writes about privacy, cybersecurity, cybercrime, and more on his personal blog.
1 Raindrop. Written by security software expert, Gunnar Peterson, the posts on this blog discuss online security and privacy issues.
SecurityBuddha.com. Mark Curphey writes about Internet security tools as he has begun to reshape his blog.
Security Retentive. This information security engineer blogs about Internet security and privacy issues.
Another Set of Teeth. This blog covers privacy, security, and ethics especially pertaining to Internet security.

National Security

These blogs cover national security from the perspective of the government, strategists, and others who are dedicated to keeping you informed about security issues.

In Homeland Security. This non-partisan and non-commercial blog is sponsored by the American Military University and delivers news and analysis of issues relating to national security.
Stephenson blogs on homeland security 2.0 et al.. Written by the well-known strategist and theorist, W. David Stephenson, this blog touches on technology and civil liberty issues in relation to homeland security.
Global Guerrillas. This former USAF pilot and current analyst on warfare and security writes on communities and potential crises.
Vital Systems Security. With posts including such topics as community health issues, security, and globalization, this blog brings the latest scientific news as it relates to these issues.
Emergency.Blog. This blog focuses on information relating to security issues such as terrorism, emergency service, and cyberwar.
Homeland Security Watch. This non-partisan, non-commercial blog provides information about national security events and news.
War and Piece. Written by a national security correspondent, this blog provides insight on national security issues and foreign policy.
DefenseTech. This blog from Military.com covers a variety of topics that pertain to national security.
Evolution of Security. From the Transportation Security Administration, posts here discuss security and technology as they relate to national security.
Security Debrief. This blog features news and commentary from several sources that all discuss issues surrounding national security.
Home Station. From the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M University, this blog discusses timely issues surrounding homeland security including cybersecurity, terrorism, and more.

Personal Privacy, Security, and Identity

From guarding your identity to keeping your family safe to digital identity issues, these blogs cover personal security and privacy.

Privacy and Identity Theft. Get news and learn how to protect yourself with the information here that examines cybercrime, identity theft, and more.
Privacy Gourmet. Privacy and social networking, data privacy, privacy resources, and keeping families safe online are some of the subjects covered on this blog.
Emergent Chaos. This collaborative blog focuses on privacy, security, liberty, and economics.
Schneier on Security. This “security guru” and renowned author blogs about computer security, personal security, and Friday squids.
The-New-Internet-Security-Cyberhood-Watch-Blog. This blog focuses on such privacy and security issues such as identity theft, child cybersafety, and cybercrime.
Ceci n’est pas un Bob. Learn about issues surrounding security, privacy, identity, and risk at this blog written by Bob Blakley.
Identerati. Another blog from an employee of Burton Group, this focuses on identity management and security with a perspective from both business and the individual.
IdentityBlog. Kim Cameron writes about digital identity, privacy, and more on his blog.
Identity Woman. Social issues surrounding online digital identity are the focus of Kaliya Hamlin’s blog.
Adventures of an Eternal Optimist. Digital identity, privacy, and more are the topics discussed here.

Law and Policies

These lawyers and organizations all blog about privacy law and policies.

Privacy Law Blog. Security breaches, privacy law issues, and more are the focus of this blog from Proskauer Rose, LLP.
Burton Group Identity and Privacy. Burton Group reports news and offers opinions on the state of privacy policy and issues.
Privacy and Security Law Blog. Medical records, cybercrime, and other privacy issues get attention on this legal blog.
Privacy and Information Security Law Blog. Global privacy law issues, especially as they pertain to the cyberworld, are featured here.
Privacy Spot. The law firm of Hughes & Luce, LLP blog about data protection and privacy law.
beSpacific. This law and technology blog frequently discusses topics such as government, cybercrime, and the Internet.
Think Progress. Advancing progressive ideas and politics are the mission of this blog where you can find topics including privacy, immigration, and security.
In General Counsel. This right-leaning legal analyst discusses issues of security, politics, and more from a legal perspective.
Gregory S. McNeal. This law professor writes on such topics as counterterrorism, national security, and criminal law.
Privacy Law & Policy. Privacy rights, open government, and cybercrime are the topics on this blog.

.Criminal Justice USA

Facebook Fights Social Spam with “Mark You Don’t Know” Response to Friend Requests

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:13:38 -0600

Facebook Fights Social Spam with “Mark You Don’t Know” Response to Friend Requests:

With more than 350 million monthly active users around the world, Facebook has a lot of users who want to make new friends. And now the company is testing out a feature to make friending a little more meaningful. Once you mark “ignore” on a friend request, you’ll see a new option in addition to being able to report the person for abuse or spam: “Mark that you don’t know” them.

Facebook has never shown friend rejections; rather, the person who made the friend request just never gets a confirmation. Some people don’t seem to get the hint, though, and make multiple friend requests to people they never get friend confirmations from. The new appears to make it so that the recipient can block future requests from the person. Like the long-time option of blocking all application notifications from a friend, it’s another way to reduce the social spam generated by poor etiquette on social networks.

Facebook doesn’t say exactly what happens when somebody gets marked as not known. “Our security team is currently just testing this feature to help inform certain limits on friend requests and combat spam,” a spokesperson told us.

Like a spammy app, it sounds like Facebook has some sort of limit it is testing out on how many friend requests a user can send over a given time. Also, the site is becoming a larger target for automated spam and phishing attacks, and one tactic is for spammers and scammers to set up fake profiles and friend people — this points to another use for the “mark you don’t know.” If used by enough people, it could help alert Facebook to problem profiles early on before they can cause too much damage.

The Google Toilet: SuperNews! (via Current) Google has finally...

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:18:00 -0600

The Google Toilet: SuperNews! (via Current)

Google has finally developed technology that can literally sift through your sh*t.

Watch SuperNews! An animated sketch comedy series airing on Current TV Thursdays 11/10c. So set your DVRs and TIVOs. Like… now.

Matt Weigman, “a fat, lonely blind kid,” received an...

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:06:40 -0600

Matt Weigman, “a fat, lonely blind kid,” received an 11-year jail sentence at age 19 for using the phone service to harass and attack his enemies (including the FBI!). But how does a kid come to such a fate? It’s a fascinating story—growing up poor, blind, picked-on, with an awful home life and no social outlet, Weigman latched onto party lines as a way to be somebody else. That somebody turned out to be vindictive, crass, exploitative, manipulative, and without conscience, but also with a unique and incredible set of skills. The kid pretty much had AT&T, Verizon and an FBI investigative team wrapped around his finger, all from his bedroom in East Boston, and you sort of get the sense that had he not had a bit of a breakdown, he might never have been caught. Read the full article at Rolling Stone

Social Location Sharing - Gowalla / Foursquare (via...

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:01:06 -0600

Social Location Sharing - Gowalla / Foursquare (via kevinrose)

Kevin Rose discusses his thoughts on social location services Gowalla and Foursquare.

From Azeroth to Canada: Tracking down a fugitive in World of...

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 01:29:00 -0600

From Azeroth to Canada: Tracking down a fugitive in World of Warcraft

Police have been known to use social media like Facebook and Twitter to track down thieves (the IRS, too), and careless Facebooking can quickly get you arrested. But if you’re on the run from the law, there’s another online territory you might want to consider avoiding: World of Warcraft.

Howard County, Indiana Sheriff Department Deputy Matt Roberson tracked down fugitive Alfred Hightower via the hugely popular massively multiplayer online game. Hightower was wanted on several counts of drug dealing but had fled the country to Canada.

After finding out Hightower was a WoW fan, Roberson sent a subpoena to the game’s maker, Blizzard Entertainment. With the information they sent back, Roberson was able to pinpoint the perp’s location.

Hightower will be extradited back to the U.S. to face charges. Lesson learned: virtual worlds don’t make as ideal places to hide from the law as one might think!

[via Massively]

"Google has been toiling in this so-called cloud computing paradigm for a few years now, hosting its..."

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:14:19 -0600

“Google has been toiling in this so-called cloud computing paradigm for a few years now, hosting its Google Apps collaboration programs for consumers and businesses. While more than two million businesses have signed up for Google Apps, there has been a hesitancy among the bulk of users, especially businesses, to embrace the cloud. That started to change in 2009, and was particularly evident in the prevalent use of Web-based social networks such as Facebook, which has more than 350 million users and Twitter, which has racked up some 60 million users, most of them joining in 2009. “We used to walk into a lot of accounts, and when I spoke to people about cloud computing there was a certain hesitancy and tentativeness about what it meant to surrender their data to the cloud. People had all kinds of concerns, all of them valid. We saw that dissipate over the course of 2009 and it’s partly generational. People that grew up on the Internet have fewer concerns about what it means to entrust a server with their content. It’s no longer a question of whether or not this is happening. It is happening and now we need to solve the hard problems together and I think that’s what we have to look forward to in 2010, rolling up our sleeves and continuing to establish to the trust relationship we have with our users.””

- Bradley Horowitz - Google Has Big Plans for Google Voice, Cloud Computing in 2010

How to convert email addresses into name, age, ethnicity, sexual...

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 16:51:00 -0600

How to convert email addresses into name, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation

So you have somehow begged, borrowed or stolen an email list of 1000 users who you believe are interested in your new service. Would it not be great if you could somehow convert that list into real people, with real photos, and perhaps even more concrete information like “My service has a higher than average gay consumer group” or “My dating service seems to be very popular among 9 year old girls”? Such information can help you correct course before you are too invested in a particular idea you have.

Well, a few weeks back, we were handed down this lovely present by our masters from above: Facebook. Save your email list as a CSV file (just comma separate those email addresses). Upload this file to your facebook account as if you wanted to add them as friends. Voila, Facebook will give you all the profiles of all those users (in my test, about 80% of my email lists have Facebook profiles). Now, click through each profile, and because of the new default Facebook settings, which makes all information public, about 95% of the user info is available for you to harvest.

If your email list is too large, then use the very same CSV file and upload it to mechanical turk (a list of 10.000 would cost you about $10), and ask the mechanical turk guys to gather this information for you.

After you have all the demographic information you want, try to do good with it. My personal advice to Facebook users: Switch on your privacy settings, make your friendslist private. Business want this information, and Facebook has given it to them.

Update (from a Reddit comment):

Use this URL http://www.facebook.com/search/?ref=ffs&q=name@domain.com&o=2048&init=ffs and screenscrape for even more spammy goodness.

[via Max Klein]

"After being informed of the breach, RockYou admitted that customer data had been stored in an..."

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:59:00 -0600

“After being informed of the breach, RockYou admitted that customer data had been stored in an unencrypted database”

- RockYou sued over data breach

Cellphone Search Without Warrant Declared Illegal

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:27:00 -0600

Cellphone Search Without Warrant Declared Illegal:

Score for privacy rights: In a 4-to-3 vote, the Supreme Court of Ohio has ruled that police has no right to search your phone without a search warrant, overruling previous lower court decisions on the matter. This is great news.

In the State of Ohio vs Antwaun Smith, the Supreme Court has declared the search of Smith’s cellphone—who was arrested at the time on drug charges—to be unconstitutional, breaking the protection against unreasonable search provided by the Fourth Amendment. The court has decided that cellphones are “capable of storing a wealth of digitized information” and, as such, they should be considered private. Therefore, police should obtain a search warrant before “entering” into the phone to look for evidence against a subject.

It’s great to see some reasonable, informed logic in this ocean of stupidness and privacy abuse we live in.

[Supreme Court of Ohio’s PDF ruling via NYT]

How To Avoid A Facebook Photo Tagging Disaster

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:06:00 -0600

How To Avoid A Facebook Photo Tagging Disaster:

How can you enable your friends to see your tagged photos while at the same time preventing news feed stories which alert your friends to compromising photos before you’ve deleted them? In our new Facebook privacy guide published earlier this week, we suggested that users block tagged photos completely as to avoid the accidental photo tag disaster. There is an alternative setting however that will provide you with protection while at the same time allow you to share your personal photos with friends.

Rather than blocking your friends from viewing photos you’ve been tagged in (as described here), it’s possible to prevent the Facebook photos application from publishing feed stories about you. I have my own personal story about friends who were alerted to a new photo I was tagged in via their feed. Ultimately, I didn’t have a chance to view the image before multiple people had photos of me drunk at an event in college.

It wasn’t a complete disaster but it was somewhat embarrassing and I’ve heard of instances where people have been outright fired or have lost a job opportunity as a result of photos of them in compromising settings. So here’s how to keep your friends seeing photos you’ve been tagged in, while preventing stories that alert your friends to new photos you’ve been tagged in.

Step 1: Properly Configure Your Photo & Video Privacy Settings

There are a number of ways to configure your photo & video privacy settings, however there is a semi-private configuration which should protect you while enabling your close friends to see things you’ve been tagged in. Head over to the Profile Information privacy page and scroll down to the section which says “Photos and Videos of Me”. You can then configure your settings as pictured below. Select “Customize” from the drop down menu and then next to people who can view your photos select “Only Friends”.

You can then individually remove those friends who you don’t want to see your tagged photos at all. You can use Friend Lists (as described in our new Facebook privacy guide) or individually enter any professional contacts and other people you’d like to block from viewing your tagged photos. This way you ensure that nobody important to your professional life can see tagged photos at all.

Step 2: Block Facebook Photos From Generating Feed Stories

Now that you have the privacy settings configured, you still may want to prevent news feed stories from showing up before you’ve had the opportunity to filter out any compromising images. Head over to the application settings page and select from the drop down “Allowed to Post”. You can then scroll down to the “Photos” application and click on “Edit Settings” as pictured in the image below.

Next up, click on on the “Additional Permissions” tab and uncheck the box next to “Publish to streams”. By unchecking this box, you are effectively blocking the Photos applications from displaying any tagged photos in your friends’ news feeds. You can see a screenshot of the configuration below. After save the setting you are done, with preventing a photo tagging disaster. If you want to block video tags from showing up as well, you can scroll down next to the “Video” application on the same page and repeat the process.

Photo

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:04:00 -0600