Tech – for Everyone

Tech Tips and Tricks & Advice – written in plain English.

Another quick reading reco

(And a Bonus)

Folks, a rather worthwhile reading reco for you today.. the kind you might want to ‘forward’ on to friends and family..

* Cookies may disappear, but privacy isn’t coming back

“Annoying commercial cookies might be on their way out, but it’s all because Facebook, Google and Microsoft have better ways to track you.” Read more..

*     *     *

Bonus reco: The healthcare.gov website is ripe for attackers, experts say

“The healthcare.gov website is slow, full of bugs and has been down a few times – all within one month of its Oct. 1 launch – and as a result it has been chastised by critics.

Last week, while attempting to use healthcare.gov to do research, software tester Ben Simo flipped on his web browser developer tools and identified a number of security issues that he found appalling.” Read more..

[ that place (database) is a goldmine.. ]

*    *    *

Bonus bonus reco: 10 Myths About Creativity You Need to Stop Believing Now

“There’s no such thing as a ‘eureka’ moment. Creativity isn’t in your blood. Most great ideas aren’t original. Here are 10 lies about creativity you’ve believe for too long.” Read more..

*     *     *

Today’s quote: “To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Copyright 2007-2013 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

November 1, 2013 Posted by | advice, computers, consumer electronics, Google, hackers, Internet, Microsoft, News, privacy, security | , , , , | Leave a comment

Collusion

Reading the back of the menu at Buck’s, while waiting for my burger the other night, reminded me of an important topic I have been meaning to share with you since its announcement at the recent TED U event. (If you are not familiar with the TED Talks, click here.) It concerns a subject near and dear to my heart, and this little item is a bit of good news for all us ‘little guys’.

What I am talking about is called “Collusion”.

Meet Collusion, announced today onstage at TED U

“This morning onstage, Gary Kovacs of Mozilla announced a fascinating browser add-on for Mozilla: Collusion. It allows you to track who’s tracking you online … and the results are surprising to say the least.“

You should know, tracking our online behavior is big business. The revenues involved in the top online tracking companies is over $39 billion — I’m in the wrong business: that’s pretty good money for spying on us!

(And f you think this is some small issue.. or some NBD thing that only happens when you’re online doing Google searches, you really really really need to watch the video Big Brother Big Business. I think it ought to be required viewing before you can vote!)

Why this is important:

“Take control of your data

We recognize the importance of transparency and our mission is all about empowering users — both with tools and with information. The Ford Foundation is supporting Mozilla to develop the Collusion add-on so it will enable users to not only see who is tracking them across the Web, but also to turn that tracking off when they want to.”

What you should do: Please take two minutes (or less) and look at the animated demo, here, http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/collusion/demo/. Learn about how these vile and repugnant “tracking cookies” automatically build a “behavior profile” about all of us, so somebody can make an easy buck selling our ‘information’.. or serving us up “targeted advertisement”.

[ Update:  A version is available for Chrome as well. See, Collusion for Chrome maps how sites are tracking you, courtesy of the Disconnect team. ]

Related reading:

* TED 2012: New Browser Add-On Visualizes Who Is Tracking You Online

* Say Everything

“As younger people reveal their private lives on the Internet, the older generation looks on with alarm and misapprehension not seen since the early days of rock and roll. The future belongs to the uninhibited.“

Unrelated: Privacy concerns drive 1 in 4 Facebook users to lie

“Almost 13 million users say they have never set or didn’t know about privacy controls on Facebook, according to Consumer Reports.”

(I wonder how many million declined to admit their ignorance..?)

Much good information here. I hope you’ll click some links (at least view the demo).

Today’s quote: “Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

May 7, 2012 Posted by | computers | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Reader Asks About “Infections” (Actually, “Cookies”)

A reader wrote in with a interesting question..

Q: “Hi,

I’ve started reading your blog/site and found some very helpful information!  Thanks for helping the rest of us who aren’t so tech savvy.

I use Panda Cloud (free version) and Super Anti-Spyware (free version) on my netbook.  Yesterday I noticed my netbook was getting sluggish, responding slowly.  Eventually it locked up and displayed the “blue screen of death”.  At that point I shut it down (via power button) and restarted it to run scans. 

After updating SAS and running the full scan, it said all was clear.  I also ran the full scan on Panda Cloud and it didn’t find anything either.  Finally I ran the Panda ActiveScan 2.0 (as you recommend) and it found three cookies.  Normally I just click “Disinfect” and go on my merry way, but these cookies were described as “Not disinfectable”.  From the info on the ActiveScan site, I understand these cookies don’t do any damage on their own but can be used or activated by someone/something else at a later time.

What do I do now??? Are they just trying to scare me into buying their software?  Is it really something I should worry about?  Why didn’t Panda Cloud catch it?  Is there something else I need to add to my security defences?
Thanks,
C.”

A: C,
Cookies are (generally) “harmless”, if not a convenience, and many anti-malware scanners ignore them to a degree (while others make a huge issue about them as so called low-grade “infections”, and proudly trumpet their removal).

The biggest concern about web “cookies” is they can be (um.. are) used to track where we go on the Internet — a privacy issue. (This is for the most part done for the purposes of marketing and advertising.)

As we consumers became better at blocking/removing/saying “no” to cookies, the advertisers and marketers and “profile builders” had to develop less easy to remove cookies, if they wanted to keep being able to do/sell “targeted marketing”.. such as “Flash cookies” (LSO’s)… which are probably what ActiveScan is showing.

Specifically, no, I would not buy a “paid version” of an antivirus just to be able to remove these “Flash cookies” (and other hard-to-remove types) and I think your choices of protection for your netbook are fine. What I would look to do is harden my browser against accepting these kinds of cookies.

I use the TACO and BetterPrivacy “add-ons” on my Firefox browser for that. If you don’t use Firefox, you’ll have to dig into the settings box at Macromedia’s Flash Player Help page, which lets you change settings for the Flash Player on your system. To learn more, please see, Flash Cookies Devouring Your Privacy.

.. If SAS, Panda Cloud AV and ActiveScan are showing you as basically free from “viruses”, and there was no other “strange behavior”, I am afraid you may have to look elsewhere for the cause of the slowdown and Blue Screen of Death. (Also, you might try running MalwareBytes.) If it continues to crash, you may want to have a pro look things over.. such as myself (shameless plug).

Today’s quote: “Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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January 10, 2012 Posted by | advice, computers, security | , , , , | Leave a comment

Flash Cookies Devouring Your Privacy

“..Flash cookies may be making an end run around your attempts to preserve your privacy…”

In a world run by advertising revenue.. the online marketers (hello, Google) are determined to “profile” you, track your online habits, and serve you “targeted” ads.
Yippee.

So, we “consumers” (and yes, that’s how us “average computer users” are viewed) have had to become adept at blocking “cookies”, installing Ad Block programs, and adjusting our “Privacy settings”.

Fact is, we’ve become pretty good at it. So the advertisers had to develop, better, harder to prevent methods at tracking us, and getting their ads to pop open so we can see them (and ignore them).
(Are you thinking of advertising on the Internet? Paying for ads? Good luck with that..).

One such method they’ve developed is the “Flash cookie” (or, “LSO”) which actually uses Adobe’s Flash Player as a conduit.
If you have ever watched a “video” on YouTube, you know what Flash Player is.

If you are at all concerned about your privacy, or simply want to prevent the Big Brother aspect of the Internet, I suggest you read Are Flash Cookies Devouring Your Privacy?

“Even if you delete normal tracking cookies regularly to evade tracking by snooping sites and eager advertisers, little-known Flash cookies may be making an end run around your attempts to preserve your privacy.” Read more..

Here you will learn about the Flash Player “control panel“, and the settings you need to adjust to gain back some of your privacy.

looks like loads of fun, doesn’t it? Well, that’s why most of us don’t bother, and the concept of privacy is becoming obsolete.. and when you really think about our “tech”, you might think Orwell’s 1984 was tame by comparison.

So, if you don’t use Firefox, and have the BetterPrivacy add-on (I also reco TACO) you will want to read the article, click the link, and tweak a setting or two.
If you think your right-to-privacy is more important than advertisers getting their way, that is.

Today’s quote: “Looking at the proliferation of personal web pages on the Net, it looks like very soon everyone on Earth will have 15 megabytes of fame.” ~ M.G. Sriram

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

January 4, 2012 Posted by | advice, Firefox, Internet, privacy | , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment