Millions of people, every day, depend on one piece of electronic equipment to do just about everything:  their smartphone.  Back in the day, very few people had cell phones, and those that did used them to make emergency calls every now and then.  Over the years, the simple cell phone has evolved into the smartphone.  The smartphone is a multi-functional device that allows a person to send e-mail, update social networking, shop on line, play games and do anything else that can be done on a computer.  Many cars have built in GPSs, but if yours doesn’t, that’s OK because you can use your Navigation app on your smartphone.  In fact, one of the least used functions of a smartphone today is actually the one that allows you to make phone calls.  It’s amazing that this one, small device can do so much, but what does this mean when it comes to privacy?  Because the smartphone holds a large quantity of personal information regarding our shopping habits, social networking, e-mail and even banking, it now makes it easier for you to be tracked and targeted for on-line ads. 

Every day, more and more people are downloading hundreds of apps made specifically for the smartphone.  If you’re low on gas, the GasBuddy app can tell you which station has the lowest prices with the shortest wait time (which came in handy during SuperStorm Sandy when gas prices went up and the lines were hours long!).  Banks now offer apps that make it easy to deposit a check from anywhere.  All you have to do is snap a picture of your check using your smartphone and it’s deposited into your account.  If you’re in unfamiliar territory, you can count on Google Maps to find directions to the hotel or restaurant where you are to have your business meeting, then after the meeting, you can use the e-mail function to check in with your office to let everyone know the status of that big project.  After your workday is done, you can relax in your room and read your local newspaper, watch your local news, update your social networking status, play games or even read a book.  If you’re feeling under the weather, just log onto WebMD and enter your symptoms to get a quick diagnosis or if you are having trouble with your toddler, you can check in with your favorite parenting site to see what others have done to remedy the issue.  You are never far from home or the office as long as you have your smartphone.

 But what does all this convenience mean to your privacy?  Every site you log on to and every app you download requires you to enter some personal information, which is all saved to your smartphone.  Don’t forget that many on-line businesses share information gathered with third parties.  Is it worth risking your privacy in order to have the convenience of doing just about everything from this one device?  Surprisingly, most people choose convenience over privacy.  They feel that entering a birth date or zip code in order to have 24 hour access to websites no matter where they travel is well worth the effort.  They don’t realize how this can jeopardize their privacy since millions of people may live in a particular zip code and millions more can have a particular birth date.  One important factor isn’t taken into consideration:  only one person has that zip code and birth date on that particular smartphone.

 Each time you enter personal information for a smartphone app or download, you are risking your privacy.  On-line marketers can use your information in order to target you for specific ads.  They know what city your home is in from your zip code, they know your age from your birth date, they know which websites you frequent, and through the GPS function on your smartphone, they know where you are at any given time.  Add your e-mail address into the mix and these marketers can fill your inbox with ads for more apps, shops, products or anything else.  Your browser will also be giving you suggestions on apps or products you may be interested in because your history shows what you have purchased or downloaded.

 App developers claim that a consumer must give their personal information in order to really benefit from their apps.  There is, however, some debate as to what the risks to privacy are that has even Congress involved.  As of now, what is being discussed the most is a way for consumers to choose a “Do Not Track” option on the sites they frequent but, so far, there is no solution to the privacy issue.

The Promote and Share feature is the latest money making idea to come out of Facebook.  This feature allows one of your Facebook friends to promote one of your posts by sharing it on their news feed.  So if you post about a new baby, job promotion or anything else, all a friend needs to do is click on the “Promote and Share” button to get your word out.  Of course, this isn’t free “advertising”; there will be a $7 fee for each “promote and share”.  This is causing a lot of concerns about privacy because no one can opt out of this feature and anyone can Promote and Share without permission from the original poster.  Even though Facebook says this feature will work with the original poster’s privacy settings, it’s still something to worry about.

The reason Facebook came up with this new feature is because they claim there was a demand for it.  They have said that this feature is beneficial to all because it allows users to share good news posted by their friends so that this news can be moved to the top of the newsfeed.  This will allow other friends who may have missed the original post to share in the excitement of that new baby, house or job.

Facebook issued a statement as follows:  “This feature respects the privacy of the original poster – i.e. it will promote to everyone who originally saw it.  You can only promote posts to the people that your friend originally shared with.  If you have mutual friends, they’ll see that you shared it and promoted it.”  If this is the case, then why would someone pay $7 to share a post that any friend could simply scroll down to find?  Yes, this feature is beneficial, but in my opinion, it’s really only beneficial to Facebook’s pockets.

Sure, there are people who will take advantage of Promote and Share.  They realize that many friends don’t have the luxury of spending all day on Facebook and statuses do get buried way down in the newsfeeds.  With Promote and Share, they can know that more people will have a chance to see the post since it will be moved up to the top of the newsfeeds.  I don’t know why anyone would pay $7 for this, though, when all anyone has to do is scroll down to see earlier posts, or visit a friend’s wall to see if there is any new developments in their pregnancy, job search or other special event.   

What do your insoles say about you?

A Canadian company, Autonomous ID, working with Pedo-Biometrics Lab in Pittsburgh, is in the development stage of a new security tool:  an insole security device.  It is an engineered insole placed in shoes that will screen employees to determine if they have access to high security locations, such as military bases and power plants.

Pedo-Biometrics Lab is a new department at Carnegie Mellon University.  Autonomous ID has given the lab a fund of $1.5 million to start working on this concept.   Todd Gray, President of Autonomous has stated that he thought of this idea when he visited his daughter after giving birth.  The walls of the maternity ward were covered with footprints of the babies born there.  Seeing these made him realize that no one walks exactly the same way.

The insoles will have sensors that measure such things as pressure on specific areas of the insole and the employee’s gait based on height. Each employee will be asked to walk while the insoles are in place and a master file for each person will be kept in microcomputers.  Whenever an employee tries to access an area, the insole will scan the information and send it to the computers.  If the information matches with an employee who has access, he or she will be allowed entrance.  If that employee doesn’t have access, a silent alarm will ring.

Mr. Gray announced that tests on sample insoles have already been run and they are accurate to a little more than 99% after only three steps.    A wider range of tests will be made by the lab that will include things like if the person is dieting, if they are athletic, nationality and even testing on twins.  According to Gray, these insoles are less of a privacy risk than eye scans because the data collected stays in the insoles.

Even so, privacy may still be an issue.  Lee Tien, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) stated:  “Every biometric capture device is a potential tracking device, just like every iPhone is a potential tracking device.  That’s just the way things are.”  However, Tien agreed that the insoles “might make a person feel a little bit better” about security.  He also calls the declaration that these insoles could identify a specific person after only three steps is “pretty impressive”.

I woke up this morning and put on the news.  I was just in time to see traffic and weather, after which I got ready to walk my dogs.  Just as I was about to leave, the TV again caught my attention with one of the more frightening news stories I’ve heard in a while.

It seems that RedPepper Labs, a development group, has come up with what I think is the biggest threat to our privacy to date:  Facedeals.   This is a system that is used to check people in when they go to their favorite businesses.  Facedeals works by face recognition and is linked into your Facebook account.

FourSquare is a service where you can tag yourself to any area.  Facedeals works a bit like this, only you don’t have to do anything but walk in the door.  A camera placed at the entrance scans each customer, and you are automatically tagged to that location.  Using Facebook’s API (application program interface) it uses your Facebook “Likes” in order to offer you a deal on selected items.

One redeeming factor is that you must approve this app through your Facebook account before it can be used to tag you.  Once you approve it, a recent photo of you is scanned so the software can recognize you.  Then, each time you visit an establishment that is equipped with the cameras, you will be tagged and offered available deals per your Facebook “Likes”.  These deals will be sent to you via your cell phone.  Your “Likes” are saved, so you are offered product discounts and services wherever you go.

These cameras could be used anywhere because the only things required for use are a WiFi connection and a wall outlet.  Currently, this technology is being tested in Nashville, TN, where RedPepper is located.  RedPepper representatives state that they are looking into expanding the territory soon.

It’s hard to say how popular this “big brother” technology will be.  Only time will tell.  Many people may not want their comings and goings broadcast like this.  Imagine being followed by cameras everywhere you go, and then have each shop you visit know the products you like before you even walk through the door.

Personally, I will not be signing up for this any time soon.  I would rather keep my private life private.  I don’t think any “deal” offered to me would be worth giving up my privacy like that.

This is just one example of how your privacy could be compromised.  To get tips and suggestions on keeping your Internet privacy safe, please take a few minutes to download the free Internet Privacy Guide at the top of the page.

Are you willing to give up your privacy to Facedeals?

I’ve seen and heard many stories during my time as a Private Proxy Client Services representative.   I get calls from people asking about our services all the time.  Unfortunately, a lot of these people are seeking our services after something has already happened to compromise their privacy.  Lately, a big issue is the privacy of children.

Many new parents are so excited, that they think nothing of posting every baby picture they take to social networking sites.  They shoot videos of first smiles, first laughs, first steps, first baths and post them on YouTube.  Because they are proud parents, they want the world to see their gorgeous children, so the videos are usually public.

What these parents don’t understand is that by making your pictures and videos public, you are endangering your children.  Baby’s first bath might seem like a cute, innocent picture, but this video could be captured and placed on a child porn site.  This is also true with pictures.  Imagine if one of the pictures you posted of your child in her first bikini was posted to a child porn site.

Child porn sites aren’t the only dangers.  Anyone who can see your pictures on your social networking site can see where you are located.  In other words, if someone was determined enough, he or she can find you and your child.

Whether you call them “HTTP cookies”, “web cookies”, “browser cookies” or just plain “cookies”, it all amounts to the same thing:  Cookies are the tools used by websites to identify what actions were performed by a particular browser.  What this means is that whenever a person uses his or her computer to log-in to a website, read news articles, click the “Like” button on Facebook, or to browse an internet shopping site, pieces of the user’s information are left with these sites for an unlimited amount of time.  Any site visited will be remembered by the browser and traced back to that particular user making subsequent log-ins quicker and easier.  It is possible to delete these cookies from your computer, but that doesn’t always guarantee your internet safety.

Lawmakers in both the United States and Europe were moved to take action against the use of cookies when significant privacy concerns arose.  These concerns centered around “tracking cookies” and “third-party tracking cookies”.  Even though cookies do not carry viruses and cannot install malware on a computer, they can store the browsing histories of individuals for a very long time.  Privacy advocates find this unacceptable.

There are different types of cookies, each with a specific function.  Some of these are:

Authentication Cookies – These are considered as the most important type of cookie.  These are the cookies used by servers to recognize if a user is logged on or not.  They also can distinguish which account the computer is logged into.  With this tool, the website knows if it is safe to send out personal information or not.  If the cookie does not recognize the user, a “You need to log in” message appears.  The authentication cookies are only as safe as the website being logged into and the user’s browser.  If website and/or browser security is not at a high level, the user’s data could be intercepted by hackers.

Session Cookies – These cookies only last as long as the user is on a particular website.  Typically, the cookies are deleted by the browser once the session is ended.

There are high hopes that by the end of 2012, consumers will enjoy the benefits of tighter online privacy rules. This optimistic view is based on recent positive responses by companies to adopt the final recommendations set forth as best practices in privacy protection. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is confident that by backing tighter online privacy laws, consumers’ data will not be abused. Instead, consumers can enjoy new services without sacrificing their privacy.

At this time, companies are already working to include privacy into every project that they have. Focus is given on how people’s data is kept safe and to control how much is collected. As part of consumer empowerment, they should have the option to decide what information about them is being shared. This can be made possible if there is a “Do Not Track” mechanism that consumers can use to control the tracking of their activities.

What good would tighter online privacy rules give to consumers? The basis of all these discussions is the fact that there have been many privacy violations. Consumers do not exactly know that they are being tracked online. They also do not know that their personal data is collected and either directly used or sold to other companies. Most of all, consumers do not know the ways that they can protect their privacy.

Did it ever occur to you that as more mobile apps are fed into the market, more new privacy concerns are raised? Those who have smartphones find it very easy to click on any application and download it without second thought. They simply accept all of what is contained in the fine print without paying attention to the app’s terms and conditions. They have no information about the privacy implications that go along with using those products.

Most service terms and security policies are written by lawyers, and that is why they seem to be meaningless to the lay man. Many users make the extra effort to read the fine print, but they eventually give up due to the lengthy litanies of legalese. The reason of course is clear; because they are hard for the lay man to comprehend. Consequently, as more users disregard the value of understanding those terms and conditions, more privacy concerns appear.

The founders of Glassmap, a new real-time location sharing service, have made clear their company’s stand when it comes to privacy. It is observed that many online users are becoming more involved with software services and applications. In fact, some of them describe their day as “incomplete” if they cannot share pictures, post comments, or add friends. There seems to be a strong force that links a user to a certain software service or application.

Glassmap has been criticized for alleged user privacy violations. Its “Post to Facebook” option in its registration process was the one that triggered such an unfavorable reaction. If the option was left checked, the Facebook user’s Timeline would show an invitation to join Glassmap. This, critics say, exposes users to more privacy risks, even though they might also be benefited from it. The company said that Facebook told them to eliminate this “feature”, which it did.

The founders encourage real dialog about online privacy instead of wasting productive minds and technology on petty controversies. According to them, there are four important areas that need to be given real attention. These are real-time adaptability, transparency, the right amount of privacy, and user-service symmetry.

There are about 800 million Facebook users around the net. With this staggering number, it is safe to say that this social networking giant is really becoming a household name. These users are from different groups – according to age, profession, online preferences, or even reasons for joining. This internet giant has drastically changed the lives of these people. In fact, many of them could not let a day pass without having shared pictures, posted comments, visited digital links, and so much more.

The pressure put on those who still refuse to join the social networking phenomenon is really strong. Whether they are technophobes or privacy advocates, these people are not spared from the draw to conform to what others are interested in. There were those who, for many years have continued to resist, but are now hooked on making more and more “friends” every day. Actually, they admitted that they should have known of the benefits of having a social networking account way earlier.