Does your power company know when you get home at night? Does it know how often you use your microwave oven? In this week’s week’s episode of So, Bob, we examine the sometimes controversial topic of smart meters. They have great potential to help cities manage the increasing power demands [Keep reading]
How would you feel if you discovered your smartphone was recording you while you sleep without your knowledge? Last year, co-host Alia Tavakolian came to me when she discovered a sleep app had made dozens of such recordings. Worse yet, to hear what was on the files, she had to [Keep reading]
I’ve spent a year working with Alia Tavakolian and Spoke Media developing this podcast, and I’ve spent almost 25 years preparing for it. So, please give it a try. Click play below, if a play button appears, or click on this Stitcher link or this iTunes link. I started [Keep reading]
Every once in a while, a passion project becomes something real. And I’m over-the-moon to share with you news of our new podcast, called “So…Bob?” — a weekly conversation about the unintended consequences of technology. I haven’t been this excited about a new project since the birth of The Red [Keep reading]
Stealing money using Zelle is apparently as easy as adding a phone number to a consumer’s checking account, and then telling the bank to “Zelle” money to a hacker-controlled account — at least in some cases. When following up my story earlier this week about consumers who don’t even use [Keep reading]
Teenager Osmane Bah says New York City police dragged him out of bed at 4 a.m. last fall to arrest him for serial shoplifting, when the only “crime” was Apple Inc.’s misuse of facial recognition software. If you are in need of legal support after being falsely accused of a [Keep reading]
Milt Tipperman had never heard of Zelle before April 18, but he learned about the P2P payment app quickly when 8 fraudulent Zelle transactions drained $800 from him checking account. “I was mad, and I still am,” says Tipperman, of Maryland. He says his bank, PNC, is investigating, but when [Keep reading]
The Weather Channel’s live TV programming was knocked off the air for about 90 minutes on Wednesday by computer criminals. While the network struggled to recover from the attack, taped programming aired, beginning at about 6 a.m, according to CNN. Live broadcast was restored at around 7:30 a.m., but the [Keep reading]
Today concludes the Equifax hack podcast. But the story of the Equifax hack is much bigger than a tale of lost Social Security numbers. It’s about corporate greed. Exploitation of a natural resource (us) for gross profit margins. It’s about control. Epidsode 6 zooms out and returns to the [Keep reading]
If you’ve ever been wronged by a large company and wanted to do more than shake your angry irst at a building, you’re going to enjoy meeting Jessamyn West. When the Equifax hack hit, she wanted to do more than whine to friends and family. She wanted justice. So she [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan