From the file of, “Thank God someone finally did something about this,” an alleged tech support scam has been shut down by the Federal Trade Commission and two state attorneys general. By now, you are well versed in the scam, which I “fell” for more than a year ago: One [Keep reading]
Imagine a “credit score” that didn’t measure the likelihood that you will pay bills, but instead the likelihood that you’ll be a troublemaker. To your town, or your company or your government. Your “citizen score” would drop if you posted anything negative on social media — or if any of your friends [Keep reading]
Not long ago, Internet data broker Spokeo was fined $800,000 by the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly published fake reviews online to hawk its service, advertised as “not your grandma’s phone book.” It also advertised to corporations that its reports were a way to “explore beyond the resume.” That was a [Keep reading]
It’s every job applicant’s nightmare. You are in the running for a new position, then an HR representative calls with bad news: You’ve failed a background check. The firm thinks you have a criminal record! It’s a typical 21st Century database screw-up, but by the time you run down the [Keep reading]
You know I love a good privacy outrage as much as anyone. But a story last week in the Financial Times started a kerfuffle about Facebook posts and pictures impacting your all-important FICO credit score. FICO tells me in no uncertain terms this isn’t true. The incident is a good [Keep reading]
Remember last year when Verizon tried to trick its mobile users into trading incredibly personal information for a lame “rewards” program that only gave consumers near-worthless points in an auction game? Starting next month, it makes a lot more sense, thanks to the Verizon-AOL deal. Through “Verizon Selects,” people who took [Keep reading]
When you heard that CIA Director John Brennan’s private AOL email account had been hacked, you probably had the same question I did: Why did he have an AOL account? As I told NBC’s Pete Williams yesterday, the jokes write themselves. Was his carrier pigeon kidnapped, too? AOL and CIA [Keep reading]
FEB. 23, 2012 — You already have an “insurance score.” You have an “Employment Credit Score.” There’s even a “MedFICO,” which attempts to predict whether you’ll actually pay your doctor’s bills. Now that a “Facebook score” has been invented, I expect a “Grocery Habits score” and a “Music Taste” score [Keep reading]
“Being in a state of constant observation will be the new normal. Everyone will come to expect it whether at work or at play.” — Lisa Sotto, cyberlaw expert. A chilling thought, no? Pun intended. Is privacy dead? People ask me this all the time, as one of the few [Keep reading]
Who turns down a LinkedIn invitation? You never know — that one connection could be the first step towards a new job, or a new client, or a lucrative contract. Or, it could be the first step towards getting hacked. In the latest cautionary tale about overly-promiscuous social media sharing, investigators [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan