The scary thing about large commercial data brokers, other than their collection of your personal information without your permission, is the possibility that their enormous hoards of data can be stolen. Despite all promises of care and security, hacks happens. Privacy advocates always warn about this when discussions about large-scale [Keep reading]
Cross-promotions are where it’s at, but this is kind of remarkable. I just received an e-mail pitch via the Yankees that reads: “The right call. Every time.” Then, there’s the pitch: “Protect you Stuff and express your Yankees pride with Norton Internet Security — New York Yankees Edition.” Team-branded credit [Keep reading]
You’d be hard pressed to find a sadder story of life in the digital age. The picture of a Canadian girl who committed suicide earlier this year after a horrific cyberbullying incident was used in a singles’ advertisement shown on Facebook. Facebook has apologized and the firm responsible for the [Keep reading]
Consumers can now get a peek under the hood of the secretive database that marketing companies use to profile them, under a new initiative launched last week by data warehouser Acxiom. U.S. adults who visit AboutTheData.com can sign up and get a general idea of the dossier that marketing firms [Keep reading]
Apple’s biggest contribution to the technology world has been its ability to bring order to chaos. The iTunes music service is the best example of this: before iTunes, the world of music downloads was the Wild West. There were outlaws, like Napster and its rivals, who ran clunky attempts [Keep reading]
Yes, Virginia, people do care about their privacy. Pew research released this week showed than fully 86 percent of U.S. adults had done something to try to protect their privacy…and 1 out of 5 had suffered either a social media or e-mail account hijacking. I discussed the study on various [Keep reading]
In the movie Sneakers, which I consider the best hacker film every made, Robert Redford leads a band of criminal geeks who are chasing a madman named Cosmo. Unlike traditional villians, Cosmo isn’t trying to steal a nuclear bomb or extort the world by threatening to release a deadly virus. [Keep reading]
Home webcams designed to keep your family safe may in fact put them at risk, suggests a settlement filed by the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday against a video camera servurity company. In some cases, cameras designed to check in on children were instead used by computer hackers across the [Keep reading]
1. Create a “disposable” e-mail account that you use to sign up with various websites. It’ll keep your main e-mail account “cleaner,” and prevent firms from tracking you across sites. 2. Create a fake persona, complete with birthday and phone number, that you can use to sign up for grocery [Keep reading]
The arrival of Labor Day is like the playing of “Last Dance,” at a wedding. What, it’s over already? But we just started dancing… Endings are hard, and always sneak up us, but they must be marked. Consider this my farewell to readers of MSNBC’s Red Tape Chronicles…and the announcement [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan