Running Naked through the Internet category archive

Zandar explains.

I only turn on “Location Services” when I have a positive need, which is hardly ever, but, after reading Zandar’s comments at the end of his post, I explored my “smart” phone and found and changed some privacy settings I was previously unaware of.

The EFF has issued a report on how Big Data is all up in your business. Here’s a bit from the press release:

“Behind the One-Way Mirror” focuses on third-party tracking, which is often not obvious or visible to users. Webpages contain embedded images and invisible codes that come from entities other than the website owner. Most websites contain dozens of these bugs that go on to record and track your browsing, activity, purchases, and clicks. Mobile apps are equally rife with tracking code which can relay app activity, physical location, and financial data to unknown entities.

If you use the inner webs, you need to follow the link.

Zandar cautions against the spy on the shelf.

Professor of Communications Joseph B. Walther explores why persons continue to use Facebook despite the recent spate of revelations about the craven venality of its algorithmic manipulative tactics and porous “security” protection. A snippet (emphasis added):

I have been studying the social dynamics of the internet for 30 years, and I suspect what’s behind these apparent contradictions is something psychological. People know about Facebook’s problems, but each person assumes he or she is largely immune – even while imagining that everyone else is very susceptible to influence.

(snip)

The psychological tendency at work here is called “the third person effect,” the belief that media don’t fool me, and maybe don’t fool you, but all those other people are sitting ducks for media effects.

Ironically, this dynamic can encourage people to support restrictions on media consumption – by others. If someone uses, say, a social media site and feels immune to its negative influences, it triggers another psychological phenomenon called the “influence of presumed influence.” When that happens, a person worries that everyone else falls victim, and supports efforts to protect others, even if they think they themselves don’t need the protection.

I commend the piece to your attention.

Bloomberg reports on how Big Data is trying to steal all privacy. Here’s a bit:

For several years, Amazon and Google have collected data every time someone used a smart speaker to turn on a light or lock a door. Now they’re asking smart-home gadget makers such as Logitech and Hunter Fan Co. to send a continuous stream of information.

In other words, after you connect a light fixture to Alexa, Amazon wants to know every time the light is turned on or off, regardless of whether you asked Alexa to toggle the switch. Televisions must report the channel they’re set to. Smart locks must keep the company apprised whether or not the front door bolt is engaged.

This is not good.

“Pay to prey” frolics.

Naveed Saleh reports that enthusiasm for Facebook seems to be waning, citing surveys that show more and more persons are taking longer breaks from the Wells Fargo of social media and that a significant number of persons are removing the Facebook app from their smartphones.*

At Psychology Today Blogs, he suggests ten reasons why this might be so. Here’s one; follow the link for the rest.

Thin content. Lots of the content on Facebook is quite thin. How important is it for you to see your second-cousin’s kid standing in front of a limo before prom? Or, another duck-face selfie?

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*Even if you don’t intend to dial back you Facebook usage, not using their smartphone app is a wise choice. It spies on users relentlessly. When I visit Facebook, which I must do once or twice a month as part of outreach efforts for outfits I reach out for–when you do outreach, you have to reach out to where the people are–I use a private browser window, so Facebook cannot continue to spy on me after I’m done with them.