Saturday, November 28, 2015

Ganesh on board !

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-HjuEd8zPPgo/VeIggISn-hI/AAAAAAAA4cA/rGebOU8zMXE/w346-h195/11274877_474148059414990_1173354632_n.gif

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

who's looking at your internet usage? everybody!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Alert_System

becoming more obvious but you always knew it was going on since (latest) 2013: 

http://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Customer-Service/Does-Comcast-SHUT-OFF-SERVICE-after-6-Strikes-Yes-or-No/m-p/1595521#U1595521
"Comcast does not monitor your activities. Comcast receives notices from content owners identifying an anonymous set of numbers known as an IP address visible on the Internet when the subscriber engages in behavior the owner believes infringes its copyrights.  If Comcast matches the IP address and time listed in the content owner’s notice with our logs, then Comcast generates a copyright alert to our subscriber. The content owner cannot find out your identity through the Copyright Alert System. Comcast protects the subscribers' privacy, no information is shared with the copyright holder."
Not sure if it's more bothersome that a "copyright holder" out on the internet is able to tell that your IP address is going to another site, presumably unauthorized, and determine you are violating a copyright.  Does that sound like I can see that you're going to freestuf-dot-com and you're downloading my copyrighted material ?


Tuesday, November 24, 2015

opt out of wifi tracking in your favorite stores

If you don't already know it, every time you walk into a modern store, if your smartphone or tablet wifi or bluetooth is turned on, the multiple wifi antennas in the store can identify you (the name you use on the device), your physical network address (read more below), and can triangulate where you are in the store,  whether you went left or right (which displays were more attractive?), and how long you lingered at each place.

http://smart-places.org/mobile-location-analytics-opt-out/about-mobile-location-analytics-technology/

If you want to see sample reports here are https://fpf.org/2013/10/22/sample-mla-reports/

In theory, you can elect to opt-out of their tracking, if you submit your MAC address (info on the site):
http://smart-places.org/

But the best thing is probably to simply turn off your wifi and bluetooth radios unless you are actually using them.  Otherwise, your information is already being collected, and you are counting on every participating vendor to scrub you out of their databases with the information YOU are giving them in the opt-out pages.  Hmm.  Really.